Recently, modern witchcraft has been on the rise. I am interested to hear some discussion and discourse from your perspective, on any aspect of modern witchcraft. Myself, I try to be respectful of most religions. That said, I have always been a little annoyed by anyone who believes they can, for example, control the weather or read peoples minds, which seems to be the case in this article, and in several witchcraft-related memes and stuff I've seen floating around. In addition, I think the whole idea of witchcraft as an opposition to the status quo is very much a bourgeois/liberal mindset. Instead of using affirmative action to actually work for change, it's turning to faith and a belief in the occult in order to solve your issues. It seems to me to be almost entirely composed of young, upper-middle class white women that have not needed to struggle or known the struggle of other classes. In essence, a liberal reaction to the people in power. Any thoughts? Willing to change my mind.
As far as religion goes, believing that you have an unmediated connection to the world and its spirits is usually healthier than believing in a mediated one. So I'd prefer people believe it over christianity.
That said, most witches I've met are people with Christian upbringings who can't shake belief in something and are looking for something with less anti gay baggage.
So the witches I know tend to be gay former Christian's from abusive households looking for a spiritual expression.
Interesting take. Personally I don't have a problem with the idea of Christianity and other organized religions, but then again, I approach them less as a literal interpretation. I try to see the organized abrahamic faiths as what they are: A set of rules you should try to live your life by, developed thousands of years ago. I think it's healthy to see the lessons of, say, the bible, such as not making a big show of donations to a temple, being kind, generous and accepting, and avoiding certain foods (like pork, as in the days without refrigeration this would have been risky to eat in the levant). The thing is, these are very much lessons from a bygone era. We have overcome the problems that made these rules, and now they seem arbitrary in retrospect. Additionally, most people have a sense of morality outside that which is dictated from religion. So I don't think christianity or other abrahamic faiths are inherently bad, per se, but rather they have to be appreciated not as literal, real truth, but more of a code to inspire collective morality in a time when philosophy was still a new concept.
It seems that it is always extremists that make a point of following certain religious aspects over others, and often interpreting texts extremely literally, as opposed to a past reflection on the circumstances of that text, that commit the worst atrocities.
I think we've moved past the need for a dictated morality, as I often see fundamentalists make the argument "without god there is no morality", and I am always disturbed by the idea that those people would not have morality if not for religion.
I think you have a different idea of religion than religious people.
You are right. I have been criticized by religious people of all the major abrahamic faiths for suggesting this, and every time it's a slap in the face that religion is such a seriously literal interpretation, for pretty much everyone of that religion. Maybe the world would be better if people cold lighten up a bit.