The headline here is the point

Fantastically Wrong: Europe's Insane History of Putting Animals on Trial and Executing Them

Even so I will link to the article

But my point is really the headline starting off the article and this post.

Because the headline illustrates the total unwillingness to understand the people we were before we became modern science-loving folk. Insane is a term that pushes the topic into the rubbish so we do not need to examine reality to find out about ourselves. How could people do such things? how did such people become modern at all? Why do such acts seem so unthinkable now? The point of the article is we do not need to even ask these questions.

And yet, let me guess something. As strong as the taboo against self-knowledge in our culture is,-- as illustrated by the use of the word insane, above, -- until science includes self-knowledge, at least inspired by the work of great philosophers like Jan Cox, until then, we are not going to have the skill and knowledge, to get off the planet.