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Witches were and are real. I know some personally. You may be refering to their alleged supernatural abilities, which are no more real or unreal than the prayers and rituals of any other religion. Some of the greatest scientists of all time were also alchemists and spiritualists, borderline witchcraft imho.

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There are people who call themselves witches... but witches in the sense of women who have made a pact with Satan in exchange for supernatural powers are not real.

Indeed, if they were real, we would be quite correct to persecute them.

And those that did in reality make such pacts? Whether Satan exists is irrelevant. There have been many witches throughout history who knowingly made pacts and believed themselves to have powers. Alison Device is the classic. She cursed a man. That man heard her curse and almost immediately had what we today would call a stroke, likely in part induced by the panic/fear of that curse. She believed she had powers. He believed she had powers. She exercised those powers and a man died. Call it a placebo effect if you want, but she was a witch who proved able to kill a man with a curse.

> Indeed, if they were real, we would be quite correct to persecute them.

Would we? I'm not familiar with the law that disallows contracts with Satan, or disallows ownership of supernatural powers.

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