Of witchcraft was real, should it be legal?

[The Arizonan]

I think witchcraft should be legal. There are positions that I would love to put a curse on.

[DrScholl]

It definitely is very real. I have family who has performed it.

[The Arizonan]

It definitely is very real. I have family who has performed it.

Well, they should put a curse on Jeff Bezos then.

[DaleCooper]

Back in the day my friends and I would play with the Ouija board. The apparent spirits would communicate prolonged messages to us and it terrified my friends. Even to this day, some of them are still disturbed by it and one of them even cites it as his reason for placing his faith in the God of the Bible. I haven't had the heart to tell them all that I was the one moving the planchette.

[ProudModerate2]

About 25 years ago, I walked into a small metaphysical supply store that sold tarot cards, crystals and the like. I was with two other friends and it was located in a very small indoor mall. We went in just curious and wanting to see what they had on display. Their front door was jimmied to stay wide-open during operating hours.

As soon as I walked through the frame of the door, I felt an unusual overpowering feeling. The way I could describe it was like walking through a transparent bubble (wall) or shield (force-field). I immediately stopped, and I held my chest as I tried to understand what I just experienced. The woman at the counter saw my reaction, and immediately approached me. She looked "witchy-like," and in a very scary voice asked me (demanded of me to tell her) "what did you feel?"

She wanted to give me a free tarot card reading but I refused. I got out of there as soon as I could. I was later told that the place was known to be run by a pagan witchcraft religion called Wicca. I was also informed that what I felt could have been a warning sign from (my) loved ones who had passed-on, and they were trying to dissuade me from going in.

[Agonized-Statism]

It would depend on the extent of its power. Regardless, I could see something like Marvel Comics' Mutant and Superhuman Registration Acts passing and lots of bigotry directed toward practitioners. The revelation that supernatural phenomena is real would spark a religious revival, both for traditional faiths and NRMs.

Not sure this belongs on the US general discussion board btw, because this isn't exactly a pressing issue in current politics.

[Ferguson97]

This brings up an interesting hypothetical. If the Christian God were proven real, should prayer be legal?

Is there a functional difference between praying for someone' death and casting a spell so that they die?

[emailking]

If witchcraft were real, it would be legal, because the witches would be the ones running things.

[Del Tachi]

Witchcraft is real and it should be illegal

[John Dule]

So many people in this thread belong in padded cells. I don't even know where to start.

[Agonized-Statism]

So many people in this thread belong in padded cells. I don't even know where to start.

Oh no, people are entertaining a hypothetical scenario, better post an ad hominem

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

So many people in this thread belong in padded cells. I don't even know where to start.

You could start by casting a spell and performing a magical ritual on those "many people in this thread".

[If my soul was made of stone]

Other forms of magical and shamanic practice should be freely permitted (such as chaos magic, which I practice from time to time), but witchcraft specifically should be heavily regulated to piss off extremely online Wiccans who deny their faith's foundations in bigotry and historical revisionism. I'd be broadly supportive of efforts to help revive indigenous religious practices like these where they've long been repressed, and of the continuation of the counterculture that's drawn influence from them, but not the stuffy and heteronormative work of ex-colonial administrators and National Front affiliates.

[Utah Neolib]

Curses should be illegal, but other forms of witchcraft shouldn’t. Curses can kill or atleast severely impair someone, and if you did that without witchcraft you would be in prison. If you did that with witchcraft you should also be in prison.

[Agonized-Statism]

This brings up an interesting hypothetical. If the Christian God were proven real, should prayer be legal?

Is there a functional difference between praying for someone' death and casting a spell so that they die?

Mormonism's Joseph Smith actually explored questions like this in his theoretical post-Second Coming theodemocracy, which came up in his 1844 presidential campaign. The Christian God was to be the ultimate power and would give law to the people which they would be free to accept or reject- which is kind of stupid considering that the Christian God is described as omnipotent and all-powerful and had a tendency to smite people for defying that will in the past. He assumed that non-believers would continue to exist and participate in this not-Kingdom of God after Armageddon...which...what?

[DaleCooper]

Witchcraft is real and it should be illegal

It's real and it's spectacular.

[PSOL]

If witchcraft were real, it would be legal, because the witches would be the ones running things.

Nah, sadly the magic can’t beat the mind control of established churches.

[Big Abraham]

I think we should take one out of the ol' playbook of a beloved U.S. ally.

[LAKISYLVANIA]

Both of my parents are wiccan, and learnt to met each other in a coven. My dad is close with a well known Belgian wiccan high priest.

So if witchcraft is true, i certainly have witches' blood.

[dead0man]

I think witchcraft should be legal. There are positions that I would love to put a curse on.

witchcraft is legal, why do you think it's not?  "curses" are a slightly different matter in that maybe you could be charged with making a threat if you're both r*****ed and believe in things like curses and witchcraft, but I couldn't find if it's ever actually lead to a conviction in the US.

[Torie]

So many people in this thread belong in padded cells. I don't even know where to start.

My first cousin 9 times removed was hanged for engaging in it. That was before "padded cells" became a thing.

[Alben Barkley]

Good luck enforcing any law against it!

That's part of what made witch trials so absurd. If the witches actually were real and actually had the powers they claimed they did, they could easily escape custody and destroy their persecutors. Therefore anyone accused of being a witch who did not exercise said powers should automatically be presumed innocent, as they would have no reason to not use their powers in such a situation.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Good luck enforcing any law against it!

That's part of what made witch trials so absurd. If the witches actually were real and actually had the powers they claimed they did, they could easily escape custody and destroy their persecutors. Therefore anyone accused of being a witch who did not exercise said powers should automatically be presumed innocent, as they would have no reason to not use their powers in such a situation.

Sounds exactly like the sort of argument a witch would make. Burn him lads!

[DaleCooper]

This brings up an interesting hypothetical. If the Christian God were proven real, should prayer be legal?

Is there a functional difference between praying for someone' death and casting a spell so that they die?

That is a really interesting hypothetical! I'd never thought about this, but the people who want witchcraft to be illegal seem to be basically granting that the power of prayer is nonexistent, because praying for death and destruction (which plenty of the more mean-spirited believers do) is essentially the Abrahamic-faith version of a witch casting a spell.

Obviously it's all crackpot, but that's an interesting consideration. 

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Define real. I.e. Is it like it's practitioners believe it to be or how it's portrayed in the Bible? Without that question being answered, and merely that it could cause real effects then I'd take a Roman approach. Witchcraft itself would be legal, but you could be prosecuted for the effects of any curses you were found guilty of casting.