Is Wicca bad?

[Dyakovo]

Recently I have noticed an increase of thing Wiccan in my area. Some new Wiccian shops have been opened and has caused an uproar in my community. Many people seem to think of Wicca as evil and something against god. What do you think NSG? Is Wicca "bad"? Why or why not?

For those of you who do not know what wicca is ---> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wicca

As a Wiccian myself i think wicca is very misunderstood. Wicca is a religion of peace, tolerance, and respect for others and the environment. I thin if people did their research and really studied Wicca and new what we really are we would be more accepted.

No, it isn't bad. It's just ridiculous, like any other religion.

[Imperial City-States]

To me it's not really what's good or bad. People should be allowed to belief what they wish.

I do not think that Wiccanism is bad or good , I personally think that it's just another thing to believe in.

Myself i take elements of Nordic Paganism , Buddhism , Taoism and other religions to form my own believe system. I choose to incorporate those into my own lifestyle. To me the whole thing boils down to less of a religion and more of a set of believes on chooses to follow. I like to think that if i fall in battle (Soldier here ) and fight honorably i will go to Valhalla (preferably ) or Fólkvangr. So really it's not about whether Wiccinasm is right or wrong , it's a matter that fortunately in the United States you can believe what ever the hell you want regardless of any one else's opinion.

As long as you don't go full Charles Manson

[Dragomerian Islands]

Wicca itself is not bad, but because of the Christian portrayal of them (which was more widespread at the time), Wicca became associated with Satanism. I actually believe that the Wiccans are actually quite nice. I actually know that there are a few Wiccans that go to the same school as me.

[Norstal]

Christianity answers this?

Yes. Our answer is that the purpose of life is to "become Christ-like" - to draw closer to God and prepare for union with Him in the afterlife. This is to be achieved through repentance and communion and through making an effort to avoid sin as much as possible. Ideally, we should be self-effacing, seeing no distinction between ourselves and other human beings, "loving others as ourselves", because that is how one prepares oneself for union with God. Every human being is an image of God - to achieve unity and harmony with one another is what is required if we are to achieve unity with God. When we fail to live up to this ideal, we must repent, and try again.

Well, at least that's the Orthodox Christian answer, anyway.
...for the union of all, let us pray to the Lord...

Other religions have their own answers.

That's still pretty vague. Granted, more specific than Wicca, but it's still pretty vague. Suicide would stop me from committing any sin, not to mention it is the ultimate act of loving others as oneself, but I'm pretty sure that's incredibly sinful. Yet it would prevent more sins to be committed. I can poke holes at this all day long and so can other denomination of Christianity, but my point is made.

[Infected Mushroom]

Recently I have noticed an increase of thing Wiccan in my area. Some new Wiccian shops have been opened and has caused an uproar in my community. Many people seem to think of Wicca as evil and something against god. What do you think NSG? Is Wicca "bad"? Why or why not?

For those of you who do not know what wicca is ---> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wicca

As a Wiccian myself i think wicca is very misunderstood. Wicca is a religion of peace, tolerance, and respect for others and the environment. I thin if people did their research and really studied Wicca and new what we really are we would be more accepted.

do Wiccians have access to powerful dark magic?

if so, I might want to join

[Norstal]

Yes. Our answer is that the purpose of life is to "become Christ-like" - to draw closer to God and prepare for union with Him in the afterlife. This is to be achieved through repentance and communion and through making an effort to avoid sin as much as possible. Ideally, we should be self-effacing, seeing no distinction between ourselves and other human beings, "loving others as ourselves", because that is how one prepares oneself for union with God. Every human being is an image of God - to achieve unity and harmony with one another is what is required if we are to achieve unity with God. When we fail to live up to this ideal, we must repent, and try again.

Well, at least that's the Orthodox Christian answer, anyway.
...for the union of all, let us pray to the Lord...

Other religions have their own answers.

I thought that was actually the answer to the how must we live our lives part of the religion, not the why are we here part.

Some denominations believe that the purpose of life is to be closer to God. But what is God's plan for us? Who knows! Only God knows.

