Cause the wait is the length of a life time...

How do you wish to live this life...

Waiting for it to end or living it to the last drop.

if "god" was said to reside in the "hearts" of mankind, then having "faith" in fellow mankind be the "evidence" of things hoped for......

for to worship an image of some god in the sky, create the only thing once called as satan, the mind that see "other humans" as not of god, that try to harm and denounce and belittle it's fellow man, and even this once caused man in days of past innocence to harm and kill one another, not yet seeing that if life be god, and breath be of god, then "god" be love in each one and all, and only the sight of this in advance restore "god" within each, which was said to be to know HOW to love when it cost self it's pride......

if each human be right, then ALL roads lead left.......

I'm learning that, if anything could be held "responsible" for any lack of love in my own life, I'd say it would be my own pride.

Christianity in America led to a quality of life for ALL Americans.

Christianity in America led to equal rights for blacks & women.

Music Art etc... inspired by Christians.

...but most of all....

WE ARE ENDOWED BY OUR CREATOR WITH INALIENABLE RIGHTS OF LIFE, LIBERTY & THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS.

That about covers it....

Yes, there were Christian men among the Founders. Just as Congress removed Thomas Jefferson's words that condemned the practice of slavery in the colonies, they also altered his wording regarding equal rights. His original wording is here in black bold:

"All men are created equal and independent. From that equal creation they derive rights inherent and inalienable."

Congress changed that phrase, increasing its religious overtones:

"All men are created equal. They are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights."

But we are not governed by the Declaration of Independence-- it is a historical document, not a constitutional one.

equality first created all quality of life in america, SEEING AND OBSERVING ALL WERE OF GOD, so seeing each as soverign, this the seeing all AS EQUAL?

has not christianity left this long ago, and has become what it first despised, what it left in england long ago?

how can one say itself be of god, and others not, and SELF NOT THINK OTHERS BE LESS EQUAL?

the mystery and serpent of the mind, that see not that if it despise, it will BY DEFAULT, become all it once despised?

basically christianity sustained world culturr, science, and order during the middle ages (or dark ages).
Just to mention one thing.
I'm wondering how many people will be thinking on inquisition, after reading my post, to say how bad christianity is.
what are the odds? lol

I wont say anything like that but can you support that statement as it goes against any accurate historical evidence ever gathered from any point of reference that I am familiar with.

when information is biased, it does not matter what the source is. so i don't have any confidence on your sources my friend.
make a little bit of research about the monasteries in the middle ages, and what they did other than praying.
I hope you are doing well (you and your family).

What do you mean "biased"? Historical resources? I asked you to substantiate your statement which flys in the face of anything ever documented about these Monasteries as it related to science and their repression there of. Are you capable of showing this evidence or not?

Im doing great thanks. Hope you and yours are as well.

Perhaps Religion has accomplished to not have 12-15 billion people in the world today instead of the 6.6 billion we have now. The many wars concerning supertitious belief systems that are created by man to control the masses has truly killed many innocent humans who only wanted to live a peaceful life.

I often wonder with 3% drinking water on this planet how long will it last as the population grows.

It was only a 100 years ago we had approximately round figure 1.5 to 2 billion people.

At this rate when we are 90 (if we reach that) we may hit 10 billion people all trying to fight for some water to drink, as it is already happening today.


Yet again there are scientists who have discovered ice caps on Mars. Perhaps huge space freighters will bring it back if it is drinkable. Just my imagination going wild, although also there are Streamliners who can produce drinking water from the ocean already.

