In some religions. Not psychologically so, but literally. As in, if you touch this pig/blood/woman, you are actually, spiritually unclean. It's not a state of mind, it's spiritual cause and effect. Logic.*

Christianity, for the most part, doesn't have much of that (of course, that's not counting those creepy little reliquaries filled with the knucklebones of saints, but I digress).


Most of the time, Christianity is simply about belief, without any sort of magical accessories. So, a woman who was praying for her sick child on her knees in a closet would be no less likely to have her prayers answered than if she was doing it holding a diamond-studded crucifix, surrounded by scented oils. As long as the belief is there, you're good.



The issue I had with holy water is that, despite whatever justifications people come up with, it is basically treated as "magic water." If you touch it, you are blessed. If you use it in your baptism, that's better than regular water. It can be used to ward off attacks from demons (I'm not being facetious, the idea that holy water can ward off evil is definitely a part of the perception of holy water, even if it's not one that comes up often during a sermon).





And that would be fine, if that's how it was treated. However, when a priest blesses water, he's not thinking "Ah, I'll wave my hands over this water, that'll make the flock feel better." No, he's thinking "Oh Lord, please bless this water."


Holy water is treated as magical water, even though we all seem to be in consensus that it is, at best, a symbol. That's what bugs me about holy water.





*I'll take a moment here to talk about using logic to talk about religion. At first it sounds absurd, but if you approach it the same way you talk about logic in, say, Wheel of Time (or any other fantasy novel, for that matter), it works out pretty well. Both religions and fantasy books have their own internal logic that their world follows. Both are always unable to get it right 100% of the time, so there are always going to be some inconsistencies. That shouldn't stop people from enjoying the Dresden Files/the Bible, but I hope it does stop people from always assuming every single word put down is, heh, gospel.


(An added bonus is that it really irritates a certain type of person when you compare their holy book to the Dresden Files)