Witchcraft is not a beneficial religion

Since I didn't define them, now there can be no reason for someone not to understand. Second, I wanted to clarify what I meant by the term "Witchcraft. " I meant it as a broad overarching term--anyone who practices magic. Since that is the case, I will not divulge in the Red Herring that my opponent has given me--namely Wicca and Paganism. I am happy to debate what has been brought up in another debate. Thirdly, I want to thank my opponent for suspending disbelief about the topics given. It is not an easy thing to debate on something that you do not believe in. Fourthly, it was not my intention to show that witchcraft in any of its various forms to be beneficial. Since that was what my opponent interpreted the evidence as me meaning that, let me further explain. Witchcraft (outside of being forbidden by God) is not profitable in any of its various forms. Isaiah 8:19 says, "And when they say to you, "Seek those who are mediums and wizards, who whisper and mutter, should not a people seek their God? Should they seek the dead on behalf of the living? " Yet this is exactly what Saul did. If we say that he received a benefit from working with a witch to bring up the dead, we overlook the fact that he died for his actions--and who wants to live in immature life? Who wants to die before their time? Not me. The fact that Saul died almost immediately after he committed this error prevents me from saying that he received a benefit. A scrap of information for a life? No thank you. God even says in Ezekiel 33:11, "Say to them: As I live, says the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel? " If Saul at any point had decided to go back to God and ask for direction from Him, God would not have killed him, but let him live. Saul choose to die when he knew beforehand that God despises those who practice witchcraft. When I say "despises," let me explain. All wisdom comes from God. James 1:5 is very clear when it says, "If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. " So all Saul had to do was ask wisdom from God and God would have given it to him. Notice the verse says, "liberally and without reproach". God does not condemn us for asking Him for wisdom. He knows that we are finite and cannot fully grasp all what we are supposed to do when. It appears to me that from that verse God invites us to ask for wisdom from Him, not condemns. So why not ask God for wisdom? Saul clearly thought he knew better than God so he asked a witch to bring up someone who was already dead. Where is the wisdom in that? Luke 20:38 states God ". .. is not the God of the dead but of the living, for all live to Him. " Wouldn't it have been better if Saul had been left alive with a testimony about all God had done? To live is much better than to die. Another thing I want to point out is that God's "thoughts are not (our) thoughts, nor are (our) ways (His) ways. .. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are (His) ways higher than (our) ways, and (His) thoughts than (our) thoughts" (Isaiah 55:8-9). We do not know what God plans to do in any given circumstance. When He acts in one way delivering us, He may not do the same thing in another circumstance. I say this because when you look throughout the Bible in how God acts, He never acts in the same way twice. If you look at when the Israelites were in Egypt and they cried out to God for deliverance from the forced and hard labor of the Egyptians, God delivered them by sending plagues on Egypt that afflicted the lowest to the highest of them. During the beginning of the plagues, the Egyptians had magicians that imitated the same things (ie: turning a river to blood and bringing up frogs to cover the whole land). But when God sent lice, the magicians could not imitate it. It was then that the magicians said, "This is the finger of God" (Exodus 7:19). Pharaoh of course didn't hear because God had hardened his heart that He might multiply his wonders in the land of Egypt (Exodus 7:1-5). When God sent flies, inflicted their livestock with diseases, and sent boils on man and beast, the magicians couldn't replicate them. It says in Exodus 7:11 that ". .. the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils, for the boils were on the magicians and on all the Egyptians. " The Lord then sent thunder, hail, and fire from heaven; He sent locusts and thick darkness over the whole land. He also killed the firstborn of Egypt and finally Pharaoh let the Israelites go. If the Egyptians' magic was so powerful and beneficial, at any time it should have been able to keep any of these plagues from happening to Egypt. Rather it was the magicians that recognized that God was more powerful then their own magic. Granted, this was years before King Saul was born, but it is still a testimony to the power of God. Technically, this story should have been one that Saul knew beforehand (being of one of the tribes of Israel). Another testimony to the power of God is found in the story of Daniel 1. Fast forward several years into the future. Judah is given into the hand of King Nebuchadnezzar and taken into captivity. Whilst in captivity, the king asks that some men of "the children of Israel and some of the king's descendants and some of the nobles (be brought), young men in whom there was no blemish, but good-looking, gifted in all wisdom, possessing knowledge and quick to understand, who had ability to serve in the king's palace, and whom they might teach the language and literature of the Chaldeans" (Daniel 1:3-4). The king gives them a daily portion of his delicacies, but Daniel and his friends purpose that they will not be defiled with the king's food. So they are tested 10 days with vegetables and in the end they are healthier than all the king's men. Because they decided to keep to God's laws concerning what foods they could or could not eat, God honored Daniel and his friends by giving them "knowledge and skill in all literature and wisdom; and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams" (Daniel 1:17). Daniel 1:18-20 states "when the king had said that they should be brought in, the chief of the eunuchs brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar. Then the king interviewed them, and among them all none was found like Daniel, (and his friends); therefore they served before the king. And in all matters of wisdom and understanding about which the king examined them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers who were in all his realm. " Wisdom from God far surpasses anything we could gather from any other source. Notice that the king finds these men from the kingdom of Judah 10x better than anyone else who claims similar wisdom. That's saying something! Therefore if God's wisdom and power are so much better than anything (or anyone else's), then why do we settle for the inferior that gives us so much disfavor from God? Does it make sense to you when I say, "God despises witchcraft" because it is so inferior to His own power and might? Wouldn't it be easier to just ask God for wisdom, the God of all living things?