What social and religious factors are given to account for the harsh response to withcraft?

Question

What social and religious factors are given to account for the harsh response to withcraft?

Answer 1

Bottom line I think it is as simple as "fear of the unknown and anything that is different".

Answer 2

It definately started with the rise of Christianity. When attempting to make Christianity a popular religion, pagan holidays were incorporated to attract the pagan masses (which constituted the majority of the population). You can see many similarities between Christianity and Pagan religions...the Christians took many Pagan symbols, altered them slightly, and called them their own.

Since then, those who practiced any form of witchcraft were persecuted. Today, few understand the basis of pagan religions and associate paganism and witchcraft with devil worship ( again, spurred on by Christianity). As Christianity is still one of the most widely practiced religion in the world, people hold onto that stereotype.

Answer 3

Basically, it boiled down to eliminating the competition.  

The early church wanted ABSOLUTE control over the hearts and minds of the people, and would tolerate nothing that could be even marginally seen as conflicting or competing with that.

The "dark ages" were indeed a time when greed for power ran rampant and ruled the day - and the greatest source of power was to be found within the church.  

Those condemned as "witches" were usually just free spirits who did not want to bow to the will of the church - or any other oppressing organization.  

The damning word "heretic" literally means nothing more sinister than  "one who is able to choose", and individual freedom of choice is the very LAST thing the church wanted the people to have.

Often, witch hunts were fronted as an excuse to get rid of a political rival or seize the property of someone whose wealth the accuser envied.  The infamous Salem witch trials were a prime exampole of this.  With the possible exception of the black slave whose arrest and accusation started it all,  EVERY person tried and executed in Salem at that time was involved in a political movement to break away from Salem and start another community (which they were going to call "Topsfield") on the other side of the river.