For hundreds of years, the word “witch” has been associated with innumerable negative images. Witches were considered devil worshipers who committed scores of evil deeds toward society. By the 14th Century, a law was passed outlawing any practice of witchcraft or sorcery; anyone in Europe accused of witchcraft was subject to the torture and execution. In the 1450’s there was a breakout of violent persecutions against people accused of being witches. “During this time more than 100,000 people (mostly woman) were killed for allegedly practicing witchcraft” (Kallen 33) . Witches were viewed by the public as dangerous and uncontrollable menaces to society. They were believed to have relationships with the devil, this relationship was developed because of the church demonizing the witches in the 1450’s. During this time, people lacked medical knowledge about sickness and disease. When the witches were healthy during many of these wide spread diseases, the people believed they were the ones that cursed everyone with it. The people believed that witches could curse people that they did not like. In the city, It was common for old beggars to be on the side of the street asking for change but when people refused to give the beggars coins, they would angrily curse at the passersby. If the people that the…
During this time, many Christians believed that certain people were known to have the ability to harm people because the devil gave them powers. This belief became very popular during the 1300s to 1600s. There were thousands of people who were blamed to be involved in witch craft, most of them were women.…
It seems as though in today’s age and time that Satan’s existence is more real and prevalent not only among society, but among Christians, as well. But, it isn’t the talk of Satan that is alarming so much as the type of attention and talk that he is receiving. Our modern day society has transformed him from being the evil, factual being that we know him as into a sinister, more humors fictional character used to make ‘great’ movies and entertainment.…
Short Essay on Angelology and Satanology This truth must first be established, Satan and God are not equal. God is omniscience, omnipresent, and omnipotent; Satan is not. The Bible is very clear that Satan is a created being, by God the creator. In the book of Ezekiel 28:15, Satan is described as a lesser being, “from the day that thou wast created,” showing his inequality with God. Religious Dualism is defined as, “two mutually hostile forces or beings in the world, the one being the source of all good, the other the source of all evil” (Elwell, 2001, p. 357). In more moderate circles it is referred to as “light and darkness”, or in the vein of Chinese thought, “yin and yang.” These all ascribe to the concept that, “the universe becomes the battleground for these two opposing forces” (Elwell, 2001, p. 357). This system of belief has no support or basis for its claims. The Bible, as our final authority on all things pertaining to God and Satan, shows us a very different view. Let’s address the claim that God and Satan are equals for a moment. Revelation 20:10 states that Satan will be judged by God, “And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.” To add more clarity, we see what God does to Satan during the judgment, “And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and…
evil, or Satan vs. God. Over and over, as people are accused of witchcraft, this paradigm gets…
O=O 496 5 2480 C-O 366 1 366 O-H 463 1 463 Total 6889 Total 8516…
Caribbean Indian slaves, Tituba and John Indian. The Parris family also had two other children…
Anton Szandor LaVey (1930—1997) was the founder of the Church of Satan, the first organized church in modern times promulgating a religious philosophy championing Satan as the symbol of personal freedom and individualism. Unlike the founders of other religions, who claimed exalted “inspiration” delivered through some supernatural entity, LaVey readily acknowledged that he used his own faculties to synthesize Satanism, based on his understanding of the human animal and insights gained from earlier philosophers who advocated materialism and individualism. Concerning his role as founder, he said that, “If he didn’t do it himself, someone else, perhaps less qualified, would have.”…
A reasonable place to begin would be with the religious depictions of evil from medieval times through the Renaissance. To understand where these depictions of evil come from, we must first understand the origin of the characters and stories that lend to them. Scripture refers to Satan being the adversary of God who was once one of God’s angels. Having fallen from grace and being, “once as beautiful as he is ugly now,” as described by Dante, most depictions generate feelings of fear or despair.1 What’s interesting is how though Satan has been both beautiful and grotesque, depictions of him before the fall from grace are virtually non-existent. It can attributed to centuries earlier when a question arose that if God created Satan, and Satan was evil, then God created evil. The question was answered by Christian Fathers that God created Satan, but Satan chose to be evil.2 Over time the symbol of Satan being the embodiment of evil and the opposition of God has been used as a guideline to judge the beliefs and actions of countless people which conflicted with the ideals…
