I Have a Hard Time with Pagans/Wiccans

If you follow my other gaming blog you well know that I like Witches.

A lot.

I like that fantasy archetype. I like the Jungian Archetype and I love the stories.

When it comes to religion I have a hard time with Wiccans and other Pagan groups in general.
Why?  Well. To be blunt most are just so darned nice.  Really.
You can talk to them (and please excuse me lumping all Pagans together for this, right now "them" means anyone "not me") about science and evolution and they get it.  They really do.  They all seem to be very reasonable and, again, nice.

You don't even see

It's the "woo" stuff I don't get.
Now an aside.  "Woo" or "Woo Woo" is in my mind a fairly derogatory term.  Not that I am concern so much with insulting people, it is though lumping a bunch of ideas together and assuming they are all equal.  It is dishonest and intellectual laziness on our parts and unnecessarily derogatory to the audience.   IF I am going to be derogatory then I want people to know it and to know I know what I am talking about.

Ok. Back to it.  I will say it is the "baggage" or even the "magic" stuff.
The basic idea of most Pagans is to go to perceived earlier form of practice that is more in-tune with the cycles of the earth.  Hey that is cool, if you are an agrarian society then celebrations based on certain times of the year that coincide with planting and harvesting are fine.   If you are doing it as some sort of way to get in touch with a past (that may or may not have existed) then that is fine too. 
To assume that ghosts and the spirits of the dead are more active on Samhain than other times of the year though...sorry.

The trouble is there is still the element of the fanciful. The unreal.
So spells, healing crystals, homeopathy, auras.  All that stuff makes for great fiction but terrible for real life.

I remember once I had been duped by this guy that gave me some homeopathic remedy. I had hurt my back and my insurance company wanted me to go to physical therapy or a chiropractor.  I was only about 20 and never been to a chiropractor before, so I gave it a try. Yes he made my back feel better. So would have a massage therapist or physical therapist.  But this guy was also one of those homeopathy nuts and he pulled some slight of hand trick on me.  I never figured it out and can't recall all the details.  But it involved me making a fist and not being able to move my arm then taking his so called wunder-drug and then being able to move it.  Again, I never figured out, but it sure left a bad taste in my mouth.  I should have known that after I stopped going he kept harassing me (yes my bill was paid up) to come back.  The cure should have been enough for me to stay to be honest.

I have talked to some pagans in the past that were, for all intents and purposes, atheists.
I asked one about even about their belief in magic one guy told me that of course there is no magic, but the "spell" I do is just a way of me imagining my goals, they don't get done unless I do something about them.
That is not a bad philosophy I guess.  I'd remove the whole spell and magic bit.

I guess in the end that is what confuses me the most.
Reasonable people that choose to believe in crazy stuff.