History & Area Studies / World History / European History

How Spain’s Obsession with Purity Birthed Modern Skepticism (A Historical Autopsy)

In 16th-century Spain, the most powerful empire on Earth attempted the impossible: to read the minds of every citizen and guarantee absolute religious sincerity. They forced hundreds of thousands of Jews and Muslims to convert, then built a massive surveillance state—the Inquisition—to police their souls. But instead of unity, they created paranoia, fake histories, and a society where the best doctors were suspected of being secret heretics. This deep dive, based on the research compilation *After Conversion: Iberia and the Emergence of Modernity* edited by Mercedes García-Arenal, reveals how Spain’s maniacal quest for purity backfired spectacularly. It turned neighbors into spies, weaponized medicine, and ironically birthed the very religious skepticism they tried to burn at the stake. From the bizarre 'blood purity' laws to the forged lead books of Granada, we explore how the trauma of forced conversion shattered social trust and laid the foundations for modern doubt. Watch to learn how the past mirrors our own digital age of ideological purity tests and why you can never engineer absolute sincerity.