People believed witches were associated with the devil and evil, this is why people feared them during the Salem Witch trials. These beliefs originated from the European Witch-Hunts of the 14th to the 18th century, this caused the executions of tens of thousands of people. Over time, the idea of white magic transformed into dark magic and became associated with demons and evil spirits. From 1560 to 1670, witchcraft persecutions became common as superstitions became associated with the devil. The witch’s magic slowly changed and became known as evil, and as the perspective on magic changed so did the perspective on witches. A definition of a witch now is, “A witch, a person, now especially a woman who is supposed to have evil or wicked magical powers.” (Linder, Famous…
In the seventeenth century virtually everyone in the Western world believed that the devil confederated with in human beings and either enable them to inflict by supernatural means or else did it for them (Morgan 48). Morgan also states in his article that “Others believed that both the devil and his witches could actually cause things like storms or sickness or fatal accidents.” So with beliefs like these going around the different villages, it made it very easy to believe when a group of young girls started acting out and faking sickness to blame one woman of witch craft. Also, in ancient time witch craft was viewed in some societies as a relatively respectable profession of its time. People would seek their help in time of need. Unfortunately, over time witch craft became frowned upon because of nonreligious review of it within the church. Due to this it adhered to the people’s negative takes on witches and started to associate them with the devil. With events like these could make its very easy for people to believe that witches could only be the clause of evil happening with in their…
A few centuries ago, between the 1300s and 1600s many practicing religious people at the time reckoned that the Devil could give typically women, known as witches, a power to hurt others in return for their loyalty. In 1692, in Salem, Massachusetts, New England, USA, this belief was taken to the extreme and led…
The “witchcraft craze” actually began in Europe around the fifteenth century. Many religions, including some Christian sects, believed that the Devil and other evil spirits could give certain people special powers to hurt other people. Most during the time accepted the belief that anything bad that happened was caused by the Devil. The Devil was blamed for events such as infant death, crop failures, and even arguments.4 Historians estimate that tens of thousands of people, mostly women, were executed in Europe during this time.5 As the witchcraft trials started to decrease in Europe, the idea of witches and witchcraft became popular in many American colonies.…
Witchcraft through pagan beliefs has been around for centuries, pre-dating Christianity and many mainstream religions. The most common concept, however, comes around when the Western world describes it as acts against God and therefore evil, associating it with the Devil and Devil worshipping. Witchcraft is feared and resorted to when events are unexplainable. In the Late Middle Ages, three main texts arose that laid a foundation for the extermination of witches, known as the Witchcraft Documents. This fear instilled in the documents started a flurry of witch hunts and unreasonable trials to eradicate witches and to keep the world pure, starting in the medieval Protestant Europe, the ever popular Salem witch trials in the late 1600s, and until they died down mid-1700s (Scarre & Callow 2001) and only happened sporadically. The wrongful persecution of Wiccans, other pagans, and even non-practicing innocent people occurred mainly because of the affiliation to Satanism, and contemporary witchcraft is still stigmatized to modern day.…
2012 marked a historic year for the United States presidential campaign. As with all elections, a candidate’s religion is brought to light and their personal faith becomes a matter of question. Mit Romney was the first president to follow the belief system known as Mormonism. While many religions are surrounded in secrecy, Mormonism is known for its extreme views and vague beliefs shrouded in mystery. Mormonism share common ground with the view of Christianity but share no unity among believers. Relationships among different religions are few and far between. Why would two belief system based on the same principles be so different? Why Mormonism is often referred to as a cult is a question often raised and the mystery behind the church is something to be investigated.…