Pious Witchcraft
If you have read any fantasy in your life, you will be familiar with the concept of witchcraft, magical systems, and characters of magical power. We have seen movies or read stories about a powerful witch, or sorcerer, using magic to perform various feats and bring about either a good or evil outcome. It is all a bit of fun, entertaining, and a way for us to escape our humdrum lives and slip for a while into a magical world.
One of the tools of these stories is the magic workers’ book of spells. Known by many names, a Grimoire, The Book of Shadows, The Book of Naming, The Key of Solomon, and many other titles. The book is always a collection of spells, incantations, potions, and talismans that the practicing witch can use to work the magic. The books are revered and protected and are always considered a source of great power. It would be laughable in our modern age to actually attribute any real power to these tools of fiction.
It is also an unfortunate fact of life that for some, it is not a joke.
The modern practitioners of magic are generally, quiet subdued, and practice for themselves. They do not stand out in public casting spells, and they keep their magic and beliefs private. They may hold public ceremonies at certain holidays as a demonstration of alternate beliefs, but in all the modern-day witches, Wiccan, druids, or pagans live quiet lives of personal contemplation. But there are some that cannot seem to help themselves when it comes to publicly casting spells. And they can really get on your nerves.
They will not call it witchcraft, of course. That is after all evil, of the devil, and leads straight to hell. As you can probably tell I’m referring to the 21st century’s accepted form of witchcraft, Apologetics. And in my predominately theistic country, these hucksters make an awful lot of tax-free money doing one of the very activities they condemn. Christian or Muslim makes no difference. The Apologists for both are just as crafty.
Consider the following; a witch recites a spell to convince a king to end a war. An Apologist recites verses from their sacred text to convince a president to end a medical practice they don’t like. Both believe in what they cite, both are convinced of the power of their magic words. Yet, the first is from a fictional story, the second happens every day in the United States. It would be hilariously funny if it was not so damn pathetic. And the fact that the second scenario has actually happened, makes it that much more dangerous.
American Christians are obsessed with wielding power over others. Many firmly believe that they are in a full-blown war of good versus evil. They want the magic, they want to be special and they WANT THAT POWER. The Apologetics and Christian Nationalist movements in the country are more than happy to spur these people on, lie to them about their sacred book, and take whatever tax-free money they can get. And they cast their spells from the big book of fiction to justify their actions. The danger comes when the magic doesn’t work when the spells fail, and reality remains unchanged. When their incantations fail to convince others of the correct way to think, things can get ugly.
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There have already been threats made by those in power, and who want power, about what they want when their magic words do not work. They have deemed it necessary that we live as they want, even if we don’t believe as they do. Go out to YouTube and search for Christian Nationalism, you’ll find them. They are not even hiding their desires and plans any longer. It is all very public, and very frightening. And they justify it with their big book of fiction and their magic spells.
Muslim Apologists are just as goofy, and deluded. Fortunately, because Islam makes up less than 1% of the US religious landscape, they don’t have any real power. But that does not stop them from casting their spells and working their magic as prescribed in their own big book of fiction. They make the same fallacious arguments, recite the same silly verses, and continue to expect that by doing so, they will change minds and reality to their will.
Both Muslim and Christian Apologists employ the same arguments to go along with their magic spells. It doesn’t matter if it’s the Teleological, Otological, Moral, Design, Fine-Tuning, or Watchmaker arguments, they all fail for exactly the same reason. Arguments are NOT evidence. When pushed to actually demonstrate their deities or supernatural claims, they cast spells and cite arguments to try and cover for their failures. Again, it would be a great joke, if it was not so pathetic. And when you point out that they ARE practicing witchcraft, the fur starts to fly.
To compare a Christian or Muslim of any stripe, to witches, Wiccans, druids, or pagans, pushes a button in them that they can only turn off by casting more spells. Even when you demonstrate that they are doing exactly what modern-day pagans, or fictional witches, are doing, they will scream and recite more of their sacred text ( magic spells ) in an attempt to change your mind or reality. They believe so strongly in their big books of fiction, that they cannot see that their actions are no different from the fictional wizard or modern witch.
Fortunately, there is a silver lining to this bad joke. Theism in the United States, and indeed around the world, is in massive decline. The numbers of followers of all major, and most minor religions are doping like stones. The Internet has been a boon to those of us who expose the silliness and failures of the magic workers. We use the power of information, discovery, data, and research to point out, loudly, that there is no magic. That their spells do not work, their big books of fiction are fiction, and they have no real power outside their vote.
We can laugh at the antics of weather witches like Kat Kerr, or “prophets” like Robyn Bullock and Hank Kunneman every time they fail. The Internet is forever, and the failures of Apologists like Frank Turek, William Lane Craig, J. Warner Wallace, Lee Strobel, Ray Comfort, Greg Koukl, and Todd Friel are recorded for posterity, and our research. So that we can always call these fakers out, by reminding them of their failures, and the powerless nature of their magic spells.
We are living in a wondrous age of information. Where science is discovering answers to questions many of us never even thought to ask. We are pushing the bounds of our knowledge further and further with each passing year. The advancements we have made as a species show that we can think, build, and discover almost beyond the limits of our imaginations. We have learned and discovered so much in the last 100 years. Imagine what we will have learned 100 years from now.
Magic is fun in books and movies. We have no need for it in reality. Don’t let the pious cast their spells without guilt. They need to be laughed at and reminded that if they cannot demonstrate their claims, then their big book of fiction has no power over reality or minds.
Tell them it is time to grow up.
