Something About Witches

Question

Why do you think back in the days the churches burnt woman or men as "Witches" or "Wizards". Actually Ä° know the answers but Ä° want to know what other people think.

Answer 1

Not only the general "Christian" angle, but the reality was to preserve the power of the "Church" through fear.  First they began restricting access to the Bible, then they made sure that nobody could read it even if they saw it by only releasing it in Latin, then they started printing "exerpts" from the Bible in the local languages, only they were almost all made up.  When actual scholars got ahold of the Bible's text, they started printing the Bible in full in local languages, and they could not hide behind the obfuscation anymore, so they looked for something they could keep the masses at bay with, and came up with the general "Witch Hunt" idea.  Although specifically written in the Bible that any sort of verses like that were the invention of man and not the intention of God, and anyone with abilities like that were granted those abilities by God and were to be treated with respect, instead they began hunting down anyone who even smacked of those abilities.  The great unwashed masses, being generally uneducated, could easily be riled up to the cause of fighting an earth-bound evil. Intelligent people began to speak out against this, and the Church used their newfound power to begin to eradicate anyone who spoke out against the church, calling them servants of Satan and demons and devils and witches and wizards.

As usual, the greatest evil in the world is perpetrated by all the so-called "good" religious organizations under the guise of eradicating evil...

Answer 2

Hello there :) From what I've come to understand from reading stuff about it, the law back then allowed property and money to be taken by the church, which than changed to the government, when a witch was accused and tried in England.

This gives a big incentive for many people to be burnt and also made it easy for nasty locals to get rid of people they didn't like.

I also know that King James the 1st was fascinated by witchcraft and also even changed the bible to incorperate witchcraft as punishable. I'm not sure why America had so many witch trials, it might have been like someone before has said that it was because of dogmatic and extremist christian followers.

Answer 3

I'm sorry, but it's very well documented that the people killed for Witchcraft were almost all innocent, possessing no powers at all.

Answer 4

People around that time had very strong Christian beliefs and witches were believed to make pacts and have s*x with the Devil and were regarded as sinners, hence the execution.  

Answer 5

fear, plain and simple... "people fear the unknown" the people burnt alot of "non"-withes too.

Answer 6

It's because they practice divinism and during the olden days it's taboo or forbidden.

Answer 7

I think they were idiots with fear...and below is something to back up my opinion.

"From June through September of 1692, nineteen men and women, all having been convicted of witchcraft, were carted to Gallows Hill, a barren slope near Salem Village, for hanging. Another man of over eighty years was pressed to death under heavy stones for refusing to submit to a trial on witchcraft charges. Hundreds of others faced accusations of witchcraft; dozens languished in jail for months without trials until the hysteria that swept through Puritan Massachusetts subsided."

"Why did this travesty of justice occur? Why did it occur in Salem? Nothing about this tragedy was inevitable. Only an unfortunate combination of an ongoing frontier war, economic conditions, congregational strife, TEENAGE boredom, and personal JEALOUSIES can account for the spiraling accusations, trials, and executions that occurred in the spring and summer of 1692."

By, Douglas Linder

Answer 8

people love violence and will make things up just to hurt others for their own sick pleasures. Others enjoy the pain and set themselves up for the attention. just being a smart a_s. But you never know

Answer 9

Back in the burning times, people were devout Puritans. They believed that anyone who didn't meet their near perfect standards was evil.  

As to why they burnt them, some of them were accused by their neighbors so their land would be forfeited and they could have more land. Some women accused their midwives because their children were born dead or died slightly afterward.

Alot more were hanged than were burned at the stake. There was even poor Giles Cory who was pressed to death.  

Answer 10

Why were witches burned at the stake during olden days?  Two reasons:

!.  Fundementally, a literal interpretation of Holy Scripture:  ...thou shalt not suffer a witch to live...

2. Fire was believe to purify.  

H