I live in a Universe where there are no evil spirits lurking in dark places. No 4 year old children who are witches deserving of death. No ghoulies, nor ghosties, were the long-legged beasties are the Emus that you occasionally see in the bush, and where the only things that go "bump" in the night are the possums that live in our roof.
Others live in a Universe of the supernatural. A place where pacts with unclean spirits can free peoples, but at a cost of eternal misery. A place where witches have the power to curse, even if they're only two years old, and should be put to death by driving nails into their heads out of sheer self-preservation. A scary, dark, forbidding place. A place of unseen Powers and Dominions, Thrones and Fallen Angels. A place of totems, and idols, and rituals. A place with no rationality, where ignorance is a virtue.
It was Napoleon Bonaparte by the way, Napoleon I, not Napoleon III. But mere facts are never such people's strong point, they are to be discarded or made up as convenient.
An example of the "unremitting attack on Christianity" by the liberal media.
The real, as opposed to faux-Christians will be nauseated at this perversion of all they hold dear, more so than even I am. Their voices though are few in number.
Thursday, 14 January 2010
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8 comments:
As a practising and out and proud Wiccan this kinda stuff makes me a little fearful. Witch hunts and persecution of pagans is a real threat. History is rife with examples of Christian brutality to people of diferant faiths.
The worst part of this crime in Africa is that they are targeting children as 'witches'. Detestable.
I was raised in a sciency household, without religion, and we were taught critical thinking so early that until recently I had thought that it was instinctive.
But really, magical associative thinking is what we're born with. If B follows A, then A caused B. If something happens once, then it will happen again. And so on.
So I think that this is a failure of education more than anything else. Maybe having religion inserted before learning critical thinking is what makes it so immune to doubt?
Cynthia
It's not about whether you practise Wiccan or whateveer. Many of these people are Christians and they are being controlled by evil 'evangelists' who tell them that they must do this or this, but if they pay lots of money these evil 'evangelists' will exorcise their children. It usually doesn't work because the families can not pay for long enough for the exorcists to say that the children have been exorcised of the evil spirits, or had the witchcraft removed.
The truly evil part of this is that some of the most famous people responsible for these lies put themselves forward as good Christians and are making a small fortune out of these practises. They are holding their people in thrall and ensuring that these practises continue because they make money from them. And they seem to have the support of the government and other authorities.
I saw an item on ABC a long time ago about this (I posted but can't find the link), and I was horrified with what I saw. The charity which helps the children is called Stepping Stones Nigeria, there is a branch in the UK.
Here is a link to a blog where the poster has been sued by one of the religious evangelical "leaders" promoting all this terrible child witch hunting.
http://barthsnotes.wordpress.com/2009/11/30/more-on-helen-ukpabios-legal-campaign-against-supporters-of-children-stigmatized-as-witches/
Fear and ignorance have been the tools of perverse and manipulative leaders in all facets - religious, secular, economic, etc.
I am constantly horrified at what some people in this world think (and do based on that thinking). And then I am more horrified by those in the West who use cultural and moral relativism to justify what I can only call evil.
I'm sorry, killing 2-4 year old children for such reasons is simply evil. I don't know any other way to see it. If you can't see that, then you might be part of the problem.
And I do not believe violence solves most problems, but if I could swiftly eliminate most of these murderous individuals, it would not cure all the ills of the world. But it might protect a few more defenseless children from their clutches.
Sometimes it isn't about education or about the long term, it is about the hear and now and the innocents dying now because of such warped agents of death and misery.
I see this and it makes my blood boil enough to be the thing they fear more than witches.
If I couldn't reform them, their sudden expiry might serve as a signpost 'pour encourager les autres'.
>I live in a Universe where there are no evil spirits lurking in dark places.
You think so? I live in a Universe where evil spirits certainly do lurk, and pound nails into a 2yr old's head. The fact that those spirits happen to have bodies attached is, er, immaterial.
As for them being Christians, well, North Korea claims to be a democracy. "By this shall all people know that you are My disciples: that you love one another." (If they say "But we're doing this in love!" the proper response is "Yeah? I've got a hammer right here, let's see how loved YOU feel.")
Violence as a remedy to witchcraft is never advocated in the New Testament, and the deadly penalties to very particular religious crimes in the Hebrew theocracy are 1) only valid in the context of the theocracy 2) overturned by the NT as far as Christians are concerned and 3) to be applied by the judicial system. Witchcraft per se is not one of those crimes.
According to the theology of Christianity, well established for 2000 years, Christians are immune to direct interference by any form of evil spirit, which is logically inevitable as they are "possessed" to use the crude superstitious term by the.... local essence of the Creator - a force with which no "unclean spirit" (usually translated as "demon") would be so suicidal as to challenge directly.
Rather, a crafty evil spirit would influence particularly vulnerable minds (those already fouling themselves with the love of ill-gotten wealth, for example) in such a way as to directly blaspheme Christ - for example, by invoking His name whilst mutilating a child to death.
And getting paid to do it.
At moments like these I like to imagine the worst and most lurid descriptions of Hell as being literal in every respect. Call me a vengeful bastard.
wreckage - OK, if you insist.. you're a vengeful bastard.
Of course, I'm lying through my teeth saying that.
I just want them to stop doing it. By any means necessary, but hopefully not one involving boiling in oil. But if that was what it took, so be it.
And if there is an Afterlife, I hope that my place in Hell would be to help people like this repent. To truly realise the monstrosity of what they did, and sincerely say "sorry". Not to avoid punishment, but because they realise what they've done.
It would be a way of atoning for my own sins. Repentance means not just saying sorry, but actually doing something to provide restitution.
I'd have no respect for a deity that runs a private torture chamber. I'm a very imperfect individual, but even I'm better than that.
I rather imagine that a true and profound understanding of just how wrong they were would produce plenty of "wailing and gnashing of teeth".
An eternity of self-contemplation without the comfort of our illusions sounds pretty awful - but entirely just - to me. I wonder if that's what it is - consciousness without the distractions we surround ourselves with.
As for private torture chamber - I imagine not. But acts like those we're discussing blur the lines for me. To deny vengeance to crimes like this (and I don't mean personal revenge or bloodlust) also seems terribly wrong. I'll admit my view is quite different to many others though, and leave it at that.
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