Burn the witches

#里茲螞蟻批判性思考寫作專欄 #Alex專欄 #外師每週精選閱讀 
 
Following the narrative told by those who create fairy stories, religions and other superstitious beliefs, and based on the arbitrary values that those superstitions, religions and fictions claim to adhere to, there are supposedly good and evil activities, objects and people in this world. So, if according to this warped reasoning – if it can even be called reasoning when based purely on make-believe – what was wrong with burning thousands of witches if they were exercising their evil powers as others claimed them to be, especially when it was the religious, superstitious and regal who made the claims against said sorcerers? The truth of the matter is that if we trust the claims of people who have irrational and unreasonable world-views based on pure fantasy and delusion, it inevitably results in actual suffering in the real world – whether it be the branding, torturing, imprisoning or murdering of other people , or the same and worse misery for other innocent creatures of this world. Keeping the masses ignorant and deceived by encouraging tribalism, and fostering blind faith that avoids questioning the fundamental values that are indoctrinated in the population from birth by religious, royal and other so-called ‘spiritual’ leaders certainly leads to atrocities like burning witches, but also to many other lesser and yet still harmful customs in everyday life. Where are the supposedly virtuous values of these belief systems then, and why do we still accept such primitive and irrational thought today?

​Considered from this perspective, the most shocking issues that are raised in this article are not that people hundreds of years ago were dim-witted, barbaric and unconcerned with the lives and welfare of other living beings – it is that many people today still are living under the spell of falsehoods that pervade much of society. Many of the superstitious and religious beliefs that were embedded in cultures and duped people into justifying the complete disregard for the lives of others hundreds or even thousands of years ago are still evident in all societies around the world today. There is no greater demonstration of this completely nonchalant dismissal of the lives of others than the tens of billions of animals and birds that are imprisoned and murdered every year, purely to please people’s dietary preferences. How anyone can claim to believe in the concepts of ‘righteousness’ and ‘good’ while still participating in the wholesale massacre of others solely for the sake of their preferred tastes defies any concepts of reasonable thought. So instead of just dismissing the ignorance of hundreds of years ago with absurdly token expressions of recognition like the pardoning of witches, why don’t we turn our attention the real and present suffering that we are currently inflicting on others? There can be no justice for those we have already killed, but there is dreadful misery that can be prevented right now.
 
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/sep/13/300-years-on-will-thousands-of-women-burned-as-witches-finally-get-justice

===我是分隔線===
 
💡這個專欄目的是訓練同學聰明閱讀。
 
上面的貼文內容是我們的實力派外師Alex，針對每週一篇英文文章閱讀後，親自寫出的批判性思考文（不是copy & paste的東西啊）。旨在讓同學知道如何用不同的角度來讀文章。你可以選擇先讀Alex寫的批判文，也可以選擇先讀本次的英文文章連結，但最好兩處都要閱讀才能達到最好的效果。
 
這是個訓練批判性思考的好機會，希望同學不要被文字牽著鼻子走，在閱讀時可以多思考。大家可以善用這個寶貴的資源～
 
舊文連結：
https://www.leedsmayi.com/alex-column
 
Alex是我們的御用老師，每週都會幫梅姨、托托、慕華上英文課。目前星期一晚上有開一班 #里茲螞蟻外師應用英文課程 ，程度高級，充滿知識性與深度。有開放單次付費上課。若你想學習用英文來深度探討各項主題，check it out！
 
Alex老師的應用英文課：
https://www.leedsmayi.com/applied-english.html