Lets Give 'em Something to Talk About

I hate to admit that I closed Kors and Peters with a satisfied smirk on my face and breathed a very deep sigh of relief. The fact that this chapter was called "Belief, Skepticism, Doubt, Disbelief" was really exciting because these were all aspects of the scare that was witchcraft, but it was also the order of the chaos throughout the years. The belief came first and spread like wildfire, with wild accusations and fingerpointing until everyone thought everyone else was a witch. The skeptics came as the knowledge grew, like people who were supposed to be trusted, like church officials, knowing a suspicious amount about witchcraft. Should we have been skeptical of witchcraft existing or should we have been skeptical about who was fighting it? Doubt came following soon after due to the sources of facts being unreliable and too convenient at times and the finally, disbelief came into play. Disbelief meaning that the belief in witchcraft was gone for the most part, but also the shock and disbelief that this had gotten so largely blown out of proportion. It went from a spark of an idea to a forest fire to nothing. But I don't understand how something like this just disappears.

I could understand if new evidence came forward that called off all inklings of witchcraft, but there never was that one end everything epiphany. It just spiraled and spiraled until a few people said, hey, that's enough. In the end, witch trials are deemed useless, and while I agree that they were and that "witches" were tried unfairly, why did nobody try to explore the issue further? Maybe they weren't witches, but something was happening or had to have happened to get these rumors started in the first place? How can a whole part of the world go from being so hellbent on murdering witches to just not caring at all? I feel like this closing should have brought about a new search or a new replacement craze. All of these leaders were on a mission to stop at nothing until they could rid the world of witches and then they just gave up? Why the loss of power and energy? There has to be something more. This chapter said that this time stood by the belief that those who deny Christ are denying God. This would make it clear that anyone who worshipped someone or something other than God was a sinner. So maybe they weren't witches, but what were they? Who or what were they following?

The craze ends with everyone quitting and shoving the issue under the rug. Let people believe what they believe and pretend to be anything they want and they'll be punished in the end. That crazy desire to end all wrongs just vanishes and I can't wrap my head around it. This isn't the conclusion that we have been waiting for. People literally burned at the stake for the craze and now it's just over. So if something could just drop and end this quickly, then why did it even last for so long? Why end now? Was this just a time waster? Now there are new issues and people disobeying God is simply a thing of the past? Was there a new craze or trend that was about to spread?

I'm glad that these trials and the craze itself came to an end, and I wasn't expecting someone to come outside and announce "all witchcraft is a lie. Go back to your lives" or anything, but I also can't fathom how something so big just disappears. Maybe everyone was just so tired of the lies stacking up and the ridiculous time it all consumed that it was deemed a waste of time, but this all seems a little suspicious to me. Like some sort of witchcraft.