mark@tikal.UUCP (Mark McWiggins) (09/12/84)
> Just to play the devils advocate, what will these people do when a group of > witches decide the amendment allows them to pray to satan? Witches (at least the ones I know about) do not believe in, or pray to, Satan. Satan is a part of Christianity, to which Witches do not subscribe (having been tortured/burned etc. by its leaders for centuries ...) -- ---------------- ....uw-beaver!teltone!tikal!mark
ellen@ucla-cs.UUCP (09/19/84)
Hoo-boy! Satan is a Christian devil (the origin of the word means "god"). Witches aren't Christians, so they are certainly NOT going to pray to some Christian deity. Witches do not have such dualistic beliefs - however, there are numerous flavors of the Craft, and form or forms of spiritual manifestation of the Creative Force/ Organizing Principle which is invoked for rituals/celebrations/etc. varies from group to group and situation to situation. Some pagans do not feel that behind everything is an Organizing Principle, anyway, but rather something a bit more Cosmically Chaotic. It's humankind which looks for the order. Satanists are another thing altogether. What they do varies from group to group, as well. Some are "upside-down" Christians, by which i mean that they believe in the opposite of whatever they interpret Christianity to mean. Some mix Witchcraft with anti-Christianity. And i suspect that some of the musicians and rock-music that some Christian groups rail about are just doing what they do for the "naughty" effect, the naughty adolescent rebellion, perhaps a bit over-ripe. Since some Christians feel that anyone who does not follow the same path they do is an anti-Christian, or doomed to Hell (which does not exist in Witchcraft, anyway), it may follow that they believe that any deity/god/spiritual source is a/the devil/Satan. I'm sorry they are so confused, and i resent them trying to impose their beliefs on the entire world, which was/is/can be so rich in cultures/belief systems/spiritual energy. Too many wars have been fought, too many people have died because the followers of one religion (i know that Christians are not the only ones doing this) decided that the rest of the world should be just like them. I, for one, reject such a homogenious world/world view/ spiritual view/cosmic view (meant both on scientific and metaphysical levels).