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Post by toomuchchanmin on Nov 8, 2015 13:20:11 GMT
What was the main reason why witch trials append in the first place?
I think the Puritan laws caused witch hunts, but in a more indirect way than you think. There were many strict laws and customs in the Puritan religion, and people began to fear greatly what they considered "not the norm" or "unknown". People tend to fear what they do not understand, and that is human instinct. But that instinct grew too far during this era and caused the deaths of many. Our instinct to survive plus the strict Puritan laws caused the witch hunts in my opinion.
What do you guys think?
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Post by ETypeRegymon on Nov 8, 2015 13:39:47 GMT
I think another reason is that they needed a way to resolve the panic caused by a bad event with an unknown cause. As such, they needed a scapegoat, as in a specific, tangible thing or person to place all the blame on. Then they punish said scapegoats so everyone would be satisfied that whoever caused the event won't ever do it again. It prevents turmoil and allows society to carry on with their lives without fearing another misfortune. But, it's pretty heartless of the people who made the laws to do this if it's the case, so I'm not sure if this is actually the case.
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kevv
Junior Member
Posts: 64 
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Post by kevv on Nov 8, 2015 14:06:24 GMT
I agree with Regy that they needed a scapegoat for the unknown cause. I personally think that witch hunts exists because people feared and also for a reason where people wanted to divorce or kill the people that they disliked back then. Because of the black death that was going around, maybe people wanted to blame the witches that exist at that moment or they came together to accuse some people that were thought to be witches.
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Post by lucia on Nov 8, 2015 14:54:26 GMT
I agree that there were many strict, man-made laws within their religion. There was basically a guideline of what they could or could not do. But should there by any rules at all? I think the churches created rules because they wanted people to fear not living up to the standards. They also feared the unknown so they made strict rules, which shows intolerance.
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Post by andrewcho77 on Nov 14, 2015 4:36:00 GMT
Many people were scared of things happening around them. People want to blame it on something for that cause. I think the witch hunt made a role because in that time bubonic plaque was going around and people want to blame the unknown cause. This also helped others who wanted to divorce and want to kill a person who they hate. If people are scared then they will do anything to get rid of that fear.
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Post by jonah21 on Nov 14, 2015 6:11:06 GMT
The unknown is one of the greatest reason why the witch trials happened. We want to try to explain things we can't understand. Things that seem almost impossible back then might have been explained by the idea of magic. Then people would question where magic came from. The answer would then be witches. In order to persuade people, witch trials would have to happen. People would then believe that witches did exist and others would be witches. It's basically like a chain reaction. With one witch trial, many more come.
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Post by Jooyoung on Nov 14, 2015 10:02:13 GMT
I also agree with Regy that Witch Trials were byproduct of "scapegoating". A perfect example is Salem Witch Trial. During that period, Salem experienced many troubling events such as smallpoxes, congregational strife, and Native American attacks. Therefore, people were prone to believe that Satan was active and he is causing all these problems. As a result, people started hunting down people who were "different" and marked them witches who made contract with Satan, probably because Satan does not exist physically and they needed physical relief.
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Post by sangjoon on Nov 14, 2015 12:57:12 GMT
In my personal opinion, the witch trials began with human's selfishness. There were some people tend to point out one innocent person as witch because if their survive. Some people did that to earn money and some did that to protect their kids or friends. I think all these purposes are part of selfishness which is human nature. Maybe the witch trials are something that came out from human's human nature of selfishness.
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Post by Emily on Nov 15, 2015 2:22:58 GMT
There are many factors that play into the reasons why witch trials take place. For one, there is Regy's idea that humans need a scapegoat for events that they are unknown; they they cannot control and therefore feel afraid. Another reason may have been corruption; since all these strange things were taking place, the people look to the church for answers. However, since the church cannot explain these weird happenings, they need to turn to someone to blame (hence the idea of scapegoats). Churches are the peak of society; if they don't know the answers, then the people might start to look down upon them. So that is why they look for things or people to blame, so that they can maintain their superiority.
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Post by juliaj on Nov 15, 2015 9:14:16 GMT
I think that the reasons for witch hunts and trials were many. These included the church wanting to get money from people by telling them that they can solve their problems for them for a certain amount of money. Also, it could have also been a way for people to get what they wanted from others they didn't like. Revenge by accusing someone of a witch would be an example.
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Post by jin794 on Nov 15, 2015 11:17:48 GMT
There must have been many factors that led to witch trials. We all need a scapegoat, a person who is blamed for the wrongdoings, mistakes, or faults of others, especially for reasons of expediency. Fear is a primal human state and robs us of our ability to think rationally. When we are afraid, whether that fear is real or imagined, we want to returen to safety. When we beliebe someone can do that, we sigh with relief instead of thinking critically about what is really going on. I think the church just wanted to gain their personal benefits by gaining money by manipulating the society that "witch" exists.
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Post by Jonathan on Nov 15, 2015 11:31:40 GMT
If we look at the American colonies, it was a time when the colonists just arrived in the Americas. Many things such as new diseases, bad weather, and Natives attacked the colonists (as JY mentioned didn't see it). If the children really did the dances what we saw in the movie, there is a chance where people would blame witchcraft. It was something going on before and because of the many events happening around them, witchcraft would be a good reason to be blamed.
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Post by Jessica (Yeeun) Kim on Nov 15, 2015 12:32:54 GMT
There are many reasons for causing the With Trials. At that time, entire European countries were struggled because of the Black Death.The Florentine author Boccaccio recounts how that city’s citizens “dug for each graveyard a huge trench, in which they laid the corpses as they arrived by hundreds at a time, piling them up tier upon tier as merchandise is stowed on a ship. Secondly, people were languish in poverty. For this multiple reasons, people blamed others who were suspected as a witch.
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Post by heesu on Nov 15, 2015 13:57:26 GMT
I think there are many reasons for Witch Trials. In the past, the witch trails was just killing innocent people. The strong fear of evil creature made people to isolate each other and made violence to society. The fear of evil creature was big at that moment because they didn't had wide views and knowledge compare to this days. They didn't had right educations and strong opinions to determines which one is right or wrong. This days, people have good educations and wide views about other, so we have strong knowledge to determines what is right or wrong.
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toufiq
Junior Member
Posts: 86
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Post by toufiq on Nov 15, 2015 14:43:06 GMT
I also have the same question. We all know what happened after it happened but I'm still confused how did all of it started. I feel that people just tried to shift their fear to a different aspect to kinda give it a visual form then the unknown fear we all encounter all the time. But later on it took a turn and became a competition. As result lots of innocent people died paying it's consequences.
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