Is Wicca bad?

[ISS Independence]

It's a free country, people should be free to open a store dedicated to cthulhu if they want, but of course, religious freaks are not very good with that logics thing

[Stormwind-City]

It's a free country, people should be free to open a store dedicated to Cathlulu if they want, but of course, religious freaks are not very good with that logics thing

I welcome our feline old god.

[Calimera II]

I don't like it. That's all.

[Herskerstad]

It's pretty much a theme park version of several largely conservative and old religions.

[Our Governator]

I think it strange that one would grab a religion out of the trash can of history and begin worshiping it. It's odd, perhaps, but it's not "bad".

[Dazchan]

It's no worse than any other religion, and certainly a lot better than some of them.

[Ostroeuropa]

Well, it's fairly silly.
But bad?

Eh, only in the sense that it reinforces the usual problems of magical thinking.

[Edward Scissorhands]

Got nothing against Wiccans.

[Wintanceastre]

Is Wicca bad? No, Wicca is not inherently bad. Do I think it goes against God's teachings? Yes, but it isn't my place to say "you have to believe in God." If someone wants to be Wiccan, let them.

[Constantinopolis]

It's pretty much a theme park version of several largely conservative and old religions.

You know, that's the weirdest thing about modern Wiccans. They tend to be culturally and politically liberal, without seeming to realize that real historical paganism was a highly conservative religion. Also, real historical paganism was (by modern standards) extremely patriarchal - same as the cultures which produced it - but modern Wiccans strongly favour sexual equality.

Real pagan men from 2000 years ago would consider women to be more or less their property (this was by no means unique to paganism, of course; it was a social standard followed by pagans along with everyone else), and they performed animal sacrifices, and they didn't see violence as a bad thing - let's not forget that they had gods of war in their pantheons.

They worshiped nature, of course, but nature isn't peaceful, or kind, or fair, or just. Nature isn't cute and cuddly. Nature is this:



Nature is the wolves that attack your livestock. Nature is the winter that kills your children. Nature is the unpredictable seasons that can destroy your crops and leave you starving. Nature is the storm that breaks sailing ships apart. If you live in ancient times, nature is a terrible, cruel, frightening force, a fickle tyrant that might kill you at any time, and demands sacrifice to be appeased. The gods of nature are merciless and treat you like a plaything.

Wicca has none of that fear and awe of ancient paganism, none of the sense that the gods are cruel and angry and demand to be appeased.

Wicca is so... sanitized. Wicca does to paganism what Disney did to The Little Mermaid. In the original fairy tale, the mermaid dies forgotten, heartbroken and alone, because that's what happens to girls who don't obey their fathers. Disney took that cruel and twisted story and turned it into a family-friendly cartoon about how love conquers all - the precise opposite of the original message (which was more along the lines of "fuck your stupid love").

[Qubec]

There is a difference between disagreeing with something and something being bad. For example i dont agree with christianity and i dont think its right but its not bad

[Braberbourg]

It's pretty much a theme park version of several largely conservative and old religions.

You know, that's the weirdest thing about modern Wiccans. They tend to be culturally and politically liberal, without seeming to realize that real historical paganism was a highly conservative religion. Also, real historical paganism was (by modern standards) extremely patriarchal - same as the cultures which produced it - but modern Wiccans strongly favour sexual equality.

Real pagan men from 2000 years ago would consider women to be more or less their property (this was by no means unique to paganism, of course; it was a social standard followed by pagans along with everyone else), and they performed animal sacrifices, and they didn't see violence as a bad thing - let's not forget that they had gods of war in their pantheons.

They worshiped nature, of course, but nature isn't peaceful, or kind, or fair, or just. Nature isn't cute and cuddly. Nature is this:



Nature is the wolves that attack your livestock. Nature is the winter that kills your children. Nature is the unpredictable seasons that can destroy your crops and leave you starving. Nature is the storm that breaks sailing ships apart. If you live in ancient times, nature is a terrible, cruel, frightening force, a fickle tyrant that might kill you at any time, and demands sacrifice to be appeased. The gods of nature are merciless and treat you like a plaything.