"God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground." Genesis 1:28

A case can be made that monasteries almost single-handedly saved western civilization. After centuries of civil war and corruption the Roman Empire slipped away into history when Odoacer deposed the last Roman Emperor in 476AD. Barbarian hordes swept over the west and razed the last vestiges of this once mighty empire, squabbling over its territories and scattered riches. Europe entered what is commonly called "The Dark Ages".
Most major city centers lay in ruins, however, monasteries, because they were remote and hard to access, remained and within them were retained the culture and book knowledge lost everywhere else. Monks relentlessly copied and recopied Greek and Roman manuscripts as well as holy books, thus keeping the kernel of future civilization alive. The monasteries also served as the vanguard of future civilization, for when a monastery was founded, people naturally flocked around it to enjoy its spiritual and material benefits, and very often, this served as the nucleus of a budding town - not a few cities came out of such humble beginnings. Monasteries were often check points for travelers, forts in times of conflict, distribution centers in times of famine, hospitals in times of sickness, neutral grounds for conflicting parties to voice grievances and make pacts as well as being bastions of knowledge and skill.
Certain orders of monks were missionary in spirit and it was they who went out to conquer the barbarians with religion rather than the sword. Through a long organic process, monks actually were heavily responsible for making The Enlightenment possible by civilizing the barbarian tribes whose progeny, in forgotten centuries later, would ironically claim the Church was barbaric. If you ask a Catholic, they call the Dark Ages "The Golden Age of the Church" because the Church acted as the sole light in that dark time, and the monks played a huge role, both strong and resolute, in bringing Faith and civilization back from the brink of extinction in the west.
What is often forgotten is that monks preserved knowledge, were inventors of rudimentary machinery, many alcoholic beverages and types of cuisine, basic science, preserved language and knowledge, tutored pagan chieftains who would begin the royal lineage of kings and the lords of established realms, encouraged agriculture and land development, re-established Latin as a universal language and made connections with one another, thus laying the ground work for a new system of European unity. Reading and writing was not seen as it is today, but was as much a tool as a plane was to a carpenter and a plow to a farmer; the oral transmission of knowledge and traditions was the common way of doing things.
Centuries of struggling for basic survival culminated in a slow recovery that finally bore fruit: civilization gradually reemerged. With civilization came a new leisure class, one that would challenge kings as well as the Church, for though it did not have power or nobility, it had money. This leisure class wanted power and influence and its members desired to have access to and develop the knowledge and ideas the monks had been maintaining for centuries. The Church had established by this time public universities open to those whose discipline was for things of the mind, which usually meant nobles, the emerging middle class and religious. The middle class, with its drive to carve a spot for itself out of medieval Europe, introduced a new aggressive spirit, which manifested itself as humanism in intellectual circles. It rapidly expanded upon ideas and thinking and was quick to harness print in order to disseminate its views far and wide with great alacrity. This sudden influx developed into The Enlightenment. The Enlightenment came to despise the monks for their caution and seeming lack of enthusiasm to push into new ways of thinking and experimentation and it resented that they strove to temper it with their ponderous doctrine and moral considerations. It was ultimately a culture clash more than an issue of Faith, and ultimately, the monks were forgotten and sometimes killed in the revolutions that would later result. The Enlightenment was very much a bourgeois phenomenon, for it did not help the common man; farmers still farmed, tradesmen still plied their trade with very little of what we would call education.
For centuries, the monks coaxed civilization back from the ashes of the Roman Empire. Eventually, a new and safe society emerged that allowed for profitable trade and business, and the monks were discarded. These days, the monks are largely discredited, if they're even mentioned at all. The monks have stuck to their monasteries, as they had in centuries past and as they still do, bastions of the Faith and time capsules of knowledge should the west crumble again. To this day, however, the Enlightenment and its children have forgotten their roots in the ancient monasteries in Europe.

Without even reading much of the story I read "Barbarian hordes" which is a christian term allowing their culture to believe we were barbarians because we didn't believe in the same lifestyle or belief system as theres. I say we because I am a German who can follow my family tree all the way to 1147.

My culture are seen as either visigoths or anglo saxens who are in my opinion civilizations who believed in their own rituals and laws to maintain their lifestyles they thought worthy.

It was Christianity who tried to change their lifestyles in the end.

I am sure that there are some acts of peaceful solutions that Christianity have tried, but the numbers are limited compared to the atrocities they commited like any other civilization that existed on this planet.

i would love to know more about the german tribes of the middle ages.
I just wonder how gunless monks or nuns could have ever done any damage to these nordic people?
What I think that what you are talking about is what was done by the roman empire after it became christian. Then the emperors with their personal greed used christianity as a tool to subdue all this barbarian tribes.
So I believe it was the Roman Empire who committed violence against your ancestors, and not the monks i am talking about.

Christianity has made many people curious at the time and when introduced it wasn't accepted right away by a different civilization of course, but the feeling of being guilty, or a sinner, and the opportunity of being forgiven was promising to many different people to reconsider.

Christianity knew how to cunningly influence people especially with their monks or missionaries if you like to influence people of different cultures to believe in them.

Sweden a viking nation that believed in Norse Mythology came to an end without a war when the last king embraced Christianity.

it is no different then the Roman Emperor Constantine the first at the time. Although he didn't liked to be challenged because he thought he was a God and did many bad things to try to prevent from Christianity from growing.

In the end he had guilt in him and seeked forgiveness embracing the words of those who wrote the bible, because of the feeling you will go somewhere good if you believe.

In the end the human mind wants to go to a nicer place. It is something we all desire. Christianity used ancient scriptures before its time and created such stories to calm the minds of humans. If you don't believe me look at Greek Mythology and even Ancient Egyptian Mythology. Even though they believed in many gods at the time there are many similiar stories taken to create Christianity.

Today in the information age we know that what is written doesn't attain to us because scientists have discovered many things that can proof such writings as faulty.

So in the end Monks at the time who could read and write latin and have great communication skills worked on influencing cultures to change their minds about how to review life and how to even live it.

Today Africa and poorer nations are the primary source for Christian missionaries because they know they can influence them into believing.

Education is the key to understanding why religion evolved. What purpose did it have in actuality and why many people still believe today.

for TLW

The arrival of Christianity actually caused these civilizations to move backwards. In this regard we need only look to Europe, for the Dark Ages of Europe is a time when the Church was in control. The Age of Enlightenment (Renaissance) began when the common people were freed from the tyranny of the Christian church.

