why do people always believe that Wicca or paganism = Satan?

Question

In wicca and paganism there is no satan,demons,or evil.If you read about it you would realize that evil dosent excist.Im sure that some people have misused this religion causing you to belive its bad,and that seeing that the god in this religion could be mistaken for an evil creature because of some of the pictures and discriptions of him(ie the horned god).If you knew anything about the religon you would know that there is no devil,satan or demons. what are your thoughts on this..

i know what im setting myself up for.i realize that some people who are not educated about wicca and paganism are going to shout out evil.but i still want to see what your thoughts are..

Answer 1

Uneducated.

It is natural for people to be afraid of things they do not know about or things they do not believe in. They associate Wicca and pagans with the Satan because they are afraid of Satan.
It is easier to just say it is a devil worship type of religion rather than do research.

Also, It has been forced on most Christians to believe that anything other than Christianity is devil worship.

Answer 2

There aren't many people around that don't know Paganism isn't Satanism. Many of the things Neopagans claim are throwbacks to Paganism are in fact, not. Read Stations of the Sun by Ronald Hutton.

Adian Kelly wrote a book on the history of Wicca called "Crafting The Art of Magic" in the 1980's. Wiccans had a fit when it was published, and pressured Llewellyn to take it out of print. It was supposed to be the first in a series of books. I think Adian Kelly probably summed it up best when he said this about the Gardnerian "Book of Shadows", the closest thing Wicca has to a sacred book:

" [M]any of the Book of Shadows rituals did not exist in 1954 (when Witchcraft Today was published) but instead were still being written. [T]he major sources from which the rituals had been constructed included: (a) Mather's edition of the Greater Key of Solomon; (b) Aleister Crowley's Magic in Theory and Practice; (c) Leland's Aradia (d) some Masonic rituals akin to those described by Duncan and those of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (aside from those transmitted by Crowley; and (e) Margaret Murray's The Witch Cult in Western Europe. There were also bits and pieces from other works by Leland, Jane E. Harrison, Gilbert Murray, James Frazier, and other great classicists from the 19th century. That accounted for EVERYTHING in the rituals! There was nothing left that differed in any important way from what you can find in those sources- - but that is NOT at all what Gardner had claimed!"

Wiccans do not worship Satan, although it isn't unheard of some Wiccans to "dabble" (I'll brand them "fluffy bunnies" and save time). Someone asked a question on Satanism a few months ago, and it seemed about as many Wiccans answered as Satanists.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AqmYXLqfumOxgR_unjbAKg7sy6IX?qid=20060907153144AAoeovj

Satanism and Wicca are actually 2 different things. Wicca actually goes back to the 1950's and was started by Gerald Gardner, a disciple of Aleister Crowley. According to Adian Kelly in the book Crafting the Art of Magic, Gardner started it as a way to be tied up and beaten by strong willed women (he was a nudist and masochist).


http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AgoZMJUZkRgHhL.x7UVO5g7sy6IX?qid=20060915145049AAkDSCG

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Am._BpIJ4TvjZy5rEdEXgW7sy6IX?qid=20060915202507AAARGUp

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AhaS65z2CVVzv.oy9p4ymbXsy6IX?qid=20060917024713AAAHAms

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AsJPtqbU7SQfe63s8aZ1kmfsy6IX?qid=20060918191343AA1dAL3

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Au7kIponUXFUKYXKGFJTSKHsy6IX?qid=20060918010607AAnr8yF

Answer 3

I'm not quite sure about this myself. SOME, not all, are stuck in the beliefs they were raised on. I guess they think that we have some hidden agenda, in the middle of the books, I guess, where it talks about how to make a pact with satan in order to do any magic but, then lie about it to everyone. I don't know.

It seems no matter how much we deny belief in their make-believe enemy we never make any head way. Fundies are just stuck and there just doesn't seem to be any way to unstick them, I feel sorry for them. So much hatred has to be bad for the soul. Maybe something will happen one day to give at least some of them a reprieve.

