Word "bear" is not the original word for the bear, and the original word may have been lost because our ancient ancestors were so worried saying the name of the animal would cause it to come after them. Instead, they used the term bruin, meaning the brown one, which then segued into bear.
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"