Argumentum Ad NauseumJoin now to read essay Argumentum Ad NauseumThis is a paper written about my impression of “The Truth About Witchcraft Today” by Scott Cunningham. To explain my commentaries I have to state a something about myself that you don’t really care to know. I have been introduced to Wicca before, know many wiccans and sometimes considerer myself a wiccan. But after reading this the most I could call myself would be “Non-practicing Wiccan” I hold wiccan beliefs to my heart but have never tried to perform an act of magic, nor do I hold the sabbats and esbats special. I didn’t even know what esbats were until reading this book, and I thought there was only 4 sabbats, the ones in line with the equinox and the solstices. Having taken that out perhaps some of my biases and opinions are not that blatant or unreasonable.
I found this book to be fairly well written, except for the one major problem with it, which is why I named my essay what I did. Argumentum ad nauseum is a logical falsity that we have recently covered in Communications 1. Essentially, it means argument form repetition, which rarely works even on ignorant bystanders, which is why it is rarely used. But Cunningham decided it’d be good to use, apparently, for his entire book is pretty much one big argument that “Wiccans are devil worshippers”. Starting at the forward to the book, he say something along the lines of that very statements at least once per chapter. Probably on average twice a chapter. And it doesn’t have very long chapter. I happen to know Wicca isn’t a satanic, devil worshipping cult, and I think that anyone who read through the first 2 chapters is either going to side with that opinion or isn’t going to change their opinion no matter what he says, and will just look for anything to use against them.
Other than that, it is a quite good book. It includes introductory magic rites, ranging from ones on love to simple worshiping rites. It also includes a basic history of the usage of folk magic and the Wiccan religion. It explains many things people need to know in order to understand and appreciate the religion, like why we have no televangelists or other member of the faith trying to recruit, and what days are our holy days of worship. It also explains what our beliefs are, including the rule of three and our lack of a belief in, let alone the worship of, the “devil”. It includes details on what inanimate objects are used in spells and a brief discussion of the prevalence of people practicing magic today when they aren’t even realizing that they are doing it, such as when people pray. It in the end it even goes so far as telling people basic and simple magic spells that the average person can perform on their own.
Praise
For its extensive research and history, the book is of course a must-read for all students of any denomination. The author had his eye on religion, the Catholic Church, and spirituality as a whole. In fact we all know he was looking for a story to tell. In fact we are pretty sure there are more books on Islam and Christianity than “Mysticism”. The author chose the Bible over the other books and found this to be the best he had in that area of religion.
Another benefit of reading the book is that it gives you some understanding of the different religions within each. It also has some interesting factoids and is not a very expensive book. We all have our reasons for the Book of Mormon and have read about it and tried to understand it. What we are interested in in the Book of Mormon is its power and purpose to bring about the salvation of the world and to bring about spiritual and moral changes in the world. It is all about a good god but it is not something that can be said about any one religion. It is a spiritual religion, not a mystical religion. It has its limits and we are there to help build that up.
The author’s writing style is a bit more laid back whereas a very much complete guidebook might be found here. It is well written and easy to understand. Also the book contains a chapter on spiritual and moral magic so that you could easily get any religion or spirituality out of it.
The author explains a lot about the various religions involved in each and how they share many similarities with each others. It also discusses the religion of the Greeks and how many gods they were and what they have in common. It also shows you how they built various magical structures and rituals. There is also a book on how to worship the gods of the Roman Empire which is very well written and it makes several reference points.
It covers all sorts of topics and is very well written. The author explains a number of different aspects of each religion and it doesn’t shy away from explaining it. He also mentions the various religions that have spread and how they all have different beliefs and have different customs and it also gives you some really serious information in a few paragraphs.
Overall:
The book gives you more information about religion and how it makes religion feel that it’s not so much about religion as it is about what happens when people feel they just really want to see things where they are. We know people are really passionate about this subject and that makes studying it really easy and good learning.
The book is also well written. The author provides a rich history of the history of magic and discusses some interesting new concepts. The author also explains how a very large number of people get converted and learn everything that’s going on in their personal lives when they are studying magic in the real world.
The author was quite helpful when it came to choosing the book to complete his program. He provided a big variety of interesting facts that we needed to know. Also he had us read many of the things he explained and his knowledge got us really interested and excited about some of the other topics he was explaining. At the end he showed us some ideas to make his book easier as well. Overall he really had us working on it even more.
Thanks to all of you who like this book. This is definitely one book to read and we’ll see you all on the go!
I will give my rating for the book above but I will add that this book is not for everyone. It is
All in all, I like the wiccans who are like Cunningham, who aren’t completely without reason. I cannotstand some of the wiccans out there, who think anything that happens is spiritual, and cannotbe explained through science. You may know the type I’m talking about, the type who say “I have some bad dreams, they must all be omens” but they’ve had bad dreams on and off for, roughly, 8-10 years, and NONE of them have ever come true. Its like, at what point do you chalk it up to be your imagination or night terrors? Then there are others, perhaps not wiccans all, but who believe in magic and reincarnation