On Wed, Dec 23, 2015 at 1:07 AM, John Clark <[email protected]> wrote:
> On Tue, Dec 22, 2015 at 4:18 PM, Telmo Menezes <[email protected]> > wrote: > > >> > >> In realty, 16th century Spaniards couldn't give a rat's ass about human >> rights. >> > > True without the slightest doubt. > > > >> > >> It's just that the Aztecs were worshiping the wrong deity >> > > Also true. > > > > >> they could have respected the historical and anthropological value of >> Aztec temples, instead of burning everything down to extract the gold > > > They could have, but to respect something it must be respectable and I > guess the Spaniards didn't find human sacrifice to be respectable. > You value the telescope because you have scientific curiosity. In fact you place scientific curiosity as a high value. I agree with you. I also understand that you are curious about stars and like physics. I am also curious about stars. Don't you see that people who are curious about ancient cultures have a similar drive? Just in a different field on inquiry? Why is preventing one type of scientific endeavor ok (destroying Aztec temples) but objecting to the telescope not ok? You could even argue that the former is graver because the data was destroyed forever, while the telescope can always be built. > > > >> there was no Nazi culture. > > > Don't be silly, they had customs and social institutions so of course > there was a Nazi culture, a malignant culture but a culture nevertheless. > What the Nazi's lacked wasn't culture but civilization. > Well ok, in the same sense that Scientology has a culture I guess. > > >> > >> What I am saying is that you cannot bomb a population into reason >> > > But you should be able > > to say a population is acting moronically if that population is acting > moronically. > Of course you should. But if you want your telescope, it might be more productive to try to empathize. Perhaps there's a way to make everyone happy. There is also legitimate scientific curiosity to be had about the belief system of those people, how they see the world, etc. It's a piece of the puzzle towards understanding our own species. Telmo. > > John K Clark > > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Everything List" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