Christian missionaries have oppressed many cultures, building churches atop temples, mosques and shrines. For example, the major churches in Rome are built atop pagan temples and many historians say that the Vatican itself is built on the ruins of a Mithra (the Roman Sungod) temple. The major Christian holy days are all taken from the pagan holy days. In fact, it is claimed by many historians and religious scholars that the entirety of Christianity is borrowed from other religions and cultures and is fraudulent — Christ is an amalgamation of a number of personalities existing prior to the [presumed] time of Christ.

VIRGINIA

The Charter for the Virginia Colony stated that its purpose was to bring the Christian religion to those in ignorance of true knowledge of God.

Historian Edmund S. Morgan compiled the following description from Christian accounts of events occurring in one of the earliest settlements of English Christians, in Roanoke, Virginia in 1580:

"Wingina [the local chief] welcomed the visitors, and the Indians gave freely of their supplies to the English, who had lost most of their own when the Tyger [their ship] grounded.”

“Indian openness and generosity were met with European stealth and greed. Ritualized Indian warfare, in which few people died in battle, was met with the European belief in devastating holy war. Vast stores of grain and other food supplies that Indian peoples had lain aside became the fuel that [later] drove the Europeans forward.”

“Indians who came to the English settlements with food for the British (who seemed never able to feed themselves) were captured, accused of being spies, and executed. Peace treaties were signed with every intention to violate them: when the Indians ‘grow secure uppon the treatie,’ advised the Counsel of State in Virginia, ‘we shall have the better advantage both to surprise them & cutt downe theire Corne.' "

Arthur Barlowe, one of the first Christians ever to set foot on Virginia soil, described the natives he encountered in 1584 as follows:


"...we were entertained with all love and kindness and with as much bounty, ...as they could possibly devise. We found the people most gentle loving, and faithfull, void of all guile and treason ... a more kind and loving people there cannot be found in the world, as farre as we have hitherto had triall."

Their supposedly Christian treatment of these friendly native Americas was that:

"...we burnt, and spoyled their corne, and Towne, all the people beeing fledde."

MIDWEST

Greed drove over a hundred thousand intruders into the area by 1825, few of whom were ever expelled. Though protection from intruders was a guarantee to the Cherokee by treaty, which the State of Georgia and the federal government were supposed to uphold it was never given the slightest honor by white interests. Forts were established to police against intruders but what they did was to harass the Cherokee and provide safety and protection for whites from those who tried to protect their families.



The State of Georgia insured no Cherokee would ever receive justice by forbidding the testimony or presence of any Native American in a court of law, period, just like the Nuremberg Laws of 1936 against Jews in Germany. This gave all whites free rein to terrorize, steal and kill any Native person they wanted to. No Cherokee "removed" because they wanted to, it was because the protection they were assured by treaty obligation was never provided.



The missionaries who entered Indian country were sent there to "civilize" the native people. They acquired this position by negotiation through treaty and were given vast amounts of land and guaranteed subsidies administered by the federal government out of tribal money. This money never touched the hands of the Cherokee and most often none was left after missionary, Indian agents, superintendents and corrupt tribal government leaders got done with it.



In 1832 Congress appropriated $12,000 dollars to begin the fight against smallpox in Indian country, 20 years after they did the same for whites. Significantly, actual vaccination expenditures that first year "for smallpox and certain other things" amounted to only $1,786, as opposed to $5,721 for "missionary improvement" and $9,424 for the "civilization of the Indians." One year later, in 1833, actual expenditures were down to $721.



This is why most Native Americans today who are knowledgeable of their history are pointing out that the United States Government waged genocide against their people. When medicine to heal children and families from a deadly and mortal disease is withheld, that agency which does this crime against humanity is committing genocide.



"Civilizing" meant taking children away from their parents at the ages of 5-12 years and forcing them to live without father, mother, sister or brother in missionary schools, if you can imagine that being done to a little child. This practice was not exclusive to the early years of American history but continued up until the mid 1970's in this country. Children were beaten and given forced labor during their stay in school. Participation was "optional" but missionaries controlled the annuities of food and trust money through their relationship with superintendents and the military. Families that did not surrender their children did not receive food or payments that were supposed to be guaranteed to them.



Very young children caught in this situation were brainwashed to treat their parents as savages and barbarians and they suffered terribly under this psychological torture. By this method through several generations, Cherokees, like most Native Americans were stripped of the knowledge of their heritage, religious beliefs and trust of their family supports.



This is why it is called a Red Holocaust and fits the United Nations accords for genocide. Any people whose children are taken from them in order to destroy the religious, spiritual, racial and cultural heritage of that people are victims of genocide.



The pressure to build a slave based empire on Native Cherokee soil was highly successful. Thomas Jefferson who wrote the removal policy and openly supported genocide of Native Americans declared, "If ever we are constrained to lift the hatchet against any tribe we will never lay it down till that tribe is exterminated, or is driven beyond the Mississippi... they will kill some of us; we shall destroy all of them." [15]



Missionary work was very big business. It afforded the building of careers, growth of denominational influence in regions that formed economic bases of support. Churches were established through lucrative payments from Indian funds and lands, which were deeded for use as farms, timber production and for sale in financing further ventures, not the least of which was buying selling and working their slaves. Churches and missionaries were aggressively competing for government contracts among the Native American people all the way up until the 1970's when Native American Education legislation made it too difficult for the government to sever lands for missionary work without compensation.



