I thought I'd provide an update in my research on the witch trials.
Throughout the course of human history, there are a lot of things I haven't really been able to understand. I don't understand why Socrates couldn't see the flaws in his logic as he agreed to drink the hemlock when sentenced to death by corrupt politicians. I don't understand why the Catholic church made such a big deal about Capernicus and Galileio suggesting the Earth was not the center of the universe, and might instead actually rotate around the sun. I don't understand the Spanish Inquisition. I don't understand racism.
And I used to think I would never be able to understand the motives which propelled so many human beings to put other human beings on trial for something as insignificant as believing them to be witches, and when found guilty, condemning them to death. Unfortunately, I can say that I understand their motive a little more now.
It was because the bible told them to.
I was floored today when I read Exodus 22:18, which says, "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live".
It's alright. Go get your bible and look it up. I couldn't believe it was in there either. I have read the thing cover to cover multiple times and for some reason I don't recall ever seeing that one before. So I'm confronted with two options: either someone doctored every bible in the whole world overnight, or it's always been there and I was just never made aware of it. Occam's razor suggests that all things being equal, the simplest answer is the correct one, so I'll just have to accept the fact that this whole time I have been blind to what could be an integral part of the story of the witch trials.
Unfortunately, whatever original meaning the verse may or may not have conveyed was probably lost in the zeal of the witch prosecuters as they found what they considered to be biblical evidence for their actions. Justification in hand, they were free to perpetrate these horrendous actions without guilt.
There is certainly much more that can be said about the topic, but the most important thing we can take away from it is the importance of a logical morality that makes rational sense over a morality that is weak enough to be twisted into what seems to be the most convenient at the time.
2 comments:
It is true that evil men have used religion to justify terrible things (i.e. the holocaust and 9/11) . . . however, I think morality is an absolute, black and white concept - like in the Book of Mormon when we are given the way to judge, if something persuades to believe in Christ and follow Him and be like Him then it is of Him. That's morality to me. The Bible has lost a lot of it's clarity through mistranslation but any passage of scripture can be twisted through rhetoric or logic (read the philosophies of men). That doesn't make it weak. Satan has always used half-truths to deceive people. The key is faith.
Thanks for the comment. Everyone in the world would benefit from thinking about the basis of their morality a little more closely :)
The problem I see with basing one's morality on anything subjective is that it is likely to change from person to person and situation to situation. The accusers in the witch hunts were Christians, and believed that they were doing god's will(by getting rid of the witches, they sincerely believed they were helping men to to follow Christ and believe in him). However, today we find their actions horrendous and deplorable.
If instead, they had subscribed to the much more rational foundation for morality which today we recognize as the Golden Rule (but which has been around to some extent since prehistoric times as a philosophy of men): Do to others what you would prefer they do to you, most of the historical atrocities ever committed could have been avoided.
Those are just some of my thoughts on the subject. Thanks for initiating a discussion.
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