It time for another What if... Thread!

[genkaus]

Ok so what if.... witches as per folk tales and scary movies existed? (Not the dbag witch/emo/hippies we do have) but real fly on a broom, steal your children cook and eat them, prey on people in general, no prision can hold them, can only be killed by water or fire, but real as the day is long???

Would it then be ok to have an hold witch hunts of old/Salem witch trials?

Nope - the witch hunts and witch trials were incredibly ineffective at finding and killing real witches - bringing them back would only end in getting a lot of innocent people killed while the actual criminals went scot-free.

What if #2: what if just a few hundred years ago these type of witches really did exist and it wasn't superstition and rampant ignorance that over took people. What if the population was then just as aware of reality as we are now, only that the variable in the equation was reality itself and not our ancestors knoweledge of it? Meaning the supernatural was stronger than it is now?

Would that change your view of what they did and why they did what they did?

Only if you can provide evidence that they were hunting actual witches. Positing the existence of actual evil witches at the time is meaningless without showing contemporary reliable methods of discovering the said witches.

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Well the idea behind the use of black magic was that it was not the indivisual who controled the magic. Demons were the source of what was actually going on and over time through the constant calling on demons, the demons took over, which was apart of a witches disfigured look.

So many problems with this one.

Your argument implicitly allows fro white magic being practiced, so the witches practicing those spells should not be persecuted.

Simply practicing any kind of magic - black or white, angelic or demonic - should not be prosecuted. Not unless it results in actual criminal activity.

Just because constant demon calling can result in disfigurement does not mean that anyone disfigured is a witch. Regarding disfigurement as prima facie evidence for witchcraft is a logical fallacy called affirming the consequent.

The reason behind the fire was because that is what God uses to destroy them in Hell.

If that was the case, there would be no demons in hell.

Wow this is a forward thinking bunch. I like that you are so ready to burn a witch... Now all soceity has to do is identify certain people as witches and we're off to start a new spanish inquisition.

Not without a confirmed way to identify.

Now the question is, what if 200 years ago witches did exist and fire was the only way to get rid of them? Where those who hunted and burned witches justified in thier actions if witches indeed exist?

Nope. Simply being a witch is not a crime in itself.

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I guess witches would technically start out as people starting witchcraft that would be consumed/possed by demons the more they got into it. So demon possed people that sought out said possession/no hope of extracting the demon.

Play by the rules and stop moving the goalposts. Nothing in your original scenario said anything about demonic possession or its connection to witchcraft.

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I know demon possession was real, what subsequent generations have idenified this possession is really of little consenquence.

God flooded the world to kill corrupt man.. There is a day comming where God will use fire.

That's the thing... There is nothing magic about magic.. Magic is demon manipulation.. To weild magic is to be tied to a demon.. Watch stimbo's scarry movie 'lights out' and tell me you want to be tied to that.

So, I guess the rule about sticking to the original hypothetical scenario is out of the window and now we can introduce any fantasy we want.