The so-called savage of this country knew better,white men speak with forked tongue
Offline I was reading a book about the American Indians and their first encounter with the European invaders and when they(Europeans)wanted land,they would take the chief of the tribe with them and kill all the other Indians(this was done when the tribe was sleeping)and after they killed the tribe they would have a priest sprinkle some holy water on the bodies(a religious ritual so that the person can get to heaven),the old chief asked "why are they pouring water on my people" he was told that this is the proper way to treat the dead,and save them from hell.Well, the chief told them to stop this act and one of the conquers said to him,"If we stop this they can't enter heaven,and the chief yelled to the priest to stop,cause he didn't want his people going to the same place as the white men were going when they died. 
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So is this a thread about genocide, religion, or... *COUGH*
white guilt?
I certainly don't want to spend eternity in heaven with Billy Bobber and his white good ole boy friends. I definitely understand the cheif's position.
-- I feel so much better since I stopped trying to believe.
"We are entitled to our own opinions. We're not entitled to our own facts"- Al Franken
"If death isn't sweet oblivion, I will be severely disappointed" - Ruth M.
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But I agree with Kap that my first reaction to this story was white guilt. In any case, weren't the spanish the first murderers to reach the new world (after the vikings who were all murdered by the locals, that is)? The spanish are golden brown and do not quality as pale faces in the true sense of the word. I wouldn't want to take on any one else's guilt.
Back to the OP - yes. The chief was right. I wouldn't want to be in heaven with any christians, either.
"Experiments are the only means of knowledge at our disposal. The rest is poetry, imagination." Max Planck
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In australia, the white settlers put strychnine in the waterholes in summer so the local aborigines would all die when they drank. My personal white settlement history is Dunedin in NZ where my scots ancestors arriving in the 1840s were part of a group that bought Otago Harbour and surrounds inland to about 2 miles from the local Maori tribe for 2400 gold soveriegns. It's was a very decent amount of money at the time. Perhaps not what the harbour and the coast down to Clutha was worth but considered to be close to the mark.
It's always depressing to think about this stuff. Given the Irish and Scots settlers had been forced out by greedy landowners through the highland clearances and various famines and repressions it's hard not to comprehend the plight of these people and to understand their fever for a piece of earth to call their own - especially when that earth was home and supermarket and woodlot and graveyard all rolled into one. The fact other humans were in their way was irrelevant to many of these people. A sad and sorry business indeed.
"Experiments are the only means of knowledge at our disposal. The rest is poetry, imagination." Max Planck
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Thank Gaia for genomics...
what is the name of this book you were reading?
If the Indians wanted to keep their lands, they should have built better weapons. To the weapon builders go the spoils of war.
Taxation is the price we pay for failing to build a civilized society. The higher the tax level, the greater the failure. A centrally planned totalitarian state represents a complete defeat for the civilized world, while a totally voluntary society represents its ultimate success. --Mark Skousen
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