Ch 16

Well, since most people were not doing their blogs on time, we got assigned a distinct section to blog about, and that is the Conversion and Adaption in Spanish America.  As I began reading this section, it kind of depressed me because of the way that Europeans forced Christianity on the Native Americans. Honestly, whether the Native Americans were reluctant to follow Christianity or easily accepted the new culture, I strongly believe that it was not the Europeans choice to make. Forcing a religion on people is just outright wrong, and to think that Europeans thought that they could just convert people in any way is just disgusting. The Native Americans had their own beliefs and faiths before the Americas were discovered. They were living in peace and harmony. Its funny how at first people took their land, like that is not bad enough, next let’s just convert them to Christianity. That is just ridiculous that people can actually do things like this. The idea of blending two religions together makes a lot more sense to me. I mean it is still bad that people did not get to simply keep their own religions. But, at least when you blend two religions together it is sort of a meeting point, which in life seems more like a compromise then being forced to follow a certain religion. One quote in the textbook on page 469 is “ In Mexico as well, an immigrant Christianity was assimilated into patterns of local cultures”. Now reading that made me a lot happier. At least some people had the decency to accept that people had local cultures and beliefs before the arrival of the invaders. I’m sure that this kept the local people much happier as well. Assimilating two cultures and religions gives people the ability to make more choices.