[Yalos]

Duotheism is just silly, magic is absurd and its belief system is based on archaic concepts of elementalism and nature and jack.

I will respect your right to practice wicca, but I reserve my own right to dismiss it as silly and bad.

[Constantinopolis]

What is "harm"? Physical harm? Emotional harm? Intentional harm? Unintentional harm? Is harm objective or subjective? If the latter, who decides if something was harmful? If the former, what are the objective standards by which we judge harm?

Yeah... too much room for interpretation.

Just like Christianity? Again, the same problems you have with Wicca are the same problems Christianity shares. Otherwise there wouldn't be so many denominations out there.

Oh yes, no question about it, there are many different things out there that go by the name of "Christianity".

But with Christianity, the different interpretations are neatly organized into clear and separate categories. You can belong to this denomination or that denomination, just like you can belong to this religion or that religion. It's... structured. I think that's the right word. Structured. Organized. I like my religion organized.

Now, by the way, if it wasn't clear, I'm not saying that Wicca is "bad" or fundamentally different from other religions in any way. In fact, most of the criticisms I have of Wicca would be equally true of Hinduism.

I'm just explaining why I'm personally not a Wiccan and wasn't ever interested in it.

[Qubec]

Recently I have noticed an increase of thing Wiccan in my area. Some new Wiccian shops have been opened and has caused an uproar in my community. Many people seem to think of Wicca as evil and something against god. What do you think NSG? Is Wicca "bad"? Why or why not?

For those of you who do not know what wicca is ---> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wicca

As a Wiccian myself i think wicca is very misunderstood. Wicca is a religion of peace, tolerance, and respect for others and the environment. I thin if people did their research and really studied Wicca and new what we really are we would be more accepted.

do Wiccians have access to powerful dark magic?

if so, I might want to join

lol there is not such thing as "dark" magick.

[The Grey Wolf]

Recently I have noticed an increase of thing Wiccan in my area. Some new Wiccian shops have been opened and has caused an uproar in my community. Many people seem to think of Wicca as evil and something against god. What do you think NSG? Is Wicca "bad"? Why or why not?

For those of you who do not know what wicca is ---> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wicca

As a Wiccian myself i think wicca is very misunderstood. Wicca is a religion of peace, tolerance, and respect for others and the environment. I thin if people did their research and really studied Wicca and new what we really are we would be more accepted.

No, it isn't bad. It's just ridiculous, like any other religion.

Glad to know that we stupid religious folk have you intelligent, funny atheists to tell us the way things are.

[Norstal]

Just like Christianity? Again, the same problems you have with Wicca are the same problems Christianity shares. Otherwise there wouldn't be so many denominations out there.

Oh yes, no question about it, there are many different things out there that go by the name of "Christianity".

But with Christianity, the different interpretations are neatly organized into clear and separate categories. You can belong to this denomination or that denomination, just like you can belong to this religion or that religion. It's... structured. I think that's the right word. Structured. Organized. I like my religion organized.

Now, by the way, if it wasn't clear, I'm not saying that Wicca is "bad" or fundamentally different from other religions in any way. In fact, most of the criticisms I have of Wicca would be equally true of Hinduism.

I'm just explaining why I'm personally not a Wiccan and wasn't ever interested in it.

That is a better criticism of Wicca, I will say, so I have no problems with that. Wicca doesn't really have a strong theological authority or at least a denomination I know of that does have such things.

[Dyakovo]

Explain what you mean by 'natural' religions.

By 'naturally syncretic' religions I mean religions that take on aspects of other religions as part of the same natural process that cultures take on aspects of other cultures. If someone 'made' a culture, that would be seen as ridiculous; religion is supposedly a much more important subject, yet creating religions isn't seen as ridiculous?

All religion are/were created by people.

[Dyakovo]

As a Christian, I believe Wicca is Satanic. I do not like how movies like Frozen promote witchcraft.

You belief is factually incorrect.

[Soldati Senza Confini]

As a Christian, I believe Wicca is Satanic. I do not like how movies like Frozen promote witchcraft.

You belief is factually incorrect.

