Religious and social issues stem from the human mentality’s tendency to feel superior. In other words, humanity has a superiority complex that causes them to blame things and use vague descriptions to explain thing without really explaining it. The human mind also has a tendency to reject difference. By this I mean that in relation to that superiority complex humans like to feel superior above minorities because that is generally accepted by majorities (obviously) and the human mentality likes to be agreed with. Friction is social akwardness and can lead to exclusion. So, in order to feel superior, humans like to put a step between them and someone else.

This has led to racism, believing in the superiority of one’s skin and origin. It has led to sexism, believing in superiority for convenience, really. We still carry bias with it today (such as judging one based on sexual orientation, etc.). This bias can lead to conflicts quickly. Social bias is probably encouraged a lot by media, which tends to glamorize things which then become socially acceptable and those on the other side of the spectrum are not. Using these methods, the human mind feels secure, surrounded by a socially acceptable majority looking down on a socially unacceptable minority.

Religious issues are like a time bomb that will eventually end in violence. This is because the human mind also has the tendency to believe it’s right, get with a group and look at another group and say they’re wrong. This is just another variation of the mental limits that create social bias in present society. Using these two methods, humans enjoy not just excluding groups but persecuting them for their religion or whatever other factor they find socially unacceptable.

In 1692 in Salem I believe the sudden revolt against witches was sparked by a minor event, hardly worth noticing. Although there is little other than circumstancial evidence to show what caused it, we can attribute this event to possibly sickness or mental illness. The neighborhood then realized a way they could exclude further and punish minorities.

This was not the only cause of the Salem Witch Trials, however. Once news of the “witch” spread, people got carried away. They started to exaggerate. How? Why? It’s simple. Imagine you are thinking about something and focusing on that one thing. Perhaps it’s the way a friend irks you. As you focus more and more, your mind exaggerates all negative things expanding them and you cannot clearly view the positive aspects of your friend unless you make an attempt to clear your mind.

This exaggeration even had advantages. Imagine you have lived next to your obnoxious neighbor for 12 years. Suddenly, there is news that witches have been found and it is believed that those under the curse’s influence might be around. Would you accuse your considerate mailman So-and-so or your obnoxious neighbor So-and-so? The answer is obvious.

Perhaps your social bias is a personal one. You’ve been single years and suddenly a happily married person is accused of being a witch. Your mind starts to exaggerate her or his “witchly quirks” and eventually you end up pointing fingers as well. Or perhaps it is more…complicated.

The statistics of those accused and the accusers were very interesting. The married accused far outweighed any other accused as did the single accusers to the other accusers. Perhaps there was once a relationship between a single accuser and the current marital partner of the married accused.

It all ends up in social bias however, as we create walls with the suprisingly limitless desire for superiority and happiness in our minds. Our beliefs relate to superstition, which is a much easier way to exclude and create social barriers.

Perhaps one day an evolved form of what we are now will have the answer to keep our self-centered nature at bay, but we as a society sure don’t. Sympathy is a look-back, but it is most certainly not action. Very few perform selfless acts, and many who claim to are just doing it to satisfy their guilt or perhaps spice up their image. In an even worse society then today’s, these factors are almost certainly present, if not far worse. Minorities will always exist even though through time they will exchange names. Society will always have a “witch”, because the human response to something different is hostile. To be afraid…to destroy. Nothing can be different. Nothing can be better. I am superior, the brain demands. No brain is evolved enough to not have evident signs of that mentality.

SOURCES:

Source 1: John Demos, “Underlying Temes in the Witchcraft of 17th Century New England.” American Historical Review, June,1970.

Source 2: Exodus 22:18, King James version of the Bible.

Source 3: Reprinted by permission of Harvard University Press from Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft, by Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, Copyright © 1974 by the President and Fellows od Harvard College: Map of Salem Village 1692.