Actually, from what I understand, very few if any people "convicted" of witchcraft during the witch trials actually practiced Wicca or witchcraft of any sort. I think it was mainly a way to get rivals out of the way by simply accusing them. At any rate, it was particularly heinous since belief in the power of witches is just as silly as belief in the power of prayer. Who cares if someone wants to call themselves a witch and thinks they can summon magic powers? They're just deluding themselves. Today we can see this as just another example of religious persecution.
And while you claim that they used torture to get people to confess, if I remember the history books correctly one of the things they'd do was to throw an accused witch into a pond. If she floated, she was a witch. If she sank to the bottom, she was innocent. So it doesn't really matter if it was just a way to get people to confess or not, either way they were screwed. If they confessed, they were hanged. If they managed to float, they were hanged. If they sank, they drowned.
Oh and by the way, it's only folklore which says that witches were burned at the stake. In reality they were all hanged.
And while you claim that they used torture to get people to confess, if I remember the history books correctly one of the things they'd do was to throw an accused witch into a pond. If she floated, she was a witch. If she sank to the bottom, she was innocent. So it doesn't really matter if it was just a way to get people to confess or not, either way they were screwed. If they confessed, they were hanged. If they managed to float, they were hanged. If they sank, they drowned.
Oh and by the way, it's only folklore which says that witches were burned at the stake. In reality they were all hanged.
Christian apologetics is the art of rolling a dog turd in sugar and selling it as a donut.
