Is Wicca Falsifiable?
Offline I found this on a Christian web site, and I thought "talk about the pot calling the kettle black". Do they really not see the problems with their own beliefs, or maybe they have become so good at rationalizing things to themselves that they no longer see how flimsy their excuses look to people outside their religion.
Years ago in San Diego there was a UFO cult called Heaven's Gate. About 40 members simultaneously committed suicide. They believed that on the other side of the approaching Hale-Bopp comet was a UFO. The members of this cult believed that if they were to die in a simultaneous manner coordinated with the arrival of that comet, their souls would be delivered from this earth plane by the aliens in that space ship. Now, how do you prove their belief false? Can you go to the other side of the comet and see if there's a UFO there or not? No, you can't. This means you cannot prove their belief system to be false because there is no method of verifying their theological position. This is very important because the implication is that their theology does not rest in reality. If I were to make up a theological system and try to get converts, I would not want my system to be able to be proven to be false. Therefore, I would need to arrange a theology in such a way that it cannot be disproved. I would avoid stating that a certain event happened at a certain place and time because that could be verified. I would make up a system that is vague and has no ties to anything that can be checked out. It could not be proven to be false and I would be free to get all the converts I could muster. Wicca is like that. It cannot be proven to be false because there is nothing in it that can be examined so as to demonstrate that it is true or false. But, Wiccans may say that it can be shown to be true because their spells and incantations bring results. But the problem with that explanation is that other reasons can be given to account for these so-called results. For example, the spell or incantation could be coincidental with the result. It could be that there are demonic forces behind these occult practices and these demonic forces bring the results so as to deceive the Wiccans. It could be that the Wiccans are misinterpreting what they see as results in a hopeful self-fulfilling type manner, etc. But various possible explanations cannot be verified within Wicca because, basically, Wicca is a subjective belief system based upon occult practices that have varying degrees of alleged results which could be explained in several different ways. Therefore, it is not falsifiable and the implication is that it does not rest in reality in that it has no event, objective truth, etc. that can be verified. Wiccans believe it because they want to.After dialoging with several Wiccans and reading countless pages from Wiccan authors concerning their various traditions, I have come to the conclusion that Wicca is not falsifiable. In other words, Wicca cannot be proven to be false -- or true. Falsifiability is an important part of evidence and even of belief. Let me explain.
http://carm.org/religious-movements/wicca/wicca-falsifiable
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Actually now that I think about it Christianity has been falsified. It's only unfalsifiable in the sense that the people who practice it ignore any evidence that contradicts what they want to believe.
spiritual beliefs can be falsified in that no physically measurable evidence of their truths has ever been found. Where it gets thorny is that your spiritualist, whatever their spots, will quickly insist that no physical evidence of their beliefs can be found - they exist in the spirit world which somehow these people have direct access to. Once conceptual philosophy sits down at the table eveything turns to shit.
"Experiments are the only means of knowledge at our disposal. The rest is poetry, imagination." Max Planck
Labels exist. But what fans of all sorts of labels don't have is evidence for their fantastic claims.
I've heard atheists claim that the transporter to Star Trec is a possibility. Does that make "atheism" falsifiable? This is a bullshit tactic. This Christian is trying to employ REAL scientific method to attack other's beliefs and worse so not based on the fantastic claims of Wicca, but the label itself, which is meaningless.
All a label does is describe a position. What is much more important than a label are the actual claims people make.
What makes Christianity bullshit is the same thing that makes Wicca bullshit. The fantastic claims they make are what matter, I reject Christianity, not because of the label, but because of what those within that label claim. I treat atheists no differently. "Atheist" merely describes a position, it does not address the credibility of a claim an atheist might make.
A label does not address the degree of knowledge a person may have, it is merely a description of a position.
"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
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