50 Reasons to Boycott the Catholic Church

[jamtoday]

95. However

It is linked in with Christianity now was the point. Your claim that a belief in witchcraft preceeded Christianity is an assertion, the likes of which you take me to task for, in Ashanti traditional beliefs Anansi is a spider and a trickster African beliefs do not tend to have the figures one would connotate as witches, that itself is a nomination from the Bible. Do not forget the fact you ignore the mentions of spells, sorceresses and necromancy in the Bible itself. With syncretism animist belief systems take on the murderous aspect of an inquisition.

Efik mythology demanded sacrifice but to the deity, much as in the Old Testament God, other than that they tend to believe in spirits, which I find no different to the Catholic faith. What now seems to be different is they now believe people embody those spirits and have taken the Christian way out in killing people so designated instead of ceremonies to drive out the spirits. Perhaps the Vatican could send one of it's Exorcists to help save the lives of these children.

The Vatican does have Exorcists and does believe in evil spirits and they do believe demons will torment them in hell when they die. So the syncretism with Christianity was easy as it would be in such similar forms of ignorance, superstition and belief in magic, it's just that the Catholic church can afford solid gold symbols and artifacts whilst dressing up in fine robes as they made so much stealing their natural resources and selling them into slavery.

Should you question about whether Christians believe in magic the obvious one to pull out of the hat would be transmogrification, any tribal animist or shaman would have loved to conjour that one up for the money it's earned the church. Laughing all the way to the bank as Liberace reportedly said. Yet you have only to watch one of the prosperity preachers throwing the credulous around the stage at one of their gatherings, casting spirits out etc, to realise that the Catholics (probably to their dismay), have not cornered the market in superstition and ignorance. Pray do tell what is the difference between ancient Animism's belief in various spirits ie: good and bad, and the Christian church's?

As to not using aid to proselytise, the man is not going to admit such so we'll have to agree that it's just my opinion.