Our superstitions are usually only slightly less deadly

Superstition piled upon superstition, resulting in horror and death.

In late May, news outlets in Kenya told the story of 15 people, mostly elderly women, who were murdered in a witch hunt near the town of Kisii. The killings shocked the nation.

Others are skeptical the slain women were witches. At the top of a hill outside Kisii, Joseph Omache practices his craft. Omache is a shaman, or traditional healer. He throws bones and communes with ancestors to help heal physical and spiritual ailments.

"It is very painful when somebody kills another person in the name of witchcraft," he says. "Why couldn't they come to me so that I can perform my herbal potion to identify the real witch so that I can go ahead now to trap him and then we can see what to do?"

I doubt you will ever find a more ironic statement. Humanity has a long way to go.