Well stated and unformative, Mr. Hyde.
When the Fathers assembled to write the US Constitution, they got down to the busines of drafting the charter.
When the Minutemen met the British at the bridge at Concord, they had soomething else in mind. Call it destiny.
Is Black Magic to blame? Are witches casting spells that cause addictions? Are the streets unsafe because of roving bands of ritualistic killers?
Here is a copied and pasted snippet from the link in my reply to your comment. That’s OK. Most of America has no idea of the connection between drugs and the occult. Now you do.
Okay. Now lets ensure that we correctly understand this:
The root meaning of this group of Greek words is ‘druggist’ ‘poisoner’ or, ‘giver of potions’. These particular ‘sorcerers’ were persons able to prepare and dispense potions. But why did they dispense these potions? Was it in order to give relief from illness?
Absolutely not! It was in order to stimulate hallucinations or visions! We must understand that it was long part of pagan religious practice to administer potions, or drugs, which would encourage hallucinations! There is, of course, a direct parallel here to modern illicit drug taking. But these original ‘pharmacists’ were involved in the black arts and in demonology; the basic idea was that taking certain potions could bring one into contact with the spirit world, and that this was to be desired.
Provide link, please.
In how many cities of 1776 was it safe to walk the streets at night?
Here’s a long term view of the murder rate over time
If the current murder rate tripled it would still be far less than the murder rate in 1776
Disagree to some extent. The primary purpose of “sorcery” was to divine the future. Sometimes, granted, that took the form of speaking with the dead (see the witch of Endor) and possibly with other kinds of spirits.
It is hard to go online without seeing some mention or report of violent crime sweeping the nation. Search for yourself and see…dozens of pages.
100 Most Dangerous
Why such as reluctance to acknowledge the spike in crime since 2008?
I’ve lived and worked in some of those cities recently. Including Detroit. In no case was it “unsafe to walk the streets” if you didn’t go to the bad parts of town. And even if you did, you’d almost certainly be okay.
I still want a cite for the 125 cities in your claim.
Good reference, Andy, though 2010 seems like history.
Aggravated assault is up. A few other categories, as well.
I think partly cities are looking at Chicago and resolving to not let that happen here.
Most sources I see put the violent crime spike beginning around 2014-2015. Yes, there is one. No, it’s not likely to last. And it is certainly not as bad as in most times past.
Since 2008 really?
FBI Uniform Crime Report lists the following rates of violent crime, per 100,000 people, from 2008 forward:
2008: 458.6
2009: 431.9
2010: 404.5
2011: 387.1
2012: 387.8
2013: 369.1
2014: 361.6
2015: 373.7
2016: 397.5
2017: 394.9
2018: 383.4
2019: 380.8
2020: 398.5
Violent crime was higher in 2008 than in any year since then, so it is very strange you would say there has been a “spike” in violent crime since 2008. In 2020, the most recent year for which we have full data (and a year in which crime did increase significantly over prior year), the violent crime rate is still 13% below 2008 numbers.
These are not matters of opinion–these are the national crime statistics collected and prepared by the FBI.
Anything in there linking it to sorcery?
Violent crime is down since 2008. If you click on the word “down”, you’ll be directed to my cite, which is Wikipedia. The violent crime stats stop in 2018, but my understanding is that it was down in 2020 again.
2008: 458.6/100,000 people
2018: 368.9/100,000 people
Please retract your claim for provide a cite.
ETA: Ninja’d!
I can’t attest to the validity of the site,
Pharmakeia
But I will say, the snippet I copied and pasted for Czarcasm’s benefit is consistent with my understanding from many sources over the years. Sorcery employs mind altering drugs. Period.
Your word just isn’t good enough for me, considering other things you have claimed in this thread.
Not always. Deception, especially on a large scale, is also included in the umbrella definition.
Then why link to it? Was it just because it told you what you already believe?
You claimed that drug abuse was a form of sorcery, based on a claim that Greeks used “potions” to experience religious visions. Okay, except that the overwhelming majority of drug overdoses are due to opioid abuse. Opioids don’t generally induce visions, religious or otherwise. If you want to experience religious visions, you take a hallucinogen. It’s not actually possible to fatally overdose on most hallucinogens, such as LSD or psilocybin, at least, not at quantities any human would actually ingest. Which isn’t to say that doing massive amounts of hallucinogens is safe or wise, but virtually none of the people in that overdose stat died because they were seeking religious visions. It’s mostly people who started taking prescription pain killers to manage pain, and then got addicted and continued using to avoid suffering from withdrawal. Not sure where the sorcery comes in, there.