Is it sinful to believe in the supernatural?

[jedpatrickdatu]

I read that God condemns wizards, witches, and the like. Is it therefore sinful to believe in magic, ghosts, vampires, aliens, white ladies with long black hair, slender man, etc.? How about superstitions, like if someone drops a fork, it means a man will visit you soon.

I try not to believe in those things, but there are times at night when I’m walking alone in the house, I can’t shake the feeling that some scary ghost or creature is watching me. Also, sometimes I wish some magical meteor will hit me and give me powers. Is that sinful?

 

[Phil_Marinus]

I read that God condemns wizards, witches, and the like. Is it therefore sinful to believe in magic, ghosts, vampires, aliens, white ladies with long black hair, slender man, etc.? How about superstitions, like if someone drops a fork, it means a man will visit you soon.

I try not to believe in those things, but there are times at night when I’m walking alone in the house, I can’t shake the feeling that some scary ghost or creature is watching me. Also, sometimes I wish some magical meteor will hit me and give me powers. Is that sinful?

I doubt it is a sin to believe in such things, but it’s another thing to practise in it.
And the thing with the Meteor, Thats just a wild imagination…
Ones Imagination can not be taxed or controlled…
Imagination is the Theatre of your mind… sit back relax and enjoy.

 

[bzkoss236]

I read that God condemns wizards, witches, and the like. Is it therefore sinful to believe in magic, ghosts, vampires, aliens, white ladies with long black hair, slender man, etc.? How about superstitions, like if someone drops a fork, it means a man will visit you soon.

I try not to believe in those things, but there are times at night when I’m walking alone in the house, I can’t shake the feeling that some scary ghost or creature is watching me. Also, sometimes I wish some magical meteor will hit me and give me powers. Is that sinful?

It is sinful to be superstitious.

Believing in those things, while also lacking credible evidence (at least for vampires, white ladies with long black hair, and slender man), is not inherently sinful, but I would not consider it worth while to worry about them due to the incredible lack of evidence. (Vampires are quite obviously lore because it was a dramatized description based on Vlad the Impaler who is said to have drank the blood of his killed enemies.)

Using or consulting people who use magic is sinful (fortune tellers, mediums, etc.).

Super powers, or the wanting thereof, is not inherently sinful, unless its power is drawn from magic. If the power is from God, then that is a different story. God given superhuman gifts exist, with people able to be super strong or super fast. Wishing you could do something, such as fly, again, isn’t inherently sinful unless you would rely on magic to have it happen. I myself wish I could fly, and often find myself having the ability in dreams (or at least the ability to jump really high, which then scares me awake when I start to fall; I hate the feeling of falling).

There are also some Catholic theories as to what some forms of ghosts might be, such as people going through purgatory, while others are demonic. Some say that all are demonic, but we can’t really be sure. All of this is assuming they actually exist in the first place.

 

[ProdglArchitect]

(Vampires are quite obviously lore because it was a dramatized description based on Vlad the Impaler who is said to have drank the blood of his killed enemies.)

I remember reading an interesting book when I was younger, I think it was called Sweet Blood. It presented the idea that vampire mythos actually developed from people with severe diabetes. It’s a neat idea.

 

[thistle]

I read that God condemns wizards, witches, and the like. Is it therefore sinful to believe in magic, ghosts, vampires, aliens, white ladies with long black hair, slender man, etc.? How about superstitions, like if someone drops a fork, it means a man will visit you soon.

I try not to believe in those things, but there are times at night when I’m walking alone in the house, I can’t shake the feeling that some scary ghost or creature is watching me. Also, sometimes I wish some magical meteor will hit me and give me powers. Is that sinful?

CCC 2116 All forms of divination are to be rejected: recourse to Satan or demons, conjuring up the dead or other practices falsely supposed to “unveil” the future. Consulting horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, interpretation of omens and lots, the phenomena of clairvoyance, and recourse to mediums all conceal a desire for power over time, history, and, in the last analysis, other human beings, as well as a wish to conciliate hidden powers. They contradict the honor, respect, and loving fear that we owe to God alone.

