XPost: alt.books.cs-lewis   
   From: hayesmstw@hotmail.com   
      
   On 8 Oct 2005 09:20:27 GMT, Siwel Naph  wrote:   
      
   >Steve Hayes wrote:   
   >   
   >>>> Aren't we being a bit guilty of judging the past from our current   
   >>>> state of knowledge? If witches really were what they were concieved   
   >>>> to be when they were burned, what was occuring was not persecution   
   >>>> but protection of society and especially of innocents.   
   >>>   
   >>>It wasn't just witches I was referring to. Christianity took some of   
   >>>its older harshness from paganism, but it still obviously chose what   
   >>>it took.   
   >>   
   >> But if they are all sincere mere Christians, there won't be any   
   >> witches, not even Jadis.   
   >   
   >So all those executed as witches were in fact genuine witches, rather   
   >than mistakenly (and sincerely) accused Christians? And witches, mistaken   
   >or genuine, were the only ones subject to cruel and unusual punishment?   
      
   Non sequitur.   
      
   But it's your imaginary land, not mine, so if people there were executing   
   witches, genuine or otherwise, it must have been because they wanted to be   
   executed themselves, since, as you told us, they practised mere Christianity,   
   and therefore treated others as they themselves wished to be treated.   
      
   >Those are rhetorical questions, of course (and Bree makes the points in   
   >them elsewhere). I have asked another question somewhere that wasn't   
   >rhetorical, tho I did think I knew what the answer had to be. I don't   
   >know if I was right yet.   
      
   I think you need to make up your mind which world you are talking about.   
      
   It's a bit like saying that homan beings can't live on earth because the   
   atmosphere of Jupiter is composed largely of methane, and then if someone   
   points out "But human beings do live on earth" you respond "So human beings   
   can breathe methane then".   
      
   In a world in which everyone practises mere Christianity, that is, loves their   
   neighbours, loves their enemies, and they all treat others as they themselves   
   would like to be treated, there is no room for witches, because witches, by   
   definition, are those who wish to harm others.   
      
   I know some people, like Wiccans, have argued for a different definition of   
   "witch", but that isn't relevant here. For more on that, see:   
      
   http://www.geocities.com/Athens/7734/witch1.htm   
      
      
   --   
   Steve Hayes   
   Web: http://www.geocities.com/hayesstw/stevesig.htm   
        http://www.bookcrossing.com/mybookshelf/Methodius   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)