Beginning with the fact Frozen isn't a fucking documentary.

[Imperial City-States]

As a Christian, I believe Wicca is Satanic. I do not like how movies like Frozen promote witchcraft.

You belief is factually incorrect.

See unfortunately you have two types of people who 'believe' in a religion.

Person A) as stated above a couple lines


And Person B)
Who's willing to accept that other people believe different things and carries on...

[Nature-Spirits]

Yes. It is a pointless "religion" created by edgy teenagers who want to dress in black and perform fake magic spells. If ya wanna cast spells, go play Skyrim. At least you'll see some cool effects in the video game. I don't consider Wicca much of a threat, it's more something to be laughed at.

Actually, it was founded by Gerald Gardner, but you obviously chose not to do the research and made wild assumptions.

do Wiccians have access to powerful dark magic?

if so, I might want to join

lol there is not such thing as "dark" magick.

Oh, there is. Trust me. I wouldn't personally call it that, but selfish and cruel magick has existed just as long as "light" magick.
Most Wiccans just don't use it, because of the Wiccan Rede.

[The Grey Wolf]

do Wiccians have access to powerful dark magic?

if so, I might want to join

lol there is not such thing as "dark" magick.

Although I'm skeptical of magic's literal existence, and entirely uninterested in practicing it even if it were (with perhaps some exceptions), assuming that magic exists, black magic's existence would pretty much be a given. It'd be an extremely irrational, hate-filled form of magic relying on negative emotions.

[Cata Larga]

Of course not.

Next question?

[Kincoboh]

I like it, and paganism in general. It makes much more sense to me than Abrahamism.

[Nature-Spirits]

By 'naturally syncretic' religions I mean religions that take on aspects of other religions as part of the same natural process that cultures take on aspects of other cultures. If someone 'made' a culture, that would be seen as ridiculous; religion is supposedly a much more important subject, yet creating religions isn't seen as ridiculous?

All religion are/were created by people.

He/she is differentiating between religions that developed naturally within a cultural framework, and religions that were invented on purpose.

Wicca generally falls into the latter category.

[Imperial City-States]

lol there is not such thing as "dark" magick.

Although I'm skeptical of magic's literal existence, and entirely uninterested in practicing it even if it were (with perhaps some exceptions), assuming that magic exists, black magic's existence would pretty much be a given. It'd be an extremely irrational, hate-filled form of magic relying on negative emotions.

I personally really like the concept of Yin and Yang , If you have light , you have dark ect. ect. So i actually agree with you 100%

[Brickistan]

I would say that, yes, it's bad. As is all religions. It's time we moved on from superstitious beliefs and faced the world as it is.

I voted "other" though, because I have a feeling that the OP is asking in more religious terms. And since I consider all religions equally nonsensical, I would say no, it's no worse than any of the multitude of other faiths that humanity has had though the ages.

[Imperial City-States]

I would say that, yes, it's bad. As is all religions. It's time we moved on from superstitious beliefs and faced the world as it is.

I voted "other" though, because I have a feeling that the OP is asking in more religious terms. And since I consider all religions equally nonsensical, I would say no, it's no worse than any of the multitude of other faiths that humanity has had though the ages.

You do know that just because someone chooses to believe in something that may or may not exist that doesn't mean they're an idiot who doesn't believe in the principles of Science. I know that's not exactly what you were implying but not all religions are nonsensical

[Dyakovo]

We live by the wiccan rede it says " An it harm none, do what ye will". And some things are unknown to us. Unlike other religions we simply will admit that we do not know.

Though not a wiccan (as should be obvious from my first post in through thread), the wiccan rede is basically the code I live by.

[The Grey Wolf]

Although I'm skeptical of magic's literal existence, and entirely uninterested in practicing it even if it were (with perhaps some exceptions), assuming that magic exists, black magic's existence would pretty much be a given. It'd be an extremely irrational, hate-filled form of magic relying on negative emotions.

I personally really like the concept of Yin and Yang , If you have light , you have dark ect. ect. So i actually agree with you 100%

Yin & Yang should not be conflated with good & evil.