To give some insight into the abuse of law that the State of Georgia in the early 19th century used to terrorize the Cherokee, the banishment of "intruders" was only enforced against whites, who stood up for the Cherokee by representing their interests. It was also used by whites through the… spoils system to get rid of squatters whose land was coveted by another white. Those whites who took public stands for Native people in the area were thrown out. Worcester was one such missionary. He returned and was thrown into prison for a year for his stand on Cherokee rights.



It is especially telling that while almost no Indians voluntarily lived among the colonists, the number of whites who ran off to live with the natives was a problem often remarked upon. Historian James Axtell has concluded that the whites who chose to remain among the natives



"...stayed because they found Indian life to possess a strong sense of community, abundant love, and uncommon integrity - values that the European colonists also honored... But Indian life was attractive for other values - for social equality, mobility, adventure, and as two adult converts acknowledged, 'the most perfect freedom, the ease of living, [and] the absence of those cares and corroding solicitudes which so often prevail with us.' " [16]



After a century and a half of permanent British settlement in North America, even Benjamin Franklin joined numerous earlier commentators lamenting that



"...when an Indian child has been brought up among us, taught our language and habituated to our Customs, yet if he goes to see his relations and make one Indian Ramble with them, there is no perswading them ever to return.



[But] when white persons of either sex have been taken prisoners young by the Indians, and lived a while among them, tho' ransomed by their Friends, and treated with all imaginable tenderness to prevail with them to stay among the English, yet in a short time they become disgusted with our manner of life, and the care and pains that are necessary to support it, and take the first good Opportunity of escaping again into the Woods, from whence there is no reclaiming them." [17]



Since they were uttered by one of America's founding fathers, however, the most widely admired of the South's slaveholding philosophers of freedom, they conveniently have become lost to most historians in their insistent celebration of Jefferson's wisdom and humanity." Further references available. [18]





CALIFORNIA MISSIONS


The book, The Missions of California: A Legacy of Genocide, edited by Rupert Costo and Jeannette Henry Costo [19] (Indian rights activists), spells out the apparent brutality of the California Franciscan missionaries (and their founder Junipero Serra, who was to be made a saint) against the North American Indians; citing numerous contemporary accounts of the brutality and degrading conditions endemic to the mission system in California.



Interviews from 1985 with eight scholars (arranged by the Catholic Diocese of Monterey in defense of Serra) actually contain the strongest evidence against the mission system itself. The ethnocentrism of the interviewees and their at times embarrassing lack of knowledge regarding Indian ways, leads to numerous questionable assertions. Serra's supporters generally acknowledge that the methods employed to convert the Indians would be unthinkable for missionaries to use today.



The work of A. L. Kroeber, Sherburne Cook, Robert Heizer (all cited in the text) and others establishes that the arrival of the Europeans was a cultural and demographic catastrophe for the California Indians. Too often it is forgotten that Serra aimed not just to convert the Indians to Catholicism but to eradicate Indian culture as well. It is in this sense that the book's subtitle. "A Legacy of Genocide" is justified.



Many of Serra's fiercest critics are individuals actively engaged in efforts to heal Indian society by recovering and honoring the traditional ways that bound tribes together for centuries. The attempt to sanctify a man who dedicated his life to the destruction of those ways is, understandably, galling to them.



Some accounts shed further light on the missions activities:

[T]he Puritan minister John Robinson had complained to Plymouth's William Bradford that although a group of massacred Indians no doubt "deserved" to be killed, "Oh, how happy a thing had it been, if you had converted some before you killed any!" [20]



And kill them they did... At the mission of Nuestra Sentora de Loreto, reported the Franciscan chronicler Father Francisco Palone, during the first three years of Franciscan rule 76 children and adults were baptized, while 131 were buried... The same held true at others, from the mission of Santa Rosalin¡ de Mulegne, with 48 baptisms and 113 deaths, to the mission of San Ignacio, with 115 baptisms and 293 deaths - all within the same initial three year period.





MEXICO CITY


Unlike European cities of the late 1400’s, which were filled with squalor and disease (most Europeans never took a bath in their entire life, hence the invention of French perfume) [D.E. Stannard, American Holocaust. Columbus and the conquest of the New World, New York/Oxford 1992, pg. 59], Mexico was clean. The twin cities of Tenochtitlan and Tlateloico, know today as Mexico City, maintained high standards: wastes were hauled away by barge and composted for fertilizer, a thousand men swept and washed the streets every day. Refined Aztecs, who bathed daily, found it advisable to hold flowers to their noses when they met Europeans, who made it a point of being filthy. Most of Mexico’s streets were canals and an aquaduct brought drinking water from mountain springs. [21]



Hernan Cortez felt that this was by far the most beautiful city on earth, stated: “All of these houses have very large and very good rooms and very pleasing gardens of various sorts of flowers…” [22] The Christian visitors were astonished by the personal cleanliness and hygiene of the colorfully dressed populace, and by their extravagant (to the Christians) use of soaps, deodorants, and breath sweeteners. [23]




