Bare with me on this blog; not only is this my first blog I have ever wrote, this topic is out of my comfort zone. You may ask why magic is out of my comfort zone, well for starters it is hard to believe in magic when Kieckhefer mention through out his book that there is no factual evidence to prove magic caused certain events. We also cant replicate the studies and obtain the same results. It is hard to believe these magical events when scientist cant validate the events.
Kors and Peters mentions how some religions forbid the practice of magic, yet Kieckhefer references multiple instances were religious leaders healed the sick with magical elements. It almost seems as if some religions only acknowledged magic when referring to the Devil. Kors and Peter even notes that religious beliefs helped contribute to the idea of Satan (P. 7, Kors and Peters). Christians and other influential groups helped spread the conspiracies about witchcraft and diabolical elves. Once enough people believed these conspiracies, religious groups claimed they could heal you and help you get rid of demons. Even though I am probably wrong, it just seems suspicious that witchcraft became prominent after Augustine "heightened the Christians awareness of the Devil's powers (P. 7, Kors and Peters)". I believe organized groups like Christians took advantage of the arrogant community to gain more followers.
It is understandable why so many people would believe that there is a Devil. People during the time of the famine and plague needed someone to blame for their misfortune and they also needed something to turn to. Religion gave people hope and when God did not answer their prayers, practitioners of magic were there as a backup. For instance, some might believe that Jesus was able to cure Peters toothache with his religious powers, for others they might have seen Jesus' powers as magic (P. 72, Kieckhefer). In a sense, religion started magic but there was no line drawn between magical powers and religious powers.
No comments:
Post a Comment