)o( Blessed Be!

Answer 4

As I have said in several other questions today, it is mostly a fear of things they do not understand, outdated religious propaganda from the middle ages, and the desire to change anything that is not what they think it should be. Most of them do not even realize the origins of Satan aka Lucifer, that neither of them were part of original Judaical beliefs, and were added much later. Hell was also never in the bible until sever hundred years after Jesus. I doubt any of them have ever wondered why all of the other angels have hebrew names except for Lucifer which is a latin name.
BB, Lord AmonRaHa

Answer 5

I am educated about WIcca, and also paganism, as well as Satanism.

The beliefs stem from what is NOT believed by Wiccans, Pagans, and Satanists. Modern Satanists do not worship Satan as a real entity. They worship the self, prize the self, and revel in rebellion.

Paganism is a wide range of faiths that ultimatly is sourced in anamism, but applies those principles to specific dieties rather than balancing forces. For example, Odinism is the fastest growing "pagan" faith today. Pagansim sees the spiritual and the material as joined and symbeotic.

Wicca melds the principles of anamism and paganism into one ball of wax. Lacking any real dogma or doctrine, it relies on gnostic principles of self without a foundation of written works defined as central to the "faith". Oral tradition guides the faith, and it is organized around Sabbat structures of social mores.

Why outsiders call anything else as "satanism" is because it does not worship Yahweh (Jehovah...Allah). By virtue of having faith (and a strong faith at that) in something other than the BIG three, it is viewed as Satanism because the followers are duped by Satan. Satan uses these faiths as dupes, at least that is the worldview of the BIG THREE.

Hope this helps.

Just remember the words of John and Paul, and it will guide you well in life....

All you need is love..........Love is all you need! (The Beatles)

Answer 6

Throughout the middle ages, when Christianity was spreading through Europe, the Church demonized the native religions as an effort to convert them. That's were the concept of a horned devil came from in the first place-they made the devil to look like some of the fertility gods of native peoples. I'll bet these ideas have just continued to the modern day.

Answer 7

Hello Kinswoman,
We have been fighting this battle for generations. Unfortunately, there will always be ignorance and hate in some people, however we continue to educate with questions such as this. Even if we only educate one mind it is worth all the hateful comments from others. We see the beauty of our religion and when we hear such hate filled statements it is upsetting. It's amazing when you look at the morals and ethics of the various Pagan religions how anyone could possibly refer to us as evil.
Blessed Be.
{{{{{{{{Hugs}}}}}}}}}}}

Answer 8

Well, they don't all, but way too many do. But it's not true that there are no demons; they are entities that must be fought against. That's why we need Defense Against the Dark Arts.

The fallacy, as you point out, is that witches are Satan-worshipers. Satanists are actually pretty rare, real ones, however many kids have gone through that phase in rebellion against their Christian parents. Satan is a character created by the Christians, not something anyone else takes seriously.

Answer 9

I'm not educated about wicca and paganism, so i avoid criticizing it or shouting "Evil".

I also avoid shouting "YYYEEEEAAAAARRRRGHHHHH", but sometimes i can't help it.

Back to your question. The very little i know about paganism seem to correspond to some rituals and beliefs that are explicitly condemned in the Bible. You may not think you're worshiping the devil, but some Christians do!

Personally, based on the very little information i have on wicca, I'd have to say it doesn't seem to me like its very fulfilling spiritually (like all ritual based stuff), also it seems like a little "dark", but, again i don't know enough about it to say for sure. Now that is my personal opinion on it, i wont persecute anyone who holds a different one.

Paz de Cristo

Answer 10

The Christian religion (which is the one that belives in satan) teaches that only their religion is true. All others, including paganism, are false religion that they believe are designed by satan to keep people from the Christian faith. So the practicing of any other religion is unltimately going to be a worshipping of satan.

By the same logics, since it keeps people from the Christian faith, it is going to be an "evil" religion.