The Mexicans [Aztecs] were tolerant of other peoples, such as the Otomi, who lived among them. These had their own religion, culture, language... tribal hatreds did not seem to exist within the Mexican body politic." [24]



As a consequence of Columbus' ‘discovery,’ less than a century after his voyage the city had been sacked by Christians, its buildings and beautiful gardens burnt and devastated. The city's inhabitants, who before Columbus had known only temporary slavery as a means of judicial correction, were either dead or permanent slaves to a Church-approved colonial feudal government, or directly to a Church which burned at the stake any survivors unwilling to be converted to a religion which even faithful Christians of today could only describe as a hopeless medley of absurd or revolting superstitions - one has only to think of the reliquaries, collections of skulls, bones, teeth, or other remains of so-called saints, enshrined and openly displayed to be worshiped - in any given Christian Church of the time.





THE PHILIPPINES


Shortly after the Spanish American war of 1898, the US obtained legal right to the Philippines via the Treaty of Paris. President McKinley stated that "military occupation of the islands is declared to be to protect the people." For the president, American duty compelled the US to "uplift and civilize and Christianize them [the Philippines], and by God's grace do the very best we could for them.” The Filipinos had not requested this, but their will was ignored as was their revolutionary government, and new constitution. The Filipino resistance to this American ‘help,’ was met with military might. The US command stated that, "it may be necessary to slaughter one-half of the rebellious Filipinos in order to bring the other half into subjection."



Well over 200,000 Filipinos lost their lives in their struggle against American imperialism. The Methodist church, great champions of this war of ‘divine mission,’ did not distinguish imperialism from the mission of evangelization. James Henry Potts, editor of the Michigan Christian Advocate, was so confident of the righteousness of the cause that the human cost simply did not matter and we must "conquer the rebellious Filipinos and give them the blessings of the best administration possible... Those islands are ours." Propagandists portrayed the Filipino resistance leaders as not representing the general will of the Filipinos, but were dismayed that they continued to resist. After all, Americans "knew what was best for the Filipinos," they needed American guidance, but showed "no appreciation of the fact that America had lifted the galling Spanish yoke from their necks..." [replacing it, unfortunately, with their own yoke.]



The previous arbitrary cruel treatment of the Filipinos by the Spaniards was repeated by the American oppressors in their new view, as necessary measures to subdue the Filipino rebels. Thus the blame for their violent actions was transferred from the perpetrator of the action to the victim. This became clear when the public learned that U.S. soldiers perpetrated grave acts against mankind, including the brutal torture and execution of prisoners, the burning and looting of Filipino towns and the forced relocation of civilians.



Six hundred saloons had sprung up in Manila, which became over one thousand by 1900, (where formerly there were less than ten) and the armies’ abuses were blamed on alcohol. The Detroit Annual Conference of Methodists focused on temperance and overlooked the heinous activities committed by the army.



The cries of "God wills it," were the religious justification for the assertion of political power fused with missionary zeal. Reverend William Oldham declared that "the roar of the (American) cannon was the voice of Almighty God declaring (the Philippines) shall be freed." It was the mission of the Americans to spread the faith, and like the holy crusaders before, military conquest was the first step in this "holiest of wars."



The eyes of the church were resolutely focused on American Protestant victory against Filipino independence and Catholicism. How far astray these Methodist missionaries had gone, is clearly illustrated by the statement of Editor Potts who proclaimed that the "worst war in the Philippines is yet to come," since the Protestant missionaries encountered deeply entrenched Catholic beliefs and institutions which were viewed as opposing American principles and systems. Patriotism and Christianity had become indistinguishable and the Filipinos defense was perceived by these Christian invaders as unjustifiable resistance operating under the spell of ‘Satan's Arts.’







BURMA and THAILAND


Accounts from local residents claim that:

The American Baptist Paul Lewis sterilized more than 20,000 Akha Hill Tribe women in Burma’s Eastern Shan State alone. This was done secretly, and blood was stolen from these women for resale, taken during the sterilization procedure. More than 3,000 of the women died. [25]



In Akha traditional culture, five people serve as the government in one village. This multiperson leadership system in villages was eliminated and replaced by single pastors who rule the villages with an iron fist, allowing no dissent or return to the traditional ways. These changes have sewn havoc amongst the locals.



“There would be no traditional practices, songs, or dances at all now, possibly something would be allowed at Christmas. The woman who practices the traditional knowledge and medicine for the village was stopped. She was told that it was evil and that she could no longer treat people’s illnesses. In the name of their religious beliefs, and quite in contradiction with the spirit of those beliefs, the missionaries are eradicating Akha culture in village after village. [26]



A Thai speaks out on mission activities in Thailand:

“Especially in Thailand, due to the high levels of prostitution, under the name of safeguarding young women, boarding schools for girls sprout up. But then the girls no longer want to marry Akha [non-Christian] men.” [27]



“Regarding religion, at the beginning it seemed to be very good. Later, it turned out to be a division among the people. Some became Catholics, some Protestants, some still holding their ancestors offering while others became Buddists. All these, they could not face to one another. The missionaries often cause dissention in the villages without permission of the village leaders.”



