Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!laura From: laura@utzoo.UUCP (Laura Creighton) Newsgroups: net.religion Subject: Re: Yellow Press in SciFi? Message-ID: <4918@utzoo.UUCP> Date: Sat, 12-Jan-85 22:19:13 EST Article-I.D.: utzoo.4918 Posted: Sat Jan 12 22:19:13 1985 Date-Received: Sat, 12-Jan-85 22:19:13 EST References: <1253@hou4b.UUCP> <454@mhuxt.UUCP> <4554@cbscc.UUCP>, <2189@nsc.UUCP> Organization: U of Toronto Zoology Lines: 27 Sorry, Chuqui, but if you read Latin you can get out a lot of letters and records of inquisitors, and witch-burners and read them. Most of these people *really* and *truly* believed that they were on a divine mission to stamp out evil. Most of this was coupled with a belief that these were ``the last days''. Their confessions read as the Confessions of St. Augustine (though not really as well -- Augustine having written what is arguably the best work of literature in the Latin language) -- extremely sincere, and extremely concerned and well-intentioned. Now one can say ``God doesn't want Christians to commit atrocities'' ``these people committed atrocities'' therefore ``they were not good Christians (where ``good'' in this context means acting in accordance with God's will)'' but you are going to have to accept that these people had a different definition of ``atrocity'' than we have. For them, the ``atrocity'' was the existence of {witches/heretics/pagans/atheists} not their removal. Look beyond Salem if you want to look at these more carefully. The Salem witch trials are not exemplary of witch trials at all. The scariest question is, what atrocities are we committing *now* while equally well convinced that we are doing the ``right'' or even the ``holy'' thing? Laura Creighton utzoo!laura