Remember, in The Wizard of Oz, how Dorothy says to her dog, “I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore, Toto”? Well, now she could say that without leaving Kansas.
We’ve been talking about loopy ideas, and a culture that’s abandoned God…
So in Lawrence, Kansas, a former video store has been turned into an occult-themed shop, “The Village Witch,” catering to “the growing pagan population.” (http://www2.ljworld.com/weblogs/town_talk/2017/sep/27/a-witch-themed-store-opens-in-eastern-la/) On the same page is “Test Your Spell-Casting Skills–Can You Cast Spells That Work?” Make sure you send them your email address. And also some click-bait: a headline featuring “Judge Judy’s Tragic Death.” Judge Judy is still alive and the story has nothing to do with the bogus headline.
It’s all of a piece, though, isn’t it?
Here in America, we spend more money on “education” than has ever been spent on it in all of human history. Every liberal jidrool has a “Science is real” sign on his lawn. And we are all of us hip-deep in high-tech devices and gizmos, really hairy technology that fills our daily lives and which hardly anybody understands.
Why is it that the more education, science, and fancy technology we get, the more superstitious, the more given to loopy thinking, we become? I mean, we as a nation are way out there now. Just last week it was big-name “journalist” Sally Quinn yakking about how she casts spells. Puts the whammy on people, and they die. You used to have to watch Joe Pyne and his guests if you wanted to hear that kind of babbling. And I’ll betcha anything, anything at all, that Sally believes “Science is real.”
God help us.
Think about these events in the context of the Law given the Moses. Casting spells was forbidden, plain and simple. IIRC, the penalty was death. I don’t believe that spells are real, but I think that promulgating such a belief in order intimidate others is very harmful. NO one in ancient Israel would have dared to openly practice such things, at least during the times when Israel was acting faithfully overall.
Lying, such as the come-on involving “Judge Judy’s Tragic Death” is wrong, according to the bible. We are lied to so often in our everyday business that we’ve come to expect it, but lying is wrong, very wrong, and should not be tolerated.
Science IS real, but not everything claiming to be science is in fact scientific. The law of gravitation seems pretty solid and we have a pretty good grip on orbits, the movement of celestial bodies, etc, but when it comes to the origins of life the speculation gets pretty deep.
In many respects science has been put on a pedestal and replaced God, becoming a quasi atheistic religion. The irony is that science was born out of the Christian West, and many of the early scientists were Christian. But like all man-made institutions, it is prone to corruption, and has become compromised by outside political agendas. Science has its place, but without wisdom to balance it out, it can quickly descend into folly.
The Occult & New Age thinking can be very seductive to those with no grounding in the Bible. It can start with Astrology, Numerology, a Ouiji board, or even hypnosis (example: Edgar Cayce). Unfortunately, this kind of thinking has invaded the “church” where all you have to do is name it and claim it “in Jesus’ Name.”