It’s interesting to see the way in which atheist writers try to magnify the horror of the witch trials. In The Demon-Haunted World, Carl Sagan writes of the witch trials in Europe, “No one knows how many were killed altogether—perhaps hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions.” That’s one big “perhaps.” Sagan cites no sources, and the most reasonable conclusion is that he has no idea. His fellow atheist Sam Harris, who has actually done some reading on the subject, cites contemporary historical sources that put the number of witches burned much lower, at 100,000. That’s a substantial figure, but it’s a far cry from Sagan’s demon-haunted estimate, and 200 percent lower, Harris notes, than some previous absurd estimates.

Still, Harris argues, “Such a revaluation of numbers does little to mitigate the horror and injustice of this period.” Why not? Let’s apply his logic to other historical events and the absurdity will become apparent. The two atomic bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki caused an estimated 100,000 civilian deaths, and the debate continues over President Truman’s decision to end the war in this way. But let’s reduce the casualty figures by a factor of 200, in the manner of Harris, and we are down to 500 deaths for both bombs. Would this, in Harris’s words, “do little to mitigate the horror and injustice” of the bombs? On the contrary, it would dispel much of the horror and virtually eliminate any moral debate over the legitimacy of Truman’s action.

When the numbers aren’t on your side, it’s time to try some hypothetical reasoning. Putting on his biggest philosophical hat, Carl Sagan asks how the civilized people of Europe could possibly have condoned witch-burning. His answer: “If we’re absolutely sure that our beliefs are right, and those of others wrong… then the witch mania will recur in its infinite variations.” In other words, it could happen again, and right here in America. But how plausible is this? Carl Sagan believed in evolution, the Big Bang, and lots of other things. I’m sure he was convinced he was absolutely right, and that his enemies the creationists and fundamentalists were absolutely wrong. Even so, Sagan didn’t burn anyone. I believe certain things to be absolutely true, and yet my personal record on witch-burning is exemplary. If you go to Salem today, you’ll see that the witches are thriving. They don’t even bother to employ security when they perform their rituals— indeed, they have become tourist attractions. Clearly Sagan was engaging in a little paranoia.