Culture | From witchcraft to woke

How humans invented good and evil, and may reinvent both

Over thousands of years humans domesticated themselves

Illustration: Patrick Leger

Trial by boiling water was not as bad as it sounded. In medieval Europe, those accused of grave crimes might be ordered to plunge an arm into a bubbling cauldron to retrieve an object. If they were scalded, that was God’s way of revealing their guilt. The chance of acquittal would seem to be zero, but 60% of those who underwent this ordeal got off. How come?

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The statue of liberty holding and English cup of tea

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