Do offerings matter, and is there any place for them for non-theists?
No. They are there to appease the gods. There are no gods. It stems from the primitive mind set of fear of them, or trying to keep in their good books; kind of like being accepted into the 'spiritual' clan. Children do this with their parents to reassure their acceptance in the family. Pack animals do a similar thing.
As a Pagan I disagree.
We have nothing to fear from our deities. They do not threaten us with any kind of punishment for anything we do,
The only "punishment" that most pagans recognise is karma and that is not inflicted by the deities.
I'm not sure how you pagans see or understand your gods?
Don't they or haven't they set how things will be in this universe thereby setting the tone in which you function? Therefore, they govern how things proceed and as such what you have to deal with in your life or existence in this world and the next, or whatever way you pagans perceive things.
How have they set how things will be in this universe?
I have read nothing to show that they have done so. The deities of my Pagan path are those who have an affinity to the various natural things in the world, animals, weather, day and night etc.
I do not, and do not know any Pagan who does, think or believe that the Pagan deities created this world or the universe. Who did? I haven't a clue, but what I do know is that I find the idea of the whole kit and caboodle being created in six days by one entity highly unlikely.
OK - my beliefs have been dismissed as simplistic, they may well be, but they are far more logical to me than those of Christianity.
Highlighted line : That just sounds like psychological projection. It says more about you than about the bigger cosmological picture, what deities could be or are, and the meaning of life.
Don't tell me! I only follow what the Celts and Greeks and Romans saw as the basis for their deities.
I have no interest in the ins and outs, rights and wrongs, that anyone else sees in my beliefs because they are just that MY beliefs.
Disect them any way you like, put whatever labels you care to upon them, dismiss them, deny them, insult them, whatever!
You asked me question and I answered it - if you are going to turn it into some kind of deep philosophical discussion or whatever go ahead - for me it will change nothing. I make no claims for my beliefs that I expect anyone else to accept.
I am not eiither christiam or muslim - I do not work the way that they do.
