12-14-2005, 05:23 AM
Ben Ami,
Thanks for your reply. When reading it I at times thought you hated me and not my post, but when I finished reading yours I was relieved to know it was my writing that you were aiming for after all. (Phew)
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->how come you know so much about the prechristian peoples of europe??
would you tell me the answer on here or better by mail.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Let's just say that I was good at history when I lived for 10 years in North-Western Europe.
I'd known only good people when living there. They always treated me and others well, never made it difficult for me for being an Indian and for being a Hindu. So, maybe I'm just returning the favour by coming up for who they are.
I hate neo-nazis as much as the next person (and have vented a lot myself), but it's better to think of the good majority than the scary minority. It's also the reason why I don't believe the Jewish nation could have committed the many genocides detailed in the Old Testament. They are nothing like that today, so I don't think they were ever like that before. They don't force us to convert into believing in one God or anything, so I'm hoping the contents of the OT relating to the genocides have some non-literal meaning. But I'm no expert at all on Jewish history.
As for the Vikings being better than the Christians (you appear to know this very well already), this well-known fact is on painful display at www.jesusneverexisted.com. In particular such pages as http://www.jesusneverexisted.com/tribes.html for the Germans and http://www.jesusneverexisted.com/britain.html for the Saxons. Ignorant when it comes to writing they may have been, but they were better-natured than their oppressors.
It is true that the Vikings (maybe not the pre-Viking Norse and German people) had good relations with the Arabians, although I am no longer as certain about contacts with Jewish people. I was sure I'd read it somewhere, but it could just be my imagination since I can't find it now <!--emo&:unsure:--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/unsure.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='unsure.gif' /><!--endemo--> . I'll trust your knowledge on that part.
That mostly-fantasy film "The 13th warrior" based its premise on one historical fact at least: an Arabian joined in with Vikings for a while and wrote about them later when he returned to his lands. And the Germanic people did have impressive buildings (although some of their religious spots were mowed over to have churches built on top of the place - big surprise), they didn't have cities as I've said, but what they had in buildings was not a style adapted from the Romans or whoever. From hand-rendered pictures they looked to have been made from wood. Large boles of trees perhaps. Totally nothing like the Roman or Greek architecture. They weren't huts (not that huts are bad, if I can stay dry and warm in them I'll be happy in one), as they were much larger and had largish halls.
As is known the Vikings had ships, although their ships look a bit like old Russian ones, though in saying that, I don't know in which direction that innovation travelled.
In my opinion, I feel that the Zulus did have a civilisation. As I've indicated, I define the term differently from you, because I hate the dictionary definition which is demeaning to many ancient people like many African tribes and the Australian Aboriginals who've managed to co-exist with others. That's more civilised than people who enslave others, colonise others or discriminate. Whatever they had, it's obviously better than what they've been dealt now.
Don't you feel it is unHindu and dishonourable to our ancestors and to God to think badly of other people and believe them incapable of noble thoughts and evolving from where Christianity put them? I dislike America far more than Europe, because America hasn't learned from Europe's mistakes and wants to tread the same path. But I don't hate Americans, because most of them are very good and many are against Pax-Americana.
As Hindus we should see those aspects that we have in common with other people and try and identify the good. The reason we have heroes like Rama, Krishna and Arjuna is so we can learn to emulate them and better ourselves in the process. We must try to make our minds as great as theirs. The first step is to not waste time by polluting our minds with the bad (like reading the sick writings of neo-nazis and hoping to convince them to see their error). And when we see good, even if small or rare, we must value it - like when meeting other people or cultures in the world.
Thanks for your reply. When reading it I at times thought you hated me and not my post, but when I finished reading yours I was relieved to know it was my writing that you were aiming for after all. (Phew)
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->how come you know so much about the prechristian peoples of europe??
would you tell me the answer on here or better by mail.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Let's just say that I was good at history when I lived for 10 years in North-Western Europe.
I'd known only good people when living there. They always treated me and others well, never made it difficult for me for being an Indian and for being a Hindu. So, maybe I'm just returning the favour by coming up for who they are.
I hate neo-nazis as much as the next person (and have vented a lot myself), but it's better to think of the good majority than the scary minority. It's also the reason why I don't believe the Jewish nation could have committed the many genocides detailed in the Old Testament. They are nothing like that today, so I don't think they were ever like that before. They don't force us to convert into believing in one God or anything, so I'm hoping the contents of the OT relating to the genocides have some non-literal meaning. But I'm no expert at all on Jewish history.
As for the Vikings being better than the Christians (you appear to know this very well already), this well-known fact is on painful display at www.jesusneverexisted.com. In particular such pages as http://www.jesusneverexisted.com/tribes.html for the Germans and http://www.jesusneverexisted.com/britain.html for the Saxons. Ignorant when it comes to writing they may have been, but they were better-natured than their oppressors.
It is true that the Vikings (maybe not the pre-Viking Norse and German people) had good relations with the Arabians, although I am no longer as certain about contacts with Jewish people. I was sure I'd read it somewhere, but it could just be my imagination since I can't find it now <!--emo&:unsure:--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/unsure.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='unsure.gif' /><!--endemo--> . I'll trust your knowledge on that part.
That mostly-fantasy film "The 13th warrior" based its premise on one historical fact at least: an Arabian joined in with Vikings for a while and wrote about them later when he returned to his lands. And the Germanic people did have impressive buildings (although some of their religious spots were mowed over to have churches built on top of the place - big surprise), they didn't have cities as I've said, but what they had in buildings was not a style adapted from the Romans or whoever. From hand-rendered pictures they looked to have been made from wood. Large boles of trees perhaps. Totally nothing like the Roman or Greek architecture. They weren't huts (not that huts are bad, if I can stay dry and warm in them I'll be happy in one), as they were much larger and had largish halls.
As is known the Vikings had ships, although their ships look a bit like old Russian ones, though in saying that, I don't know in which direction that innovation travelled.
In my opinion, I feel that the Zulus did have a civilisation. As I've indicated, I define the term differently from you, because I hate the dictionary definition which is demeaning to many ancient people like many African tribes and the Australian Aboriginals who've managed to co-exist with others. That's more civilised than people who enslave others, colonise others or discriminate. Whatever they had, it's obviously better than what they've been dealt now.
Don't you feel it is unHindu and dishonourable to our ancestors and to God to think badly of other people and believe them incapable of noble thoughts and evolving from where Christianity put them? I dislike America far more than Europe, because America hasn't learned from Europe's mistakes and wants to tread the same path. But I don't hate Americans, because most of them are very good and many are against Pax-Americana.
As Hindus we should see those aspects that we have in common with other people and try and identify the good. The reason we have heroes like Rama, Krishna and Arjuna is so we can learn to emulate them and better ourselves in the process. We must try to make our minds as great as theirs. The first step is to not waste time by polluting our minds with the bad (like reading the sick writings of neo-nazis and hoping to convince them to see their error). And when we see good, even if small or rare, we must value it - like when meeting other people or cultures in the world.