A measured look at a difficult situation

A high profile example of a Protestant killing is the murder of Pat Finucane in 1989.

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And the Protestants executed a grand total of 19 witches before other Protestant clergy put a stop to it. Compare that with hundreds at least, possibly thousands, that were put to death in Europe by the RCC

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On what research do you base this claim of only 19 witches executed by Protestants ? I can assure you that the number is far higher.

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I'm talking about the Salem witch trials, what are you talking about

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You SAID that you were talking about the "grand total" of "witches" executed by Protestants. So that is what I was talking about. The Salem witch trials were not the only trials conducted by Protestants that lead to executions!And, just for your information, when I tried your search, the figure of 12 did come up - but when I looked at it in context, it was the number of people executed in New England BEFORE the Salem trials. The same article (Wikipedia) names all twenty executed. You'll see a figure of 19 hanged because one was pressed to death.So, your "grand total" only accounts for the Salem trials - not even all the executions in New England! And you didn't even get that right. Do you really think that you should be boasting about your "discernment"?

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Yes I thought Larni was talking about Salem so I talked about Salem. Who cares?

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But you didn't claim to be talking about Salem alone. You claimed to be giving the "grand total" of "witches" executed by Protestants. And what would the point of talking about Salem alone?

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Yes, discernment I have, doesn't mean I read a whole Google page.

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You didn't have discernment enough to realise that the figure of twelve might refer to something else and check it, or leave it out. You didn't even have the discernment to tell that the number executed at Salem might be a small fraction of those executed by Protestants.

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Anything under 50 or even 500 is inconsequential in the big picture.

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The "grand total" is certainly more than that.

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You're just wasting time

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Attempting to educate you in the basics of research and intellectual honesty might well be a waste of time. But, at the least, you can serve as an example of how not to argue.

I understand Faith. Whether you are blinded by pride or just don't care about the truth you say things that you have no real knowledge of and can easily be seen to be wrong. Assuming that the Salem Witch trials accounted for all the "witches" killed by Protestants is one such case, and sadly you'd rather try to bluster your way past it than address your errors and try to do better. Do you have any good excuse, when you must know that there were many Protestsnts in Europe? When you've been involved in discussion of witch hunting under King James of Scotland and England? And when the point of the post you were replying to was that you ignored killings by Protestants? A good way to make your opponent's point for him!There is no good figure for the total number of "witches" killed - your "millions" are on the extreme even there, though. This page estimates 1700-2000 in (Protestant) Scandinavia, and it tends to the lower end. Enough to substantiate a figure of over 500, I think.Edited by PaulK, : No reason given.

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I was thinking of the Salem witch trials, for whatever reason, because that's what people usually are referring to when they accuse Protestants of killing witches. I'm sorry I wasn't clearer.

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Look, you can try to cover up your mistake but you're the one who claimed that the "grand total" of all witches killed by Protestants was just 19 - the number hanged at Salem.

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The article on Scandinavia doesn't identify the persecutors. Even Protestant countries still had Catholic churches. I just need to think about it more.

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The state churches were Protestant, so that doesn't hold much water.

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Cover up? I thought I was saying I'm sorry I wasn't clear. But I DID mean "grand total" FOR SALEM, I certainly had no other context in mind.

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Can you think of a sensible reason for quoting the "grand total" of one trial - far from the largest - as against inflated estimates of the total killed by Catholics ? That would be an obvious apples-to-oranges comparison. Bad enough to confirm Larni's point.No, there is no good reason for citing the (incomplete) figure from the Salem trial alone. And even less for calling it a "grand total" with no context at all to even hint at any other meaning - Larni's post doesn't single out Salem. It'd be unbelievable, except for the fact that you make numerous other stupid mistakes.

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I must say it is really really weird to have someone insist I didn't mean what I said after I've confirmed it over and over. Do you think you are omniscient or something?

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Now see, there's one more silly mistake. You're the one insisting that you didn't mean what you said. I'm pointing out that what you said you meant instead is just as bad.

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I said what I said because I thought Larni had the Salem trials in mind because that's what people always have in mind. Silly I guess but that's the truth.

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Which is still not an excuse for glossing over (likely) thousands of other executions.

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Besides, why should there be great numbers for Protestants anyway even if the context is the whole world? It's the RCC that murders people for not believing as they do.

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Neither the RCC nor western Protestants do that any more. Both did. To mention just one example you know of, the Boston martyrs.

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Protestants may think witches have cast spells or done other dangerous things, but that's not executing them just for disagreeing with Protestantism.

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I'm sure that the same applies to many Catholic witch trials.

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The Salem trials were about proving they had actually practiced witchcraft. Some 200 were charged, only 19 executed.

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20 were executed. One more was sentenced to death but died in prison before the sentence was carried out. Others escaped or died in prison before conviction. I can't find any suggestion that 200 people faced any formal charges, even including those never brought to trial.