“Now we want to raise a question, how good is Christianity then? If that is good enough, why there are so many groups, teaching about Jesus and yet fighting one another? First they divided our people now they are dividing our villages and families. We seem to be like a prey for them. Better not to have one of them than having all of them.”





VIETNAM


Perhaps, you remember seeing the news videos of Buddhists burning themselves with gasoline in the 1960’s? Do you know why they burned themselves? They were protesting the discriminatory treatment and torture by the fanatical Catholic South Vietnamese government of Ngo Dinh Diem, installed by the U.S. military. With the Vaticans influence, led by Cardinal Spellman, democratic elections were stopped in Vietnam, and Dim installed. This was followed by the ill-fated Vietnam war.



Do you think that the government of the U.S.A. stands for democracy in every country? Actually they are only for democracies that elect a government favorable to or are cooperative with U.S. foreign policies. If they are not agreeable with and subordinate to U.S. interests, then covert U.S. forces make arrangements for other leaders, like Mussaraf in Pakistan, like so many leaders in South or Central America or Diem in Vietnam, to take power.





CHINA


Although most everyone has heard of the Boxer Rebellion in China in 1900, few know that this rebellion was directly a reaction of the Chinese people to the Christian missionaries who swarmed into the country in order to convert the poor, illiterate, and defenseless Chinese. The rebellion was of course suppressed by the countries that were patronizing the converting missionaries.



In October of 2000, over twenty Chinese scholars, experts on history and religion, held a symposium, exposing the crimes committed by the then recently "canonized" foreign missionaries and their followers. Scholars listed a number of facts to illustrate that in modern history the activities of Catholic missionaries were closely linked with the invasion of China by foreign forces.



Prof. Dai Yi said, "Lots of foreign missionaries followed the warships of foreign aggressors to China in and after the Opium War, and actually foreign aggression and missionaries' activities are combined into one. That is, missionaries' activities were an integral part of invasion, missionaries acted as guides and tools for foreign aggressors and in return, aggressors paved the way for the missionaries' activities." It is the foreign missionaries that should answer for the consequences to their actions because their monstrous evils exasperated the Chinese people and eventually fused the outburst of the Yi He Tuan (known as Boxers) Movement.



Participants in the symposium pointed out that foreign missionaries executed in certain "religious cases," such as Auguste Chapdelaine, Franciscus de Capillas and Albericus Crescitelli, had only themselves to blame for still being hated by people today, because they had stopped no evil.



The Holy See, disregarding the strong opposition from the Chinese people, "canonized" these infamous missionaries, which reveals the Vatican's “vicious intention to intervene in China's internal affairs through religious activities,” the scholars said, pointing out that the "canonization" tramples on the sovereignty of the Chinese Catholic Church, as well as a severe provocation to the 1.2 billion Chinese people.



The scholars all voiced their protest over the perverse and vicious deeds of the Vatican, saying that the present China is strong enough to protect its national security and national dignity and any attempt to distort history and humiliate the Chinese people is doomed to failure.



The Chinese government’s obvious reaction to such Christian preaching activities over many centuries has been to ban all conversion efforts in China.





INDIA




India's first major contact with Christianity began when Vasco da Gama, from Portugal, landed with gunboat and priests in 1498… The newcomers were not only merchants but also devout Christians ordered by the Pope: "... to invade, conquer, and subject all the countries which are under rule of the enemies of Christ, Saracens (Moslems who fought against the Christian Crusaders in the middle ages) or Pagan...."



Hindus were forced to convert or faced torture and death. Thousands had to flee Goa in order to keep their culture and religious beliefs.



The historian Gaspar Correa described what Vasco da Gama did, thus:



"When all the Indians had thus been executed, he ordered them to strike upon their teeth with staves and they knocked them down their throats; as they were put on board, heaped on top of each other, mixed up with the blood which streamed from them; and he ordered mats and dry leaves to be spread over them and sails to be set for the shore and the vessels set on fire... " Before killing and burning the innocent Hindus he had their hands, ears and noses cut off.



…"When the Zamorin (head of the Hindu population) sent another Brahmin (Hindu Priest) to Vasco to plead for peace, he had his lips cut off and his ears cut off. The ears of a dog were sewn on him instead and the Brahmin was sent back to Zamorin in that state. The Brahmin… had brought with him three young boys, two of them his sons and the other a nephew. They were hanged from the yardarm and their bodies sent ashore."



Francis Xavier, a Jesuit Priest, came soon after Vasco da Gama, with the firm resolve of uprooting Hinduism from the soil of India and planting Christianity in its place. His sayings and doings have been documented in his numerous biographies. Francis Xavier, wrote back home,



"As soon as I arrived in any heathen village, when all are baptized, I order all the temples of their false gods to be destroyed and all the idols to be broken to pieces. I can give you no idea of the joy I feel in seeing this done." The Church had a special way of dealing with converted Hindus who were suspected of not observing Christian rites with appropriate rigour and enthusiasm, or even of covertly practicing their old faith: “…the culprits would be tracked down and burnt alive.”[28]





Xavier called for an inquisition, recorded by historians as being more horrendous and barbaric than any prior to that. Thousands were tortured mutilated and killed. Thousands had to flee Goa in order to keep their traditional culture and religion.



