Appeasing the Gods

If someone told you that the only way to stop a volcano from erupting was to throw a couple of virgins inside it, would you believe them? For most people, the answer is a solid no. Today we have enough knowledge of how volcanoes work to know that it does not matter what goes in the volcano. If a volcano is going to erupt there is nothing we can do to stop it from doing so. While we know this today, people living many years ago did not share this knowledge. For them, the threat of an eruption would have been devastating. In order to try and keep this from happening, they relied on the wisdom of their priests. So when the priest told them to throw a couple of virgins into the volcano, they did it without question.

Back in those times, the priests were the highest authority on Earth. The people believed whatever they said because they believed the priests answered directly to whatever gods they believed in. If the priest said the gods demanded a sacrifice the people immediately went off to find that sacrifice. The priests were not questioned because the people did not know any better. If the priests told them to throw virgins into the volcano because that would stop the eruptions they did it, and if by coincidence it actually worked the people had no reason to question the why. Today we know that throwing people into a volcano will not stop any eruptions, so we would not try it no matter how many priests told us we needed to. We know that just because the priests were trusted does not mean they were always right. There are many things today that we have answers for that confused people hundreds of years ago.

The people that lived long ago were always looking for things to explain the natural events that took place. Anything that could not be easily explained was believed to be because of one of their many gods. They lacked all of the knowledge we have today that would explain that makes both volcanoes and other things work. Today we know why a volcano erupts, and that it has nothing to do with how many virgins have been thrown inside. Because of the knowledge we have now we know that when the volcano stopped erupting after virgins were thrown inside it was merely a coincidence.

Even if people were sacrificed to a volcano and it still erupted the authority of the priests was never questioned. Because the people did not know any better priests could say that the virgins must have lied, or that the gods had been angered and this was what they deserved. The people never stopped to question it, even when things did not go the way the priests told them it would. When the priests were right, and the eruptions did stop, the people would rejoice, and this made them stronger in their beliefs. Things that happened by coincidence once or twice would soon become the standard.

Saying that a volcano stopped erupting because virgins were tossed into it is a statement we know today to be false. But hundreds of years ago they had no other explanations they could believe in. They relied solely on the wisdom of their priests, who were believed to answer directly to whatever gods they believed in. Events that happened as coincidences were accepted without question simply because they lacked the knowledge we have today.