A popular case for the anti religious polemics is the case of Isabel Mendes in Evora 1626, being that it’s One of the few well-documented cases of which burnings known. But due to the fact that the average mind in the West only needing one ounce of truth to condemn an entirety of a story, this and a few others sticks to minds.

And depending on the bias one has the burden of proof becomes even less of a factor. In short in a span of 400 years roughly 50,000 people were executed during 1450 – 1750, a far cry from the 9 million estimates pushed by anti Christian polemicists, and even farther from the 9,442,994 estimate the Gottfried made.

How do these claims continue in a postmodern rational world. Where science and evidence-based claims are held higher in regards. It’s like I mentioned earlier, most minds of millennials and other postmoderns are no longer equipped with the elasticity of the brain to remember or be consistent with their reasoning.

This is partly due to the many distractions of modern life. But It’s rooted in appeals to authority that we naturally have in civilized societies. With anyone that is on a TV screen being the primary magnet for these appeals. This includes media and googles first page summery. Sam Harris being one of the faces of the anti Christian movement, New Atheism, mostly in the early 2000s after the attack of 9\11. Using the now debunked inflated numbers to prove his points to affirm his position against religion, Christianity primarily.

Saying in a couple years ago in 2020 things like

“For centuries in Europe, innocent men and women were murdered for the imaginary crime of witchcraft—estimates run into the millions across the Christian world, a testament to how faith can turn neighbors into executioners.”

And back in 2016

“The witch hunts in Europe killed hundreds of thousands of innocent people, all in the name of rooting out the Devil’s work. This wasn’t some fringe madness—it was the mainstream of Christian piety for centuries.”

But funnily enough early on in his career, as a way to ease the population into the idea and not be immediately called out by experts, stuck to a only slightly inflated number, saying in his book, The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason in 2004. Quote

“Consider the case of the European witch hunts. […] Over the next three hundred years, between 40,000 and 60,000 people were executed as witches. […] This was a mass delusion, driven by pious superstition and a deadly commitment to religious conformity.”

Using Exodus 22:18, “You shall not permit a sorceress to live.”, as absolute proof for why religion, specifically Christianity, needs to be forgotten. As per usual taking it out of context of the time period.

So I will use his example from the bible. Firstly, The time period of Abraham and the Exodus, was as barbaric as can be imagined. Sacrifices to the numerous gods of pagans like Baal, who was The pagan god of agriculture fertility and storms in that time, that required The most precious item of the pagans which typically was children, to be put into his burning hot statue and sacrificed over the loud playing of drums to drown out the screams.

Child sacrifice was most common and other practices of immorality. Sorcery was most definitely apart of these rituals, Even though, as of course would be the case during that time, very little written evidence showed this, the remains of incantation bowls and protective spells, in Egypt were found, where the escape happened in the writings of the Exodus. It only stands to reason that rituals during that time and before, included witchcraft practices.

Secondly, it is understood by scholars in the modern era as well as the learned in the second century, that verse in context was talking about the sorts of witchcraft that was likely tied to harmful pagan rituals like those involving child sacrifice. It is a very specific prohibition against sorcery thats of harmful, manipulative sorcery in ancient Israel, grouped with other capital offenses that were seen as existential threats to the covenant community’s religious purity.

Tying in with the two commandments, you shall not have any gods before me and you shall not make idols, fleshing them out with the context of the time, seeing that sacrificing to other gods involved witchcraft and incantations.

The idea behind Moses receiving The ten commandments bringing the people out of their pagan ways mentioned before. God brought them out of a completely pagan environment and it takes a long time to turn from their old ways, that is the purpose of the Commandments and the additions to them in later verses, like Exodus 22, that fleshed out the details within the 10 commandments. Effectively weeding out the old tendencies over time, it was for them, so the people of that time could comprehend the severity of not falling back into those old destructive and evil ways. So the sorcerers and witches being involved in such a practice had to be understood by the people to be pure evil, which it is, and to not continue on with such a barbaric practice.

How about the witch trials that happened close to home. Salem’s lot being another popular polemic against not only Christianity but America as a nation, both being falsely attributed.

During that time 1607-1750, The Americas was not yet a nation and was still under British rule, obviously but not so obvious to the average person now. Like I said before only an ounce of evidence is needed for the average mind to condemn a story. 1776 was the year we broke from the rule and laws of the British and formed as a nation alone. So as a technicality that bothers me when I hear about this, this was the British not America.

So European ideas were still fresh in the minds of the pilgrims including the idea that witches were real. But also this gets added to that 9 million figure as a way to show that the killings that occurred here were apart of a grand plan by all of Christendom. Further inflating the idea in people’s minds.

In Salem in the course of a year 1692-1693, 19 were hanged and one was pressed. Pressed was a process brought over by English law, where the, in this case Giles Corey, 71-year-old farmer, was laid on the ground naked with a large wooden bored was placed over top of them and one by one over a course of days weight was added to the board. This was a form of torture to get information and if the information was not given to their liking slowly but surely the victim would be crushed, or pressed. As an addition his final words was “more weight”, and after 2 days was pressed.

Across the way in Connecticut only 11 were killed, nine of them being hanged two of them dying in prison. Alse Young being the first formal witch to be executed in the Americas in 1647. One in Maryland, Rebecca Fowler hanged 1685, and one in Virginia, Katherine Grady.

A couple of things that are interesting and inconvenient truth here to the anti-religionists, Christianity specifically, is that one, none of these were issued by the church, despite what’s presented by movies and TV shows. And two, that a overwhelming majority of these apart from a few fan flamers that were apart of the church not representing the whole church, we’re responsible for the witch hunts, trials and executions.

10 to 20% being the ecclesiastical Church handing over the accused to the secular arm of the state. But the majority throughout history mind you, have had the direct involvement of either a magistrate or a judge would hand the victims over to the secular arm of the state for executions.

Brian P. Levacks, The Witch Hunt in early Europe, specifically the 4th edition, has verified numbers that every historian sites as a secondary source. But others include Wolfgang Berhinger and his, witches and witch hunts: a global history, and Francisco Bethencourt used the “Livros de Senteneas” and “Cadernos do Nefando” from Torre do Tombo, and the summaries in his “o Imaginario da Magia.”

Next: Part 3 The Conclusion

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