The Religious Hokum of Christopher Columbus

The older I get the more difficult it is to read history. On every continent of the world are people there because of brutal conquests back in time. I don't know of any place we can be certain is "indigenous." Reading about this country and my people, the white ones, is especially painful. One of the "heroes" is Columbus. He wrote of his capture and enslavement of indigenous people he found here and bragged at length of the victory for Christianity. Today, we have the same thing in Secretary of Defense Hegseth using his religion to justify cruelty.

The link contains a picture of Columbus' own handwriting which spells of the Godly virtue of his capture and enslavement of some natives. It was the work of the Lord. Of course, those who later brought slaves here from Africa also claimed a pious cause. The Bishops of Italy gave Columbus their blessing as he sailed off. He made two more trips here for fame and profit. I have beside the chair where I am sitting next to a new book on history of Sitting Bull. I know that history is so terrible I'm just not motivated to get into it.

That humans must take land, homes and possessions of other groups is bad enough. When it is done in the name of some invisible god the cruelty seems magnified. If Columbus and later slave holders were cruel and brutal people, let them stand before the public as such. Making up invisible gods to blame makes the crime bigger, not smaller.

To hear Christians explain history is to learn the terrible people of the past were Pagans and atheists. Pagan and atheists would be a good addition to today's decision makers and those in the past.