XPost: alt.books.cs-lewis   
   From: toomuchspam@spammer.org   
      
   "darylgene@aol.com" wrote:   
      
   >>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?   
   >   
   > The attributing of quotes here is getting really confused   
   >   
   > If this is a response to my post, here quoted, I cannot understand how   
   > you could imagine that follows.   
      
   No, it was a response to Steve Hayes' "But there won't be any witches in   
   a world with only MCs in it."   
      
   > If you were convinced there were vampires, and were convinced someone   
   > was a vampire, and were correct in that assumption, you would be   
   > responsible for taking action. People were wrong, they were wrong   
   > because there are no witches. They did not understand that there are no   
   > witches (as they concieved them to be) and they were trying to protect   
   > themselves and other potential victims.   
      
   Well, why were they wrong? Christians made the mistakes because they were   
   Christians, and tho some were sincere in their beliefs, others were more   
   or less aware of unworthy motives.   
      
   > In itself this is not a bad   
   > thing, just as you would be unhappy if there were a child molester or   
   > rapist loose in your neighborhood, they were afraid of witches being   
   > there.   
      
   Then we have to look at where that fear came from, what sustained it for   
   200 years and what made it go away.   
      
   > Since we do not believe in witches it is easy for us to say   
   > they were wrong and persecuted innocent people, they did, but they did   
   > not know that was what they were doing.   
      
   The same argument can be applied to Nazis and Jews, Stalinists and kulaks   
   etc, but doesn't look so good there. The same point emerges: there's   
   something very wrong with a system that makes "mistakes" like that and   
   causes such great suffering, even if individuals in the system are often   
   sincere and motivated by the desire to do what they see as good.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)