Wicca has none of that fear and awe of ancient paganism, none of the sense that the gods are cruel and angry and demand to be appeased.

Wicca is so... sanitized. Wicca does to paganism what Disney did to The Little Mermaid. In the original fairy tale, the mermaid dies forgotten, heartbroken and alone, because that's what happens to girls who don't obey their fathers. Disney took that cruel and twisted story and turned it into a family-friendly cartoon about how love conquers all - the precise opposite of the original message (which was more along the lines of "fuck your stupid love").

I think you're confusing Wicca with New Age.

[Soviet Haaregrad]

I think you're confusing Wicca with New Age.

You say that as though the criticism isn't applicable to both.

[The New Sea Territory]

Wicca is bad organizationally, it's decentralized and its practices aren't enforceable. Pagans need administrators identical to a church to actually be a religion. Where is the sacred text?

You really just come in here and say "it's not a real religion blah blah"?

[Greater Weselton]

Why do movies like Frozen promote witchcraft?

[Reploid Productions]

Why do movies like Frozen promote witchcraft?

I lost count of how many times I've listened to/sung along with Let It Go, and I still haven't managed to build an awesome ice palace. Not doing a very good job teaching witchcraft, is it? I want my money back!

[Greater Weselton]

Why do movies like Frozen promote witchcraft?

I lost count of how many times I've listened to/sung along with Let It Go, and I still haven't managed to build an awesome ice palace. Not doing a very good job teaching witchcraft, is it? I want my money back!

It portrays witchcraft as a good thing.

[Reploid Productions]

I lost count of how many times I've listened to/sung along with Let It Go, and I still haven't managed to build an awesome ice palace. Not doing a very good job teaching witchcraft, is it? I want my money back!

It portrays witchcraft as a good thing.

It doesn't really say anything about witchcraft, period. Anyone that thinks it does so is reading waaaaaaaaaaaaay too much into a kid's movie loosely based on a classic fairy tale.

EDIT: Which really doesn't have that much to do with the subject of Wicca being good/bad, btw.

[Stormwind-City]

Why do movies like Frozen promote witchcraft?

Yes, because people in real life have abilities that defy major laws of physics. Yep. Totally. Its not like witchcraft couldn't actually be real.

[Fjora]

Wicca is fine. In my opinion, it's one of the better religions, as it's more accepting than some. There are "fluffy bunny" "wiccans" who claim to be wiccans but say that their god is all good and wants only the best for them, which is, as I understand it, not the typical view. I did a bit of researching on this.

Also, paganism is usually defined as ANY RELIGION THAT ISN'T CHRISTIANITY, just so everyone's clear. Buddhism, Judaism, Wicca, etc. All Pagan.

[Conkerials]

No religions are really inherently "bad", so to speak. Unless they are quite literally bad, like Theistic Satanism. Wicca is no exception.

This is coming from a pretty firm atheist, too. (Some call me an anti-theist, it's whatever, though.)

[Cyrisnia]

Why do movies like Frozen promote witchcraft?

I lost count of how many times I've listened to/sung along with Let It Go, and I still haven't managed to build an awesome ice palace. Not doing a very good job teaching witchcraft, is it? I want my money back!

in quot tread now

[Yumyumsuppertime]

I actually don't mind the fluffy types. If anything, the reconstructionists tend to get on my nerves a bit more.

[The Grey Wolf]

It's pretty much a theme park version of several largely conservative and old religions.

You know, that's the weirdest thing about modern Wiccans. They tend to be culturally and politically liberal, without seeming to realize that real historical paganism was a highly conservative religion. Also, real historical paganism was (by modern standards) extremely patriarchal - same as the cultures which produced it - but modern Wiccans strongly favour sexual equality.

Real pagan men from 2000 years ago would consider women to be more or less their property (this was by no means unique to paganism, of course; it was a social standard followed by pagans along with everyone else), and they performed animal sacrifices, and they didn't see violence as a bad thing - let's not forget that they had gods of war in their pantheons.

