Witches and religion

A great example of the ignorance displayed by religious people can been seen in the witch trials. People got sick with certain common symptoms and since doctors had no explanation they blamed witchcraft. This meant an innocent woman (and usually their family just to be sure) was killed for bewitching someone. So what really happened? Well (as is explained here Secrets of
the Dead . The Witches Curse | PBS) it turns out the case of bewitchment was ergot poisoning. Ergot is a fungus that is also used to make LSD. So basically you has some people eating contaminated flour products and becoming extremely oddly ill (hallucinations, convolutions etc) and then some random accusing and killing. Obviously they didn't have a way to directly test for ergot poisoning, but an astute investigator who would have examined all the linking factors and realized it was from the bread. But in a puritan society you can't have an astute investigator.

Even to day with the facts about illnesses many people simply take the ignorant way out. As we should learn form Salem this is not only unproductive but extremely barbaric to it's victims. This troubles me since I wonder when someone will point the finger at me.