The main reason that people believed in magic in the ancient times was the need to explain things that were apparently inexplicable.
For example, today if one person gets sick and dies, then everyone one who had associated with that person gets sick and dies, then everyone who associated with them, etc, we will immediately suspect a communicable disease. However if you knew nothing about bacteria, viruses, etc, how would you explain a wave of death passed from person to person? This is why magic, curses and other superstition was so dominant.
These days many of the things that were explained by magic now have other explanations, thus belief in magic is not as common. However there are still many things that are not explained by science and so some people will find other ways to explain them, including magic.
I believe that black magic was simply a label anything that was considered evil. This was the magic that supposedly hurt people or apparently made them act against their will. At one point in European history, this would have been any magic that contradicted the churches rules.
The main reason that people believed in magic in the ancient times was the need to explain things that were apparently inexplicable.
For example, today if one person gets sick and dies, then everyone one who had associated with that person gets sick and dies, then everyone who associated with them, etc, we will immediately suspect a communicable disease. However if you knew nothing about bacteria, viruses, etc, how would you explain a wave of death passed from person to person? This is why magic, curses and other superstition was so dominant.
These days many of the things that were explained by magic now have other explanations, thus belief in magic is not as common. However there are still many things that are not explained by science and so some people will find other ways to explain them, including magic.
I believe that black magic was simply a label anything that was considered evil. This was the magic that supposedly hurt people or apparently made them act against their will. At one point in European history, this would have been any magic that contradicted the churches rules.
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