The Witch Hunts of Salem 1692

[lawtonfogle]

Your thoughts...

Quite simply put, there is not single cause.

With witch hunts, but actual and metaphorical ones (such as the McMartin day care incidence, which was a child predator hunt, but is compared to a witch hunt), there are numerous things going into the issue to start it. In some cases, it is greed that is the first spark, in other cases it is a mentally deranged person making outlandish claims which a small portion of people believe, and then BOOM!

In all of this, I do not think you can say religion is always innocent, but it is far from the sole cause. Often, it seems anything that pulls a community together, be it religion, or be it fear of child predators as in the McMartin day care, has to exist. But this makes religion no more dangerous than any other such thing that pulls everyone together.

Moving on to the issues more recently discussed in this thread, the fundamentalism of today is vastly different than back then. While there are a few modern day fundamentalist support killing witches, it is not a strong trend. That being said, there is some fair criticism of letting religious fundamentalism run wild, but those are the same criticism of letting almost ANYTHING run wild.

Should we stop religious fundamentalism from running wild? Yes.

Should we stop it because it is religious fundamentalism? No.
Should we stop it because letting almost anything run wild is bad? Yes.

 

[lawtonfogle]

P.S.

Mandatory link while we are on this topic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrzMhU_4m-g


P.P.S.
This is an example of the dangers of letting 'bad logic' run wild.

 

[Ellinas]

Lack of erudition and thus ignorance are to blame. Any Faith based belief (religion) is prone to such behaviour since religion lacks the rules that can check such errs. Even Hitler used the Christian dislike of Jewry to foment hatred for the Jews.

More science and less religion is what is required!

 

[jpcedotal]

C.S. Lewis speaks on this and I agree with what he says:

"I have met people who exaggerate the differences, because they have not distinguished between differences of morality and differences of belief about facts. For example, one man said to me, 'Three hundred years ago people in England were putting witches to death. Was that what you call the Rule of Human Nature or Right Conduct?' But surely the reason we do not execute witches is that we do not believe there are such things. If we did--if we really thought that there were people going about who had sold themselves to the devil and received supernatural powers from him in return and were using these powers to kill their neighbors or drive them mad or bring bad weather--surely we would all agree that if anyone deserved the death penalty, then these filthy quislings did? There is no difference of moral principle here: the difference is simply about matter of fact. It may be a great advance in knowledge not to believe in witches: there is no moral advance in not executing them when you do not think they are there."

I picked "other" in the poll. The witch hunts were more about ignorance than religion. If I truly felt that there were folks worshiping the devil, received powers powers from him, and used these powers to hurt/kill other human beings, then I will light the first fire.

 

[oldbetang]

One of my ancestors was a victim of the Salem witch hunt. Rebecca Towne Nurse. She declared herself to be "as innocent as the unborn babe". Perhaps, that was her downfall.

 

[mark kennedy]

One of my ancestors was a victim of the Salem witch hunt. Rebecca Towne Nurse. She declared herself to be "as innocent as the unborn babe". Perhaps, that was her downfall.

Yea and as I recall she told them she was a Gospel woman and had nothing at all to do with witchcraft. I think it was here Mom that was on the council that opposed Sammuel Parris.

 

[Ellinas]

One of my ancestors was a victim of the Salem witch hunt. Rebecca Towne Nurse. She declared herself to be "as innocent as the unborn babe". Perhaps, that was her downfall.

And yet your are still in favour of the death penalty?

Try burning your finger and multiply the pain a hundredfold and you will know what it feels like to be burned alive.

 

[Ellinas]

If I truly felt that there were folks worshiping the devil, received powers powers from him, and used these powers to hurt/kill other human beings, then I will light the first fire.

This is a paradox. If you kill someone because he has killed a human then you should in turn be killed! Conclusion the human race will cease to exist! Executions are nothing more than legal murder.


This is "an eye for an eye" based system and is not in accordance to the teachings of Jesus. "He who be without sin, shall cast the first stone". I am sure that if I were to adhere strictly to the scriptures then you are a sinner and if you were to light the fire then you would certainly be committing murder!

 

[oldbetang]

And yet your are still in favour of the death penalty?

I'm in favour of the death penalty option for certain murders, yes.

Try burning your finger and multiply the pain a hundredfold and you will know what it feels like to be burned alive.

Umm.....ok. And you're telling me this....why?:o

Do you suppose that Cameron Willingham's kids had to suffer that pain?

 

[BlackSabb]

I saw an excellent documentary only fairly recently on this very subject. And I am firmly convinced that all the delusions, hallucinations etc were the result of mouldy rye bread-which basically turns into a form of the hallucinogenic drug LSD.

This program was detailed right down to journals written at the time that told of the climate at the time-the perfect climate for producing mouldy rye. It was an unusual climate too, I can't remember exactly, but it was something like both high humidity and high temperature.

The clincher for me was when the exact same thing happened in a French town in the 1950's. The same climate gave rise to mouldy rye and both people and animals experienced all the exact same "manifestations", so to speak. The same delusions, confusions, hallucinations etc.

So, infected rye to a mass population combined with religious paranoia ultimately ended up in the infamous Salem witch trials. Plus the inevitable corruption that followed, with people being accused of witchcraft by their enemies and those with an axe to grind as a means to an expedient end.

 

[Agonaces of Susa]

Witches can be a real threat to a society: http://www.christianforums.com/t7437133/

 

[BlackSabb]

Witches can be a real threat to a society: http://www.christianforums.com/t7437133/

Unrestrained fundamentalism has been far more dangerous to society than any "witch".

 

[mark kennedy]

Unrestrained fundamentalism has been far more dangerous to society than any "witch".

Pagan atheistic materialism and the occult make steep competetion for that distinction.

 

[anakonda]

The root cause of killing people/witch hunts, is Evil Hearts.

 

[tanzanos]

....

 

[mark kennedy]

It's one of my favorite topics so I'm bumping the thread to see if anyone is interested.

Grace and peace,
Mark

 

[lismore]

The man in charge, Parris, was not a good man!

When you are choosing a minister for your church choose wisely!

 

[HonestTruth]

Whatever sparked the witch hunt, it was religious fanaticism and the superstitious belief in biblical inerrancy that provided the fuel for the outbreak.

It does seem that those who confessed or who were convicted after pleading "not guilty" had their property confiscated. Under the law, those who did not make a plea could not have their property confiscated. They could however be coerced into making a plea by being "pressed" with stones. Giles Corey refused to make a plea, and rocks were piled upon him until he could barely breathe. When they demanded thay he plead guilty or not guilty, he replied, "More rocks!"





Giles Corey and the Salem Witchcraft Trials

These things led to a culture of religious intolerance which, in turn, created a climate of political intolerance. Thankfully, our Founding Fathers learned from their mistakes and imposed religious freedom for all.

 

[RileyG]

I don't know. I think it was all mass hysteria all over Tituba's "influence" on the little girls....maybe some of them have medical conditions that were unknown at that time. It's really unfortunate though.

 

[crossroad]

They go on today. Just different versions of it.