Why do people claim witches do not exist?

[Rockpebblestone]

Watching the One Show last night and heard this. It made me wonder why.

Personally I view witchcraft as a sort of 'belief system' related to the practice of rituals in an attempt to influence events. Whether you believe there is any truth in this (belief system), or power behind the rituals, does not relate to the fact that there are people who regard themselves as practising witchcraft and thus are witches.

So why say there is no such thing as witches?

What practise would that be then?

And you can ask whatever question you like, but it helps if you make sense.

Protestant Christians do not believe in transubstantiation (transformation of the communion bread and wine into the actual body and blood of Christ) Roman Catholics do.

This is why the Catholic Church uses wafers rather than bread because dropping crumbs would be disrespectful.

For Protestants the blood and the wine are symbols only.

Elphame I agree, in that I think the denial of existence is indicative of fear. Also denial, with witchcraft, is somewhat easier, than with mainstream religious beliefs, as the belief system/practice within witchcraft is often somewhat secretive.

I find it surprising though, that the people who most vehemently disagree that witchcraft might hold any power over people are the ones displaying fear in their denial.

user any practice which motivated by belief/faith.

Transubstantiation is the belief that the bread and wine actually turn into the body and blood of Christ. Official Catholic and Orthodox teaching. Grey area in Anglicanism. Not a belief in any of the main Protestant churches.
Wiccans I have known fall into 2 camps - 'the first rule of witch club is that you don't talk about witch club' vs the ones I didn't really listen to coz they were drunk and rambling or a bit aggressive.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witches_(Discworld)

wiki.lspace.org/mediawiki/Witches%27_Magic

People who say they can communicate with the dead exist. People who can actually communicate with the dead do not.

People who say they can turn wine into blood (or channel the power Christ to do so, or whatever it is that they claim) exist. People who can actually turn wine into blood do not.

People who say they can cure cancer with psychic surgery exist. People who can actually cure cancer with psychic surgery do not.

People who say they can ask the universe for things and be given them exist. People who can actually ask the universe for things and be given them do not.

People who say they can do witchcraft exist. People who can actually do witchcraft do not.

Easy.

Iced, does witchcraft exist?

Also: people who buy things from those shops in Brighton full of majjycke stones, sage leaves, and majjycke spellbooks, or whatever the fuck it is they sell in there, exist. Cackling green-skinned women who fly around on broomsticks dressed in black rags with a cat sitting on the back (which is the kind of witch associated with Halloween and hence the type being talked about in the programme) do not.

does witchcraft exist?

Whatever it is that people actually do when they say they're practising witchcraft exists. Anything supernatural happening as a result of that does not. Sorry.

Iced why do supernatural occurrences denote whether witches/witchcraft exist?

By the same reasoning people are accepting the central (supernatural) beliefs within other religions because they do not claim the followers of those religions do not exist.

why do supernatural occurrences denote whether witches/witchcraft exist?

Because the primary and most commonly-used meaning of the word "witch" is "someone who has magic powers". People who have magic powers do not exist. So witches, in the commonly-used and primary sense of the word in modern English, do not exist.

Am I bollocks accepting the rubbish people believe in in other religions. If the word "priest" had a primary meaning of "someone who has magic powers", I would say priests didn't exist, too. But priest doesn't mean that. It means ordained minister. They might also claim to be able to ask God for favours, but that's not the primary meaning of the word. (Priests can't ask God for favours, by the way, because God, like magic, has pretty much no chance of existing.)

I mean, I could start a religion and say that followers of my religion are called ghosts, and we have the power to walk through walls, if we wanted to (we just happen to not want to). Am I allowed to get all offended if people then say "ghosts don't exist"?

"Of course ghosts exist! We're right here! Look, I've got the spectral bloodied knife and the clanking chains and everything! I mean, what does it even matter if we can't actually walk through walls? Even if we don't actually have spooky powers, it's our religion, actually, and I demand you respect my religion by no longer saying that ghosts don't exist!"

Iced The function of a priest though is to act as an 'intermediary' between people and God. If you do not believe in God you could not believe in this function - the 'job role'.

What I am interested in is why the difference? Witches 'don't exist, priests do'. Both belief systems undoubtedly involve the supernatural.

That's the function of a priest, but not the definition of a priest.

Surely

Surely indeed.

Surely a functional definition works as a definition, though.

Because we refer to them as pharmacists now!

There are people who practise Wicca. They are witches. People believe in their existence.

There are not people who wear pointy hats and fly around on broomsticks and all that stuff.

In much the same way, I believe that people with dwarfism exist. I don't believe that they work in mines, make tools, love gold and hate elves, (although a loathing for Tolkein and fantasy fiction in general would be very understandable).

Priests have an accepted role in society. Supported by government and religious bodies.
Witches on the other hand don't have that acceptance. And in former times were likely to be burnt at the stake for being devil worshippers.
They weren't devil worshippers but the healing and beliefs they held were a challenge to the religious orthodoxy. So they were prosecuted and vilified. Meaning that nowadays we have a very stereotypical view of a 'witch' and no traditional/orthodox view of a wise woman/pagan who looks at alternate gods and belief systems.

Fluffy I'm not sure pharmacists would agree...