#methodological flaws

Hey, I just had a eureka moment that I don't believe any scholar or researcher into Wicca's history has even bothered to ask: Why did Gerald Gardner choose to call himself a "witch" and his followers practitioner of Wica with a singular "C"?  Old Gerald never seemed to be the sort who would want to "buck the system" in a controversial or countercultural manner since he was very much a product of his time!  If the New Forest group that he had been brought into were merely Rosicrucians, I believe that Gardner would have forthright about that fact rather than invent an unlikely back story, since such groups were popular during that period.  We must remember that this was a time when witchcraft was still illegal throughout England!  Gardner's status as a civil servant probably wouldn't have protected him from the Law and other forms of harassment.  I am inclined to believe that at least one of the members may have put this idea into his head that they are, in fact, witches.  To have "Come Out" as a Witch would have been uncommonly brave for Gardner.  There are also a great many differences between the Craft and Margaret Murray's book, The Witch-Cult in Western Europe, such as a Goddess, which Doreen Valiant has often said was a part of the religion from its very inception.  Even the term Wica was seldom used in those days (it certainly doesn't occur in Murray's books!), and it was unlikely to have been an invention by Gardner, or he'd have spelled it correctly if he'd read it elsewhere.  So, where did Gardner pick up this term?  Also, the mere ritual structure of Wicca being based upon ceremonial magick--such as from the Key of Solomon--is superfluous, since numerous religions have been influenced by that text during their history.  One of them being Santería, according to Lydia Cabrera (a Cuban anthropologist) in her book El Monte; yet, no one points to that medieval text and shouts, "AH HA!" and then proceeds to proclaim that Santería is an utterly modern religion based largely upon reconstruction!  This is why I have always believed that Prof. Hutton's utter reliance upon published secondary sources is a deeply flawed system of methodology for determining the history of a religion!  Historians of Religion tend to use a much more adequate methodological protocol.

A recent data analysis that was published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) suggested that antidepressant drugs may offer the best treatment for generalized anxiety disorder. This new data analysis that is published in the recent issue of Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics suggests that BMJ is faulty and biased by conflict of interest. Generalized anxiety disorder, the constant and fearful worry and fearful anticipation of events, is a common disturbance. A recent data analysis that was published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) suggested that antidepressant drugs may offer the best treatment for generalized anxiety disorder. A new data analysis that is published in the recent issue of Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics suggests that BMJ is faulty and biased by conflict of interest. (cut) Although the study was allegedly independent, all authors had financial ties with Lundbeck and other pharmaceutical companies which manufactured the drugs that were included and discussed in the meta-analysis. The meta-analysis performed by Baldwin and colleagues is likely to yield misleading conclusions, particularly for the busy clinician who has no time to check its faulty procedures and the lack of appropriate clinical integration. The publication of this paper calls for a reassessment of journals' policies concerned with reviews, editorials and meta-analyses. The entire article can be found here.