Hi Brent,
You say, "They (the Spanish) subjugated the Aztecs and Inca for king and gold. European disease may have killed a lot of them, but killing them off was not a purpose of the conquistadors - though they were certainly revolted by the bloody sacrificial rites of the Aztecs."
I am revolted too. And I am also revolted by the bloody treachery of Cortes. One web site said, "Cholula, with a population of 100,000, was the second city of the Aztec empire. It had thrived for more than a millennium. In 1519, Cortés chose Cholula to demonstrate his Christian credentials. He massacred several thousand unarmed members of the Aztec nobility in the central plaza and then burned down much of the city."
If you Google "Spanish atrocities Inca Aztec" (without the quotes) you'll find many references. The Spanish Conquest not only subjugated the Aztecs and Inca but destroyed them - along with the cultures of the Caribbean islands.
Anyway, all this is beside the point I wanted to make, which is that True Believers, whether Muslim, Christian, or heathen, cause harm, destruction or misfortune, and are therefore evil.
My principal question is this: Is this evil inevitable in intelligent life? I suspect it is. And when life gets intelligent enough, and evolved enough, it figures out how to make A-bombs and other WMDs. Then it may exterminate itself or, as you suggested, use up the raw materials accessible to it - and this explains Fermi's Paradox.
Norman
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Received on Thu Jul 06 2006 - 01:39:45 PDT