Paganism, witchcraft on rise in UK

MSNBC ^ | 06/19/03 | Reuters

[Pahuanui]

All I need to know about evil is written in the Bible and witchcraft is definitely evil as this articles states.

What an astounding coincidence!

All I need to know about crashing, one-track bores is written in the bible!

[FeliciaCat]

Your wasting your time.....these types are close-minded to everything but their own dogma.

Congrats to you and your wife on your daughter!

[Dead Corpse]

Thanks. She ain't here yet. September. She's at the point now where she's using my beautiful wifes innards for punching bags. She can just about kick a quarter off her bellybutton.

Amazing stuff. This is our first so it's all a bit awe inspiring...

[dark_lord]

ALl I need to know about evil is written in the Bible and witchcraft is definitely evil as this articles states.

Ummm...yeah...backing away slowly. Hey, I have an idea! Why don't you pick up something called concordance and do a little research. Yes, the bible does say "Thou shall not suffer a witch to live" (Exodus) as well as commenting negatively regarding sorcerers and so on. The fundamental problem, however, is that it generally does not define what witchcraft, sorcery, and enchantment, and so on are. This can become problematic fairly quickly. For example, by old testament standards a doctor who prescribes prescription drugs and the pharmicist who prepares them are practicing sorcery and witchcraft (because in those days doctors tended to be bamboozling hacks and a "pharmacist" was likely as not to poison someone).

So if you want to figure out what the heck they were talking about in those days and do some study, the bad stuff boils down to this:

(1) Summoning up spirits.
(2) Casting curses.
(3) Attempting to control someone with magic (enchantment)
(4) Making and dispensing poisons.
(5) Attempting to predict the future (via various froms of divination.)

Anyone who is a bible scholar, please add to my list. My point is that it is pretty important to know what we are going to call "witchcraft" in the biblical sense, and to know if what "witches" today practice is the same. My observation is that some of it is (most of it), and some of it isn't. I think way too many people who actually do get involved with magick think that it is just okay, and "do you harm none" there is no problem with it. I disagree, for a variety of reasons. I think a large percentage of it ranges from problematic to outright wrong. But some of it will probably eventually be classified as science (in some disciple or disciplines not yet named) and doesn't violate the biblical injunctions.

[El Sordo]

"....performing an invocation on the banks of Loch Ness, Scotland in an attempt to summon the Loch Ness Monster...."

Think he was surprised when it didn't work?

[TheAngryClam]

Too bad it's drudic paganism.

I'm still hoping for an Olympian gods pagan revival.

HAIL ZEUS!

[TheAngryClam]

It's pretty big, and it's pretty sad.

Potter at least is a fantasy story, as opposed to the left behind series, which is like trashy romance novels for the Christians- wish fulfillment.

[Jorge]

I had a talk with a friend reently who is a pegan but called herself a christian because 'Jesus had some good ideas'. She does not even believe he is the son of God. She thinks having faith in something is enough and hate the idea that God not us has everything to do with salvation.

I actually encountered a person on the Christianity Online message boards who described himself as a "Gay Christian Witch".
UNbelievable.

[TheAngryClam]

Actually, since Libertarians tend to be considered vaguely "right" in American politics, I think that real pagans actually tend to lean fairly in that direction.

Gary Copeland, the Libertarian candidate for governor here in Calfornia in 2002, was a druid, for example.

But get ready for the endless list of "you're going to burn in hell" posts. Interestingly, you can't be a heathen- you've heard of Jesus. The way it works is heathen = never heard of Jesus, going to hell. Infidel and/or Apostate = heard of Jesus, not Christian, going to hell. And then there's the heretics.

[TheAngryClam]

smells kind of like... jihad, Christian style.

[TheAngryClam]

Well, it depends. Certainly, recognizeable today Hinduism is not nearly as old as the continuous tradition that has developed into the modern religion.

The Vedic texts, however, likely date back to at least the second millenium B.C.E.

[TheAngryClam]

roughly 630 B.C.E. to the conquest of Persia by Islamic armies to the seventh century C.E. - about a thousand years, give or take.

[TheAngryClam]

You could be like the Romans... they dated their calendar "Ab urbe condita" - from the founding of the city. We're in the year MMDCCLVII AVC.

Or we could date from the founding of the United States- we'd be in the year 227 then.

[Dead Corpse]

Interestingly, you can't be a heathen- you've heard of Jesus.

Depends on whose definitions you are using. Like M-W's for instance...
Main Entry: ²heathen
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural heathens or heathen
Date: before 12th century
1 : an unconverted member of a people or nation that does not acknowledge the God of the Bible
2 : an uncivilized or irreligious person
- hea·then·dom

Another anachronistic meaning was simply "people of the heath". Either way, you are talking about that REALLY Old Time Religion.

Some say Zeus, I say Odin. They say JHVH, someone else may say Ahura Mazdha.

Who can say any of us are wrong, and prove it?

[nmh]

I don't need to "back away" from the obvious. Witchcraft is unacceptable to Christians for entertainment. What you need to do is spend some time with the Greek and Hebrew to see how strongly God condemns it. I recommend either Vines or the Strong Concordance. All you did was mock and highlight your Biblical ignorance.

[nmh]

"All I need to know about crashing, one-track bores is written in the bible!"

Care to elaborate on that? Chapter and verse? Or do you prefer to remain unhumorous commedian?

[Chancellor Palpatine]

My nephew, when 5, was enthusiastically gobbling up every book he could find, including those on Greek mythology (my own children weren't as intrigued by Greek myths). Anyhow, on a play date at a deeply evangelical home, he informed the child - "I don't believe in Jesus anymore, or his miracles - I have a new god, and his name is Zeus." Rather than dealing with it appropriately, his parents wigged out, and called my sister in law to get the child, and that he wasn't welcome any more.

I thought it was pretty funny.

[nmh]

"Don't you people even bother to read the whole damn book?"

Actually I was wondering that very question about you. Anyone that writes a reply like this:

"So, according to the Bible, will you burn me, stone me, or just slit my throat then defecate in my mouth? I've got a baby daughter coming, will you dash her brains out on the rocks? Or wait until she is of age then allow her to be raped to death?"

clearly doesn't read with comprehension or for that matter really read what is written. What you wrote is disgusting.

[autoresponder]

GO AHEAD CLICK 'EM BOTH

a u t o r e s p o n d e r

[TheAngryClam]

I was breaking out the still-current Catholic definitions.

Fun stuff to read the parts that they don't like talking about.