I understand your views, Catholicism is traditional and the rules came from a time when they were truly needed and resonate with the needs and survival of the people at the time.
It's the Apostolic and first Church, so it's always going to relate most closely to Jesus' will.
for example never to waste semen due to the dwindling population because of the harsh climate and rules of survival at the time, thus children were valuable at the time (this later turned into contraception and abortion as prohibited);
That's 100% not why you should avoid masturbation or promiscuity. We can talk about that privately if you wish, but it's a touchy subject. Contraception and abortion being prohibited are to do with the sanctity of life, but if we're going to have a discussion about that, I want to make sure we
both do it in good faith.
Marriage was there to mostly protect the children, so that the children can have both a mother and father figure (while protecting the status of the children, otherwise they would be bastards), also to help prevent various afflictions to be under control and reign in adultery.
This is still the case today. People need both a mother and father where possible to avoid the evident negatives that come without one.
While I feel religion and to an extent mythology is a good guide to live a somewhat clean life and give purpose to people's lives, it needs to be changed in such a way that it needs to accommodate the changing climate of the modern world; I.E. overpopulation, allow abortion for cases of rape, incest and health difficulties for either the child or mother (or both)
Comparing religion and mythology is a bit of a stretch. Also, the idea that religion must be changed is heretical to most religions. Our rules have been given to us by our religious leaders, and aren't subject to change. Overpopulation
isn't a real issue, despite what the modern media would say - and as for my opinions on rape and incest, unless the mother's health is at risk from a pregnancy, she should not be terminating a baby. It's my opinion that regardless of whatever SA might have taken place, a child is still a child, and killing that child won't un-assault that woman, as terrible as a situation as that is.
While now marriage is expensive, especially when divorce comes into the question with one side, mostly the men having to lose a lot when it should be you leave the marriage with what you came in with. What's your property or finance is your own.
I mean, there's a reason that true, Apostolic churches are anti-divorce, and only support annulment.
The skewed views on witchcraft is muddied in the past because it had links with the traditions of pre-Christian religions, ergo appraising and revering the old Gods (false idols in the eyes the Abrahamic religions) which has been twisted in worshipping the Devil...
I think calling them "skewed" is inherently biased. Witchcraft has been associated with degeneracy and foul acts for millennia. While this
may not necessarily be the case for some people today; it's certainly not something I'd recommend to anyone. Neither is calling something the "old gods".
But also a lot of it stems in from genuine misunderstanding of the world around them, anything new or out of the ordinary - be it good or bad was often faced with suspicion, if not, outright hostility.
Please do enlighten me on your Holy Book and what it teaches about the world around us, or at least, what our world should be observed as. This isn't meant to sound facetious, but I'm genuinely curious.
I say this while often magic was viewed as a genuine science and often wise men/women, cunning folk, witches were allowed to provide services but then later attacked if a disaster of disease, famine or weather struck the lands. Non-magic folk like licenced practitioners, doctors, surgeons, herbalists, alchemists and later scientists weren't even safe from being labelled as a witch and later tried before death.
Many terrible things have been performed in the name of religion across the board. We disavow them all. That being said, the Enlightenment, Industrial Revolution and most great achievements in human history would not be around without Christianity, Islam or other great religions.
