It occurs to me that I don't even need to use a hypothetical corner case to make that point - I can just go back to Exodus 18:22, which is a specific religious doctrine - "thou shalt not suffer a witch to live".
Now, I can look at that and say, that seems like a pretty bad idea. If you put that idea into practice, I can see how it would lead to problems, because it's pretty hard to prove that someone's been communing with the Devil. All you've got is an accusation, and all you've got on the other side is a flat denial - for precisely the same reasons, no one can prove that they aren't somehow in league with an evil none of us can see. Even if you take as a certainty that there ARE witches in the first place, there's no way to tell if someone is or isn't a witch, conclusively. So it's likely to result in a bunch of hysteria and false accusations and really produce no useful results.
Then I can look at history when the idea was put into practice, and be vindicated. Yep, turns out that was a pretty terrible idea. Clearly, I am Old-Testament-Phobic, at least with respect to that one particular doctrine.
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