The "Notorious" Malleus Maleficarum   

People have a tendency to fear anything they don't fully understand. And with all the supersticions and stuff surrounding witchcraft it makes people afraid to learn about it. People have a natural fear of being contaminated by the unknown, instead of seeking answers they stick their head in the sand leaving their tailfeathers to be ripped out. Not a smart thing to do, but that is human nature for you.

I'm sure that it laid the ground work for all that everyone believes today about witches or pagans. It's the old beliefs of them that people still believe today. Then you add in the hype from Hollywood and you can see why some believe the way they do. They don't bother to find out of any of that is real. They just go by what they have heard. They believe it blindly. The worst thing is if it was about their own religion they would immedietly try to change public opinion but when it comes to other people's religion they don't care.

I'm sure that it laid the ground work for all that everyone believes today about witches or pagans. The whole time of the inquisition did that. It's the old beliefs of them that people still believe today. Then you add in the hype from Hollywood and you can see why some believe the way they do. They don't bother to find out of any of that is real. They just go by what they have heard. I'm not talking about people who aren't educated either. Some are very intelligent, are professions, or similar and yet they blindly

I agree with many of the ideas here, esp. the ones about people fearing the unfamiliar and the impressions given by media and older books. To understand why people would stay far away from withcraft in times of persecution is not hard, just being found with anything associated with witchcraft could get ya killed. Also, I believe a lot of Christians are going on the passage that says something like, "thou shalt not suffer a witch to live", though this translation is erroneous. Most theologians and language experts agree that the correct word would be soothsayer (fortune teller) not witch. Somehow the ones who fear witchcraft do not bother me as much as those who think they can just use witchcraft for their own personal profit without study, the "I want a spell-in-a-box to make me rich" types. The long association between witchcraft and devil worship doesn't help. I still get the 'oh, you are a devil worshipper' remark if I mention that I am pagan. Christians who are trying to convert me do not like me much because I frustrate them. They accuse me of devil worship and I explain to them that I don't believe in the Devil because he is a Christian invention and they really freak out. They say, "You are going to go to Hell" and I say 'no, that also is a Christian invention'. They say, "you'll never get into Heaven". I respond, 'thank goodness, because I don't want to go to Heaven, I want to go to the Summerlands". Here in the South it seems that if you are not a Bible thumping Christian, you have to be a devil worshipper. And man, you shoulda seen the faces of the cops when I lived in a small nearby town and had my first all night sky clad fire circle. I would have given a lot to have had a movie camera. Three little redneck cops in the middle of the night trying (unsucessfully) to make this old naked lady put out the fire in her backyard and put some clothes on. A nice visit to the mayor the next day to throw words around like 'religious rights' 'ACLU' and 'I'll call in the media' fixed it right quick, never had any more trouble.

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i thought this was going to be about AFI's song Malleus Malificarum. However, i do not agree with modern day or any day witch hunts. its pretty lame. you would think in this day and age that people can accept people for who they are and not what they do. people are people and its not our business to butt into their personal lives.

I honestly think ppl still fear it becuase they've been basically brainwashed to fear it...they've been conned for centuries into thinking that Witchcraft and/or any Occult type thing is the work of some Satan etc...the reality is though the WHOLE REASON the hunts began was simply a means of control by the gov and the Church....

Its the same with Vodou...there have NEVER been any recorded cases of human sacrifice or negative anything really for example...all that nonsense started AGES ago by reporters needing a good story so they made one up....then the fear was brought back into the forefront in the 50s by "Papa Doc" (François Duvalier who was a dictator and the Haitian Prez from mid 50s til I dunno when actually)...His methods didnt help any by pulling the crap he did in creating the Tonton Macoute, the way they operated (harsh and vile!) as well as Papa Doc claiming he was a Vodoun Priest and taking on the characteristics of the Lwa Baron Samedi in order to control the ppl via fear etc....

In todays world though, the fear of Witchcraft from yester-year still remains AND add to that the fact that religious fanatics love to add to the lies and over the yrs some nutty ppl like to make insane claims of ritual abuse, baby/children/human sacrifice, forced orgies etc etc (none of which by the way have ever been proven true by the FBI in fact just the opposite)....Ppl tend to, for whatever reason, think its easier to fear it and shun it rather than get the facts and learn the truth so to stop the fear, hatred and violence etc...I know part of the reason is they are worried that learning and accpeting would somehow be a slap to their own relgion but the truth is, any god IMO would take pride in his followers being loving and openminded enough to do something like that while still show devotion to him/her.....

wow....did ANY OF THAT make sense?? I'm so not with it today....

Fear of the misunderstood, mix in a generous portion of ignorance, blend together with strict dogmatism, leave to simmer for hundreds of years. Then add popular literature and media tales, dust with movie myths and inaccurate dramatisation and this is the end result.

I still don't understand why it is that people still fear witchcraft, ever after all these years.

I think you have something there. I also think that in general people fear that of which they do not understand.
And most people are too afraid to learn anything about witchcraft to ask about it because they were brainwashed that way. And I think that's were most of it comes from.

No. The book was the result of the people who hired the witch hunters to begin with, who then in turn made that book. And maybe it started before that, I have no idea..people are funny things. Maybe someone had a dream somewhere and those being the times they were, they believed it and declared "All people who practice magick are EVIL!!". I don't know, alot of history is still unknown, plus I was always a sucky student of history lol.

But I doubt the book has any influence, truly. Even if it was an unconcious one. If I remember right, not a ton of people had access to that book..most regular people couldn't afford books back then, anways. I'd think they'd only know of the book from how the hunters and leader people spoke of it.

Otherwise, its mother culture's doing. The misinformation enforced by fear and/or disbelief of the majority which slowly grew. Plus enforced by the people and children of the same religion the leaders did the unpleasant stuff in the name of. Christianity still holds the spot of being the largest religion in the world, remember? And while christianity itself isn't terrible, when we think of the load of jerks in it. The other ones who question nothing, and the children..them having children..I think that's sufficent.

Asia and Africa? Though they may've been touched by the events of the 'Craze which had created the book..I doubt it had that big of an effect, which might explain why the burnings and stuff hasn't been a terribly big thing in Asia and Africa..or, it might be the remainder of the old fear mixed with respect which had been apart of their beliefs for centuries. In Asia, Africa and India witches and pagans were either known as wise people blessed by the gods, or else they were posessed by evil spirits/demons and would bring bad luck or destruction down on the locals.

Fun, lol. Despite how much the peoples of the world would like to think we're above the savagery of our pasts, the facts are since the savagery was apart of our pasts to begin with says that they've been a part of ourselves since forever and probably always will be -- but that doesn't mean we have to go out and killing people based off of opinions and not facts. The people decide to do that, listen to the irrational angry animal within lol.

Uh..that's all.