It is recorded that between 600 and 1,000 Hindu temples and shrines were destroyed, but many consider these numbers to be on the conservative side. [29]



Many types of brutal torture were employed by the Inquisitors, such as mutilation of body parts, fire torture and drownings. The details of this torture are too ghastly and horrid to contemplate for any sane human being.



”Children were flogged and slowly dismembered in front of their parents whose eyelids had been sliced off to make sure they missed nothing. Extremities were amputated carefully, so that a person could remain conscious even when all that remained was a torso and a head.”[30]



The archbishop of Evora, in Portugal, eventually wrote, "If everywhere the Inquisition was an infamous court, the infamy, however base, however vile, however corrupt and determined by worldly interests, it was never more so than in Goa. [31]



No body knows the exact number of Goans subjected to these diabolical tortures; low estimates put the number in the tens of thousands, high estimates are in the hundreds of thousands, perhaps even more. The abominations of these inquisitions continued from 1560 until a brief respite was given in 1774, but four years later, the inquisition was introduced again and it continued un-interruptedly until 1812 — the inquisition in Goa wend on for over two-hundred and fifty years. At that point in time, in the year of 1812, the British put pressure on the Portuguese to put an end to the terror of the Inquisition and the presence of British troops in Goa enforced the British desire.[32]



Dr. Trasta Breganka Kunha, a Catholic citizen of Goa writes, "Inspite of all the mutilations and concealment of history, it remains an undoubted fact that religious conversion of Goans is due to methods of force adopted by the Portuguese to establish their rule. As a result of this violence the character of our people was destroyed. The propagation of Christian sect in Goa came about not by religious preaching but through the methods of violence and pressure. If any evidence is needed for this fact, we can obtain it through law books, orders and reports of the local rulers of that time and also from the most dependable documents of the Christian sect itself."[33]



A proposed celebration for the 500 year anniversary of Vasco de Gama’s arrival in India was fiercly proposed and successfully stopped, bringing together a surprising alliance of Hindus, Muslims, left wing campaigners and environmentalists.



The Gaur-Sarasvata Brahmins were one such sect who had to flee at the hands of the invading fanatics. Now their sect is situated in the state of Karnataka. Leaving everything behind and starting from scratch they are now a very well to do and prosperous community. Their temples rival any in the world. Still practicing their ancient Vedic religion, the Gaur-Sarasvata Brahmins are recognized for their dignity, honesty and contributions to society. This soundly nullifies the idea propagated by the Christian zealots that Hindu religion is heathen and pagan.



Frances Xavier is commonly known as 'St. Francis Xavier,' 'the Patron Saint of the East.' He is still worshipped, prayed to and honored as the pure representative of Jesus Christ and his gospel by Christians all over the world. There are innumerable hospitals, schools, and other institutions in India named after him. Even today the archdiocese of Goa boasts,



"The glorious chapter of the expansion of the Catholic Church in the east can be said to have begun after the European 'discovery' of the sea route to India in 1498. This helped the coming of the European fathers to these lands, one of them being St. Francis Xavier, the great Apostle of the East and Patron of the Missions. Goa is privileged to have been the starting point of his Church work labours and the place where his sacred remains are preserved. Goa was called the "Rome of the East" due to the central role it played in evangelization of the east." [34]



India today is ruled by a secular government modeled after the western democracies. What many Indians do not understand is that the idea of secular government, first seen in the United States of America, was a reaction to the theocratic tyrannies that pervaded the Dark Ages of Europe all the way to the founding of the American nation. Separation of religion and government were an effort to ward off and prevent any Christian theocracy from taking control in modern times.



Now the Christian tactics have changed, but their underlying premise that ‘Christianity is the only true religion’ nullifies all their attempts of portraying themselves as tolerant and loving. The reality is that Christianity has not changed its theology, it has only changed its techniques of conversion. Christian evangelists are now using vast amounts of wealth (billions of US dollars) to spread their propaganda. Mission activity in India comes in the guise of helping the downtrodden, sick and helpless. In reality the aim is the same — to convert all to Christianity and in the wake destroy all the cultures and religions that lie in the way. There is no need to abuse, attack, or condemn the Non-Christian religions. The plain truth is the Christian Missionaries work with usage of lies, falsehood, and hypocrisy. The social improvement facade is only a camouflage or disguise for conversion work.



Why should the Christian Missionaries want to collect converts? Because it is in the nature of the religions of exclusivity (Islam and Christianity) to try to make every one like them in terms of religion. They have no use, whatsoever, for pluralism or respect for other religions; in fact what they have is pure contempt for other religions. Further, this exclusivity attachment and attitude comes straight from the horse's mouth i.e. from their scriptures. For instance, in the Bible Matthew 28:19-20, Mark 16:15-16, and Luke 24:46-47 every Christian is commanded to make converts and it is the duty of every Christian to uphold these commands of the Bible.



