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Great article, on point as always. Sharing this with friends.

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Interesting take on the issue. Some immediate random loose associations on the subject:

-if you accept angels you must logically accept demons

-Monty Python’s “We found a witch! May we burn her?” is the ultimate lampooning of the subject

-the Salem Witch Trials is perhaps the best-known example of a social contagion illness (hysteria). A few decades ago it was anorexia. Most recently it’s rapid onset gender dysphoria

-Dr. Edward Dutton (the Jolly Heretic) has looked at this extensively from an evolutionary/psychological perspective. Comparing this piece with his work is interesting

Great piece!

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Take a long hard look at feminism and gender theory and you will slowly begin to realize why the church used to burn witches.

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"For example, atheist Thomas Hobbes (1599–1679), a man who dismissed all religion as “ignorance,” and “lies”"

Hobbes was not an atheist, though was clearly an ancestor of today's critical approach toward religion. When he was referring to religion as "ignorance", he was referring to the "Religion of the Gentiles". He was also vehemently pro-Anglican and anti-Catholic-

"But when it comes to confession of that faith, the Private Reason must submit to the Publique; that is to say, to Gods Lieutenant. But who is this Lieutenant of God, and Head of the Church, shall be considered in its proper place thereafter." (spoiler: it's the King).

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I have heard him referred to as an atheist in that he stated that God could not be proven. And I think he is at best described as a deist. But you are right that I shouldn't have just stated that without comment so I edited and deleted that word. Thanks.

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This is the first time I’ve seen this take on the topic. When I became interested in stories of Appalachian folk magic and then European folk magic I couldn’t help but notice the academics who speak on it have a completely materialistic and anti-religion (Christian) approach. Then there’s the feminist narrative woven in there. It doesn’t add up, there’s clearly a lack in our modern understanding of what was happening. Fascinating read, I would love to find more on this subject

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I find your works and your questions very productive and necessary Mr Ungit, however we need to be careful to move people to our position when actually on a strict and analytical ground we actually only created a vacuum where we can say we need to understand that these are very real possibilities and legitimate questions, but as for hard cold facts, now that is a different story, we are not ready and our listeners should not go and freely continue with a momentum we had created and say that drug induced experience is in actual fact real but in another dimension of reality, and prosecution of witchcraft was largely justified because they had actual real might in the spiritual and sometimes physical worlds and they did in fact sacrifice children. We must be very careful to make careful distinction between fact, reality, and postulations. It could also be that this position is beneficial to you as you may be seen to be sympathetic to the Catholic Cause because you are catholic and they perpetuated the Witch-Hunts. So we need to draw clear lines, and yes you are, but it disappears in the greater whole, we , you need to summate and be clear on the position in an extract. Where does Rebecka Brown and Derek Prince and modern evangelical Spiritual Warfare fit into this? I say it is honest misinterpretations and largely claptrap - the Spiritual Warfare thing - yes you must put on the arour and the sword to fight the spiritual war as Paul describes it, but then they go on by taking into the imagnary world of fantasy and dragons and demons and monsters ..and it becomes something alien to the true Word and the true gospels as we know them. And we do know them enough to have a degree of accountability, and there are very few or any example of this type of spiritual warfare as Derek Prince and Rebecka Brown are on about, although Prince less so. https://chat.openai.com/share/0127af90-e6d4-479c-ad44-fb58155db34f

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