Intro: If you observe social phenomena over a long time span, it is easy to see how much progress we have chalked as a species. It is important to state that scientific enlightenment has particularly been instrumental in this slow-but-sure journey. Juxtapose the worlds response to #Ebola outbreak in 2014 with #Black Death in the 14th century. The unmistakable trend is that SUPERNATURAL explanation is progressively giving way to a NATURAL one as we dig deeper into the mechanisms of the natural world. Today, those claiming Ebola is a divine punishment of a sort are in the minority, but they used to be in the majority few decades ago. Black Death in 14th Century Europe: The Black Death brought in its wake a renewed religious fervor and fanaticism as Jews and other social misfits such as beggars, foreigners, Romani, friars were made the scapegoats. These groups were viciously attacked and exterminated in many European countries. The 14th-century healers could not decipher the cause of the Black Death and hence turned to astrological forces, earthquakes, and the poisoning of wells by Jews as possible reasons for the plagues emergence. In the 14th century, the world did not understand the mechanism of infection and disease transmission. Naturally, people thought only Gods anger could explain the horrific deaths. Jewish communities suffered the most brunt. The predominantly Jewish communities of Mainz and Cologne were completely destroyed by 1349. The residents of Strasbourg murdered 2000 Jews by February of that year. Within two years, 60 major and 150 smaller Jewish communities were demolished.
Posted on: Thu, 07 Aug 2014 21:12:29 +0000
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