Greetings: The best-known Biblical text, referring to Witchcraft is verse 18 in the 22-chapter of Exodus, which states: Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live. It is printed on the _title_-page of The Discovery of Witches by Matthew Hopkins, the notorious Witch-Finder General.His book was published in 1647, For the Benefit of the Whole Kingdome . This supposed portion of the word of God has been the pitiless death-warrant of thousands. Yet it is nothing but a FALSE translation. The Authorized Version of the Bible was produced in the time of King James I, a monarch who fancied himself as an authority on Witchcraft, while at the same time being much afraid of it. To gratify the King, numerous references to Witchcraft were worked in to the translation, which the original does not justify. This particular text, the most useful of all to the witch-hunters, does not in fact refer to Witchcraft at all. The word translated as Witch is the Hebrew CHASAPH,which means a poisoner. In the Latin version of the Bible called the Septuagint, this word is given as VENEFICUS, which also means a poisoner. Note

 You're both wrong.   Think the math through.  (hint-humnity has been exitent, with people being born and dying, for at least a million years.) Hey dumbass. It is a fact. More people are alive today than have ever lived in recorded History.

recorded History. The fact that there are more people alive today than have ever lived at any one time period has nothing to do with the origionl post about Think on this . Further more this statements truth has nothing to do with Christians, Pagans, Bhudists, etc. It has to do with Science, unprotected sex, and life perpetuating life. The core issue; The fact of the matter is that the Christians of thie day are extreemly powerfull in a social and political sense. It is hard to say for certain however whether or not this trend will continue. One way or another they will be around for some years to come. Its a huge religion and it is ingrained in many parts of the worlds scociety. However evidance that it it is not quite as ingrained as it was in yester year is evadent as well. Passing of the religious freedoms act, recognition of various pagan religions by the government, the level of interfaith comunications, etc. On a day to day basis I would have to say that I see more and more people turning to alternative forms of spirituality. This is from an out there everyday point of view. Seems as if I run accross more and more folks who are tired of belonging to a beleif system that is _base_d of FEAR, SHAME, and CONTROLL. Oh, and yes the numbers are subject to debate as all numbers are...but in the past 2000 years more than 15, 000,000 (thats million folks) men, women, and children have been killed in the name of the Christian god. That works out to the equivalent of a stunning 20.55 per day for 2000 years period. Hmmm...let me think here...during world war II Hitler was accused of Genocide (guilty) against the Jews. But the christians have murded more numbers of people, as well as more socio-political groups of people, than Hitler did by far. Celts, Teutones, Native Americans, just to name a few, were murderd and had there lands subjugated. But do we hear the word Genocide mentioned in association with christians...not usualy. Those are just the facts... Food for thought... Saorsa gu-brath, Brighid dhuit Greggory Mac an Gobhainn  /I

| Here we go again... . Another case of a would-be apologist throwing out | false information, hoping by shallow, misinformed, pseudo-scholarship to | delude and dissuade others he presumes to be as ignorant and gullible as | himself. Indeed!  For instance, snipping one example from the rest of Michael's text: | Further, if you know anything at all, then you know that Prince James had | almost nothing to do with the translation called by his name. He was, of course, not Prince James , but KING James.  He was King James VI of Scotland before becoming King James I of England, thus he is often called James the Sixth and First , first king of the United Kingdom.  He never held the position of Prince in England; the Bible translation was commissioned after he was King of both the realms that became united under his reign. James had nothing to do with writing Shakespeare's Macbeth , either, but the witchcraft-as-evil scenes in there were likewise written to appeal to the tastes of this noted witch-hater and author of anti-witchcraft writings. This is well-known about James VI & I.  I suggest you find a biography of him. ___________________________< This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ________________________ The more ignorant the authority, the more dogmatic it is.  In the fields where no real knowledge is even possible, the authorities are the fiercest and most assured and punish non-belief with the severest of penalties.