CCC 2138 Superstition is a departure from the worship that we give to the true God. It is manifested in idolatry, as well as in various forms of divination and magic.

 

[Deus_tecum]

As the supernatural world does exist, it is not sinful to believe it exists, but to dwell on various portrayals of it could be seductive into occult practices, and away from your faith in God.

 

[LegoGE1947]

I remember reading an interesting book when I was younger, I think it was called Sweet Blood. It presented the idea that vampire mythos actually developed from people with severe diabetes. It’s a neat idea.

A year ago during the drought there was a local car wash that played upon one superstition. They had a sign in front of their business that said. “Wash your car, make it rain!”

 

[LegoGE1947]

CCC 2116 All forms of divination are to be rejected: recourse to Satan or demons, conjuring up the dead or other practices falsely supposed to “unveil” the future. Consulting horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, interpretation of omens and lots, the phenomena of clairvoyance, and recourse to mediums all conceal a desire for power over time, history, and, in the last analysis, other human beings, as well as a wish to conciliate hidden powers. They contradict the honor, respect, and loving fear that we owe to God alone.

CCC 2138 Superstition is a departure from the worship that we give to the true God. It is manifested in idolatry, as well as in various forms of divination and magic.

My grandma always believed that if you saw a cardinal (bird) it was going to storm. If that were true it would be storming all the time around our place, we have cardinals at our bird feeder lots of times.

 

[LegoGE1947]

It is sinful to be superstitious.

Believing in those things, while also lacking credible evidence (at least for vampires, white ladies with long black hair, and slender man), is not inherently sinful, but I would not consider it worth while to worry about them due to the incredible lack of evidence. (Vampires are quite obviously lore because it was a dramatized description based on Vlad the Impaler who is said to have drank the blood of his killed enemies.)

Using or consulting people who use magic is sinful (fortune tellers, mediums, etc.).

Super powers, or the wanting thereof, is not inherently sinful, unless its power is drawn from magic. If the power is from God, then that is a different story. God given superhuman gifts exist, with people able to be super strong or super fast. Wishing you could do something, such as fly, again, isn’t inherently sinful unless you would rely on magic to have it happen. I myself wish I could fly, and often find myself having the ability in dreams (or at least the ability to jump really high, which then scares me awake when I start to fall; I hate the feeling of falling).

There are also some Catholic theories as to what some forms of ghosts might be, such as people going through purgatory, while others are demonic. Some say that all are demonic, but we can’t really be sure. All of this is assuming they actually exist in the first place.

Is it sinful to read the “Old Farmer’s Almanac?”

 

[Iron_Donkey]

I read that God condemns wizards, witches, and the like. Is it therefore sinful to believe in magic, ghosts, vampires, aliens, white ladies with long black hair, slender man, etc.? How about superstitions, like if someone drops a fork, it means a man will visit you soon.

I try not to believe in those things, but there are times at night when I’m walking alone in the house, I can’t shake the feeling that some scary ghost or creature is watching me. Also, sometimes I wish some magical meteor will hit me and give me powers. Is that sinful?

From the CCC

III. “YOU SHALL HAVE NO OTHER GODS BEFORE ME”

2110 The first commandment forbids honoring gods other than the one Lord who has revealed himself to his people. It proscribes superstition and irreligion. Superstition in some sense represents a perverse excess of religion; irreligion is the vice contrary by defect to the virtue of religion.

Superstition

2111 Superstition is the deviation of religious feeling and of the practices this feeling imposes. It can even affect the worship we offer the true God, e.g., when one attributes an importance in some way magical to certain practices otherwise lawful or necessary. To attribute the efficacy of prayers or of sacramental signs to their mere external performance, apart from the interior dispositions that they demand, is to fall into superstition.41

vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p3s2c1a1.htm

That said, thoughts which are unbidden and resisted are not sinful. I wouldn’t worry too much about the meteor thing unless it motivates you to do things you shouldn’t.

 

[KendraDZ1902]

I read that God condemns wizards, witches, and the like. Is it therefore sinful to believe in magic, ghosts, vampires, aliens, white ladies with long black hair, slender man, etc.? How about superstitions, like if someone drops a fork, it means a man will visit you soon.

