Science And Science In Karen Armstrong's A Short History Of Myth

Throughout the centuries, a battle has been going on between mythology and science that has gone almost undetected. Karen Armstrong, the author of the book, A Short History of Myth published in Great Britain in 2006, decides to close the book with information about the transformation of the Western ideals that can explain the battles between science and mythology that have been going on over the past centuries. Armstrong describes how the great Witch Craze of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries boosts the positive consequences of mythology while the modern scientific methodology called Higher Criticism boosts the hard evidence of science over the ideals of mythology. Armstrong believes without a doubt, there has been a battle going on
She states that the Witch Craze was a sinful fantasy that led to many dark executions such as hanging or burning at the stake and unbearable trials of torture to many thousands of human beings which included children. She mentions that some people believed that witches made deals with devils and attended Satanic congregations to explain how they could do the unexplainable things (Armstrong). As she believes it is human nature to rationalize the differences of others as fearful and destructive; humans usually want to get rid of those differences as quickly as possible, to feel safe and secure. She expresses that without the powerful beliefs of mythology, people’s unconscious fear of the unexplainable will cause them to rationalize those fears of uncertainty into facts of certainty (Armstrong). With those fears made justifiable, they could do whatever they wanted to, without feeling remorseful of their actions and those who either went against them physically or those who went against the belief of the group were the ones who needed to be disposed of to keep the peace among the