It depends what kind of witch you mean. Certainly there are plenty of people who consider themselves to be witches, but the pointy-hat-flying-on-a-broomstick variety does seem vanishingly rare. But the case of witches and the case of God are not actually closely comparable. The kinds of evidence one would expect are different.
cha0tic, if I’m wrong, the universe will cease to spin on its axis. Only saying.
MC, I don’t think he’s really a committed atheist, he just really, really hates going to mass.
Yarb, as per MC, he’s considering all the options.
Dot, it is a constant source of astonishment to me that in a country where almost all primary schools are catholic and about half of post-primary schools that we continue to be entirely clueless about theology. A question like this from Michael completely throws me – I feel that there must be a theological response and a lot of thinking behind this but I have no idea where to start looking. It says a lot that my best lead comes from an (I suspect) CoE reader. If you’re a catholic, then that makes it worse because it adds to the extensive anecdotal evidence that English catholics are far better informed about their faith than their Irish cousins. We’re doomed (off to check out St. Anselm).
God by definition must exist according to St Anselm. Other things which don’t exist can be imagined, such as Russell’s tea cup and pink, invisible unicorns don’t reveal themselves to us and certainly people don’t allow themselves to be martyrs for believing in them.
cha0tic says
7 November, 2013 at 22:42Witches do exist. I know several and they’re lovely people.
MC says
8 November, 2013 at 02:44I think there may be an atheist in the house. Well said, young Michael.
yarb says
8 November, 2013 at 06:20Michael has hit the nail on the head (dislodging an unknown number of dancing angels).
Dot says
8 November, 2013 at 18:55It depends what kind of witch you mean. Certainly there are plenty of people who consider themselves to be witches, but the pointy-hat-flying-on-a-broomstick variety does seem vanishingly rare. But the case of witches and the case of God are not actually closely comparable. The kinds of evidence one would expect are different.
Send him off to read St Anselm:-)
belgianwaffle says
9 November, 2013 at 16:04cha0tic, if I’m wrong, the universe will cease to spin on its axis. Only saying.
MC, I don’t think he’s really a committed atheist, he just really, really hates going to mass.
Yarb, as per MC, he’s considering all the options.
Dot, it is a constant source of astonishment to me that in a country where almost all primary schools are catholic and about half of post-primary schools that we continue to be entirely clueless about theology. A question like this from Michael completely throws me – I feel that there must be a theological response and a lot of thinking behind this but I have no idea where to start looking. It says a lot that my best lead comes from an (I suspect) CoE reader. If you’re a catholic, then that makes it worse because it adds to the extensive anecdotal evidence that English catholics are far better informed about their faith than their Irish cousins. We’re doomed (off to check out St. Anselm).
Jenny says
10 November, 2013 at 17:18God by definition must exist according to St Anselm. Other things which don’t exist can be imagined, such as Russell’s tea cup and pink, invisible unicorns don’t reveal themselves to us and certainly people don’t allow themselves to be martyrs for believing in them.
belgianwaffle says
13 November, 2013 at 20:19Hmm. It’s like twitter theology.