Uhhhh, white women with long black hair and slender men? How are they a superstition? I see skinny guys all the time and I have ivory skin with long black hair.

 

[jedpatrickdatu]

All right, so practicing divination, magic, and witchcraft are sinful, but is it also a sin to believe divination/witchcraft magic actually works/exists?

And about the white ladies, I’m talking about the ghosts in Japanese horror films like The Ring. As for slender man, he’s the long-armed humanoid entity used in internet fiction stories. I know they really don’t exist - same with vampires and werewolves - I was just worried if the feeling that they’re watching me counts as sinful believing, which I now know is not.

 

[bzkoss236]

Is it sinful to read the “Old Farmer’s Almanac?”

No, because it is based on science, not myth. It isn’t superstition either, it gives a prediction/estimate based on scientific data.

 

[R_C]

I read that God condemns wizards, witches, and the like. Is it therefore sinful to believe in magic, ghosts, vampires, aliens, white ladies with long black hair, slender man, etc.? How about superstitions, like if someone drops a fork, it means a man will visit you soon.

I try not to believe in those things, but there are times at night when I’m walking alone in the house, I can’t shake the feeling that some scary ghost or creature is watching me. Also, sometimes I wish some magical meteor will hit me and give me powers. Is that sinful?

It is not good if we attribute special powers to objects and such: that is superstition, and it also applies to sacramentals. Superstition is “when one attributes an importance in some way magical to certain practices otherwise lawful or necessary.” Also, “To attribute the efficacy of prayers or of sacramental signs to their mere external performance, apart from the interior dispositions that they demand, is to fall into superstition”.

Yes, there is a supernatural, and yes, there are many, many demons all over the place The point is that they are mere creatures, or as some saints fitly describe them, bad dogs on a leash that cannot get too close to us unless we get too close to them or God allows it for our own sanctification. I imagine that our own guardian angel is the one keeping all enemies away by God’s authority. Above all creatures, God is Omnipresent, He alone Is, and as St. Paul states, “in Him we live, move, and have our being”. Therefore, whenever you experience anything like that feeling, remember that you are in the light but you are focusing on the darkness outside. Don’t do that. Instead recollect yourself and realize that you abide in the Light, and thus you never walk in darkness, for the light shines in darkness and darkness cannot overcome it.

The meteor is quite interesting, somehow I feel at some point in my life I had some similar fantasy But perhaps this reflects an interior disposition…perhaps your soul longs for a superabundance of the gifts of the Holy Spirit in order to do more good…

 

[R_C]

is it also a sin to believe divination/witchcraft magic actually works/exists?

No, because they do exist and they are based on the powers of the evil one Even Aquinas speaks about this, I recall. To be skeptical about such thing and to never approach them (not even read about them) is very prudent and healthy, of course.

 

[Back2Church]

There’s nothing wrong with believing in the supernatural, preternatural, etc. Non-Catholic understandings of those natures might lead you to harmful thoughts or actions, though.

Check out www.fortea.us. It has some great information about the supernatural/preternatural, angels, demons, spiritual warfare, etc. All the info comes from Catholic priest and exorcist, José Fortea.

 

[LegoGE1947]

No, because it is based on science, not myth. It isn’t superstition either, it gives a prediction/estimate based on scientific data.

It does, however, contain horoscopes and such.

 

[bzkoss236]

It does, however, contain horoscopes and such.

Horoscopes are a part of astrology, so yes, that resides in superstition, but most of the almanac is not.

 

[LegoGE1947]

Horoscopes are a part of astrology, so yes, that resides in superstition, but most of the almanac is not.

My folks used the Almanac to help them determine when to plant certain things in their vegetable garden. It always seemed to give good results.

 

[bzkoss236]

My folks used the Almanac to help them determine when to plant certain things in their vegetable garden. It always seemed to give good results.

Again, not based on superstition, but a scientific prediction. If ‘astrology’ was used, it is in fact the scientific association between the position of the stars and the season of the year that made it possible, not the superstition.