A glance at their activities in India clearly reveals that the Christian Missionaries denigrate and demonize the Hindus every single day. Hinduism is equated with Devil Worship and Hindus are described as Heathens, as workers for the Devil, and as lost souls who are headed straight to hell.



Now-a-days, in most civilized countries, open and outright utterance of ignoble and unflattering slurs and put downs on the basis of race, religion, creed, or other affiliation is not tolerated because it has been legislated as illegal. But in Pseudo-Secular India, Hindus can be freely insulted, abused, degraded and dragged into mud, by the Christian Missionaries with impunity, without any fear of lawsuit. They freely broadcast their Hate-Hindu, vile and vituperative propaganda into Indian villages and cities.



Because the preacher of Christianity single-mindedly believes his loathing gospels of hate, seeing them as divine commands from his religion, he utters venom and vindictiveness against the Hindu with zeal and with [in their estimation] a clear conscience.



Nearly every single day, rhetoric similar to the words below confirm the reality that Christianity, while posing as a religion of love, peace and tolerance is anything but that.



"These Hindu Heathens have their idols and their superstitions, their idol-bearing temples and shrines where they conduct their noisy foolish rituals and ceremonies. They generate a lot of evil. They are totally ignorant that Jesus Christ came to overcome death. There is a great need to propagate the Christian Gospel amongst them."



Only now is India beginning to realize what the Christian Mission activity is really all about. This is evidenced in states like Nagaland, Mizoram, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and in other areas in Northeast India. As soon as Christians become a majority in a given area, they sow the venom of hatred and strife, turning family member against family member, villager against villager and instigate their Christian followers to ask for self-determination and a Christian Homeland. This is virtually the same technique that the Moslems continue to use with success.



As soon as a convert is made, they are greatly encouraged to vehemently and publicly denigrate their previous culture, traditions and everything related to it. This greatly disrupts the entire community and its normal social and economic activities.



Militant Christians in several of these Northeastern Indian provinces have been forcing non-Christian residents to either convert to Christianity or face capital punishment. With death staring at their face, most of the adult members have fled the villages to escape torture, resulting in disruption of agricultural activities. Buddhist leaders of both the states of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh have strongly condemned the heinous carnage committed by the militants on the peace-loving Buddhists and tribal cult followers.



Because Hindus now know what the Christians are up to, it is time to take some serious steps to counter the Christian propaganda and instill pride in Indians across the nation for their glorious past and distinguished Vedic heritage.



For Additional Information on the Goan Inquisition, please visit:
The Portuguese Invasion of Goa
Details of the Goan Inquisition
Hindu Genocide in Goa



CONCLUSION


Christians have always portrayed non-Christian civilizations as backwards, underdeveloped, superstitious, and barbaric. What really underlies all of their criticism is that these cultures do not accept Jesus, the Bible and their western way of life. This is what, in the Christians’ opinion, deems these cultures as needing their help, when in fact the their fervor to destroy any theistic conception other than Christianity or any temple other than a church shows that they are really the ones who are showing the qualities of barbarians.



Today, many are uninformed and believe that mission excesses only took place in prior times and today's preaching works are a 'good thing.' But as long as the basic premises and theology that underly all the abuses that took place in the past are not corrected, the result of mission activities will remain the same: Genocide and destruction of all that lies in its way, replacing it with the 'superior religion and culture' that most missionaries believe they are delivering.



In retrospect, these various ethnic cultures were far better off before the introduction of Christianity, as it had nothing better to offer them. In reality, these cultures were decimated, their histories were erased, their cultural traditions eradicated, their former religions destroyed and they were left more unhappy than before the arrival of Christianity.



There have been many revisions in the teachings of Jesus Christ since it first took hold some 2,000 years ago. But until the xenophobic and iconoclastic teachings of the Bible are corrected, mission activity will yield the same catastrophic results. As taught in the Bible, 'we can know a tree by its fruit,' these evangelists need to adopt a more pluralistic theology, recognizing the divinity in other religions and the contributions of other cultures and further recognize that theirs is not the only path to salvation. Suffice it to say, until these things have been corrected, that to label such endeavors for Christ as good works or pious activity is wrong.



Otherwise, in this modern age, those deemed with good intelligence, who are advanced in philosophy and science, have no other choice than to condemn these preaching activities worldwide, which seek to destroy ethnic cultures. Mission activities need to be monitored and the conversion agenda needs to be reconsidered.

I think religion is a great thing if it is personalized. Your own connection with whatever it may be. When used like it has been over the centuries as a power thing, then it kind of defeats it's own purpose.

Weak question.

Without religion there probably wouldn't be charity, (why would you want to help anyone? you'd be too busy surviving and defending yourself) and there would probably be no moral absolutes defining the difference between right and wrong, so we'd all be killing each other and/or women and children would be getting raped and/or beaten badly with no recourse. There would probably be total anarchy, no technology or advancement of medicine since everyone would be killing and stealing from each other, no science unless it was someone developing clever ways to save themself, the earth and this life would suck, just my opinion, but that's what I would call a decent contribution if there is any truth to it.

Isn't curious how religion or religious try to monopolize the morality of our country as if all humans without christianity are animals?

Humans know right and wrong without religion teaching it.