They worshiped nature, of course, but nature isn't peaceful, or kind, or fair, or just. Nature isn't cute and cuddly. Nature is this:



Nature is the wolves that attack your livestock. Nature is the winter that kills your children. Nature is the unpredictable seasons that can destroy your crops and leave you starving. Nature is the storm that breaks sailing ships apart. If you live in ancient times, nature is a terrible, cruel, frightening force, a fickle tyrant that might kill you at any time, and demands sacrifice to be appeased. The gods of nature are merciless and treat you like a plaything.

Wicca has none of that fear and awe of ancient paganism, none of the sense that the gods are cruel and angry and demand to be appeased.

Wicca is so... sanitized. Wicca does to paganism what Disney did to The Little Mermaid. In the original fairy tale, the mermaid dies forgotten, heartbroken and alone, because that's what happens to girls who don't obey their fathers. Disney took that cruel and twisted story and turned it into a family-friendly cartoon about how love conquers all - the precise opposite of the original message (which was more along the lines of "fuck your stupid love").

This, this so much.

I actually don't mind the fluffy types. If anything, the reconstructionists tend to get on my nerves a bit more.

While I'm baffled by both of them, and both tend to make religion some dress up game, the reconstructionists are slightly less annoying than the fluffy types. At least they're trying to at least stay true to the source material, while the Wiccans generally live by some distorted, romanticist crap (not all of them, but perusing their literature suggests most of them actually believe the Celts were some kind of gender equality paradise if not matriarchy and that their religion was the religion they practiced 2,000 years ago until the Christians and their angry sexist sky god came and ruined everything.) there's also the tendency of several of them to character assassinate Aleister Crowley, because of that slightly inconvenient fact that Gardner ripped off borrowed from Thelema.

[Benuty]

You know, that's the weirdest thing about modern Wiccans. They tend to be culturally and politically liberal, without seeming to realize that real historical paganism was a highly conservative religion. Also, real historical paganism was (by modern standards) extremely patriarchal - same as the cultures which produced it - but modern Wiccans strongly favour sexual equality.

Real pagan men from 2000 years ago would consider women to be more or less their property (this was by no means unique to paganism, of course; it was a social standard followed by pagans along with everyone else), and they performed animal sacrifices, and they didn't see violence as a bad thing - let's not forget that they had gods of war in their pantheons.

They worshiped nature, of course, but nature isn't peaceful, or kind, or fair, or just. Nature isn't cute and cuddly. Nature is this:

(Image)

Nature is the wolves that attack your livestock. Nature is the winter that kills your children. Nature is the unpredictable seasons that can destroy your crops and leave you starving. Nature is the storm that breaks sailing ships apart. If you live in ancient times, nature is a terrible, cruel, frightening force, a fickle tyrant that might kill you at any time, and demands sacrifice to be appeased. The gods of nature are merciless and treat you like a plaything.

Wicca has none of that fear and awe of ancient paganism, none of the sense that the gods are cruel and angry and demand to be appeased.

Wicca is so... sanitized. Wicca does to paganism what Disney did to The Little Mermaid. In the original fairy tale, the mermaid dies forgotten, heartbroken and alone, because that's what happens to girls who don't obey their fathers. Disney took that cruel and twisted story and turned it into a family-friendly cartoon about how love conquers all - the precise opposite of the original message (which was more along the lines of "fuck your stupid love").

This, this so much.

I actually don't mind the fluffy types. If anything, the reconstructionists tend to get on my nerves a bit more.

While I'm baffled by both of them, and both tend to make religion some dress up game, the reconstructionists are slightly less annoying than the fluffy types. At least they're trying to at least stay true to the source material, while the Wiccans generally live by some distorted, romanticist crap (not all of them, but perusing their literature suggests most of them actually believe the Celts were some kind of gender equality paradise if not matriarchy and that their religion was the religion they practiced 2,000 years ago until the Christians and their angry sexist sky god came and ruined everything.) there's also the tendency of several of them to character assassinate Aleister Crowley, because of that slightly inconvenient fact that Gardner ripped off borrowed from Thelema.

Well you mean 1,701 years (according to Edict of Milan) .

On that note what does the Yahwist deity have to do with the Neo-Platonist Christian (Trinitarian or Arian) deity?