What Were They Thinking?

[Jesus The Inane]

Humans have had some weird and dumb traditions. Like sacrificing animals for their gods.

Let us put the Aztecs on the spot; they sacrifice humans so that the sun wouldn't stop rising. What were they thinking? Who came up with such an idea? I mean, one day there was this Indian looking at the sun and he thought, hmm, we should sacrifice humans (why humans) for the sun. Then he told the other Indians and they agreed? This sounds dumb. Is that how it happened? What were they thinking when they decided to sacrifice other humans?! They clearly didn't thought about the humans being sacrifice... Were they so selfish or what? I'm baffled.

[Alexander Beats Hannibal]

I'd imagine most of it started through greed really. Someone wants power, and they pretend to be able to speak with various gods and tell people how to avoid their wrath. The only thing that has really changed today is the length people will go.

[Jesus The Inane]

Amazing that people would believe that. Maybe they just wanted to feel safe or something like that...

[Rapax]

Originally posted by Jesus The Inane@May 29 2005, 09:26 PM
Amazing that people would believe that. Maybe they just wanted to feel safe or something like that...

Well it is kind of hard to place yourself in the position of someone from the middle ages or ancient times. You can't just sit there in front of the computer and say "god, they were stupid". For them the sunrise was an absolute wonder, not the simple fact of the earth rotating in a giant solar system.

[Avgvstvs]

You've really got to put yourself in the times; imagine, 500 years from now people could be saying things like:

"Haha, so stupid! They talked with cell phones! And they wondered why so many died from cancer!"

"They actually thought black holes were natural? How stupid can they be! They're so obviously trans-dimensional warp gates designed by the Klendathians!"

It's all about the available knowledge and at those times, knowledge was extremely limited.

[Black Francis]

Or maybe in 500 years they will be thinking: "How stupid they were in 2005, they didnt think there was a God!!!" *wink*

[Ravyn]

Originally posted by Black Francis@May 29 2005, 06:02 PM
Or maybe in 500 years they will be thinking: "How stupid they were in 2005, they didnt think there was a God!!!" *wink*

Yeah, or like how we think "How stupid people believed in a group of Gods that were controlling every aspect of life and nature" lol

People weren't exactly as logical as we are now. We've (as the human species) has really grown up since those times. Well, some of us... people still sacrifice animals to the devil or conducting voodoo rituals today.

[Lee1026]

Some people say it is due to the "dirty sock" tradition.
1. imagine you are a baseball player. you are wearing a dirty sock.
2. you won the game.
3. everyday for the next 3 weeks you keep wearing the dirty sock and you won all the games.
4. now you associate the dirty sock with winning the games.

it is not hard to apply that to the Aztecs. maybe what started them off was a elipse, in which they killed someone and then the elipse ended, and then after that they just keep scarificing people because they don't want the sun to go out.

in another 500 years I doubt our beliefs will be considered to be that stupid. our faith is founded on hard evidence. evidence that would stay true though out the ages. people 500 years from now will see us as giants that they are standing on. they probably won't think of us as idiots in the same way that we don't think people like newton are idiots.

[Bovril]

Originally posted by lee1026@May 29 2005, 07:22 PM
in another 500 years I doubt our beliefs will be considered to be that stupid. our faith is founded on hard evidence. evidence that would stay true though out the ages. people 500 years from now will see us as giants that they are standing on. they probably won't think of us as idiots in the same way that we don't think people like newton are idiots.

Newton studied alchemy you know.
We all act and think to an extend in a way that is a product of our times. Even the ideas of the greatest thinkers ever get overturned; no philosphers are platonists any more, and no astronomers use the same theories Galileo did. We laugh at we did ourselves not so long ago. Who can watch an 80s music video without cringing? Inevitably the same will be true of current rap videos or whatever, even if we like them now.
To understand the Aztecs we have to try and get on there own terms. They believed in magic, and sacrificing you enemies to ensure the stability of the universe is a sort of magic. They had different idea about the value of human life. They saw the gods as not necessarily benevolent but masters that could reward or punish them, according to how well they attended to the gods needs. The symbolic significance of the sacrifice of life to propogate the life of the universe must have been very important too. There's a whole bunch of reasons why the Aztecs did it. Its just looking at it with our preconceptions and beliefs it seems wierd. If you accept the Aztec world view it seems entirely logical.

[Aaron88]

Originally posted by lee1026@May 29 2005, 07:22 PM
Some people say it is due to the "dirty sock" tradition.
1. imagine you are a baseball player. you are wearing a dirty sock.
2. you won the game.
3. everyday for the next 3 weeks you keep wearing the dirty sock and you won all the games.
4. now you associate the dirty sock with winning the games.

it is not hard to apply that to the Aztecs. maybe what started them off was a elipse, in which they killed someone and then the elipse ended, and then after that they just keep scarificing people because they don't want the sun to go out.

That's a pretty good analogy :happy . But as for people in the future looking at us as giants, most of our theories will probably be replaced with better ones. Just as people believed the sun went around the earth and there was lots of "evidence" to support it, there's probably going to be another gallileo or newton who's going to come along with more revoultionary ideas to change the ones we already have.

[Rapax]

Originally posted by Bovril@May 30 2005, 03:38 AM
Inevitably the same will be true of current rap videos or whatever, even if we like them now.

Interesting, I find them stupid already. :cool

But yeah, humanity, if it doesn't destroy itself, will keep evolving further and further, learning more and understanding better our world. Sure most basic facts we have already discovered will stay the same, but people might be looking at it from a totally different angle. They might invent or develop things that are beyond our wildest dreams now and scratch their heads wondering why we didn't come to these simple solutions.
As for pop culture, I'm sure a lot of people will shake their heads in a hundred years if they examine the music we listened to, the movies we watched and the clothes we wore. Hell I have my doubts already.

[Lee1026]

But as for people in the future looking at us as giants, most of our theories will probably be replaced with better ones.

I was refering to the phase "we are all standing on the shoulder of giants" we are the future's giants, the way that we are standing on shoulders of those who comes before us.