this post was submitted on 07 Mar 2024
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[–] [email protected] 18 points 8 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

In fairness, at the time, many Europeans believed in faries and other creatures, including these guys:

https://www.sciencephoto.com/media/720095/view/mythical-horned-beasts-17th-century

[–] [email protected] 15 points 8 months ago (2 children)

So, not much has changed then....

[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Yeah interesting thought there actually. In absolute numbers I wager more people believe in mythical beings of some form today in Europe than the 1700s. But as a share of the total population it's going to be a lot lower, of course.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

Is it going to be a lower percentage of the total population though? There's a lot about ye olde days that kinda gets generalised, and hand-waved. Like people's ability to read in medieval times. Sure it wasn't as prevalent as today, but reading was probably a lot more common than most people think.

As for belief in mythical beings, who knows, religious belief was a lot stronger in the 1700s, but that doesn't necessarily mean everyone believed in the fae.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Gibson said "The future is here, it's just not evenly distributed."

The future was there with Newton, but it's still not evenly distributed 400 years later.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago