Would you say this is a fair comparison of Christianity and pre-columbian religions?

Personally I would rather be sacrificed for rain than subjected to the pedophilic attentions of the RC molester's club for men.

Good point Lawrence. Some of the Spanish may have committed atrocities against the Native Americans there but overall, Christianity was a positive force and influence on their culture; their ways of life were very barbaric, including human sacrifice. Christianity helped developed their societies, and most of their descendants are still Catholics today.

The "answer" you cited is perhaps an attempt at sarcasm, but it is absolute nonsense. there already are several other responses that present a much more accurate version of historical fact.

I'm just weighing in, because so many people seem to blame Christianity for everything they don't like about civilization-- as if the world would be a much better place if Christians had never existed.

So who had the bad religion? A little research should lead people to a reasonable answer.

The first source recounts the religious practices of the Inca. Among them:

Priests throwing corn onto the hot coals of a fire and saying, "Eat this Lord Sun so that you will know that we are your children.

Humans were also sacrificed – everyday at sunrise and on other important occasions. Catastrophes such as a military defeat, a famine or spreading disease required a human sacrifice. So too did a special occasion for a king. People without physical blemishes were preferred to better please the gods. Many of the sacrificed were children, occasionally two hundred at a time. Before being sacrificed, the children were lavished with attention and food so as not to enter the presence of the gods hungry and crying.

So contrast that to information from the second and third sources:

UNESCO, relating to world heritage sites:

The Society of Jesus established itself in the region known as the Guayrá in 1588, by permission of Philip II. One of its objectives became the protection of the Indians against the abuses of the encomienda system, which reduced them to a condition of virtual slavery; at the same time they would be brought into the Christian Church and educated into a sedentary form of life. Following the granting of the frontier zone of Paraguay to the Jesuits in 1609 by the Spanish Crown, they moved into the lands of the Guaraní people in the Rio de la Plata basin, where they created reducciones (settlements), each with its mission. There were 30 in all, 8 in latter-day Paraguay, 15 in Argentina, and 7 in Brazil.

Jesuit publication:

Not only had the Jesuits tried to protect them from the slave, gold and silver hunters who flooded in from Europe, bringing prostitution and alcohol, but also from the locally born mixed race populations in both Spanish and Portuguese colonies who sought to enslave them with differing degrees of cruelty. In the protected environment of the Reductions the Jesuits, in a remarkably short space of time, raised the Guaranís to a very high level of cultural sophistication and introduced them to European agricultural expertise and many other skills.

The Guaranís became bilingual in the Guaraní language and Latin, performed baroque music to a very high standard and also learnt to compose music.

...and from Wikipedia:

When the Kingdom of Portugal's explorers discovered Brazil in the 15th century and started to colonize its new possessions in the New World, the territory was inhabited by various indigenous peoples and tribes which had developed neither a writing system nor school education. The Society of Jesus (Jesuits) was since its beginnings in 1540, a missionary order. Evangelisation was one of the main goals of the Jesuits, but they were also committed to teaching and education, both in Europe and overseas. The missionary activities, both in the cities and in the countryside, were complemented by a strong commitment to education. This took the form of the opening of schools for young boys, first in Europe, but rapidly extended to America and Asia. The foundation of Catholic missions, schools, and seminaries was another consequence of the Jesuit involvement in education. As the spaces and cultures where the Jesuits were present varied considerably, their evangelising methods were very often quite different from one place to another. However, the Society's engagement in trade, architecture, science, literature, languages, arts, music and religious debate corresponded, in fact, to the same main purpose of Christianisation

Jesus came to save whosoever believes in Him.

The early christians has to do some drastic measures to attain the goal and suffered persecution in so doing.

Ancient history is ancient... it is a link to our past and we learn pretty good lessons from it. But the gospel of Jesus do prevail up to now.

Christianity never encourages death.

This is a lie perpetuated by those who hate Christianity, particularly Catholicism.

"Not 100 people hate the Catholic Church, but millions hate what they mistakenly believe the Catholic Church to be."

-Venerable Fulton J. Sheen

"Children were especially chosen to be sacrificed to Tlaloc, the rain god. The Aztecs believed that the tears of new-born or very young children could ensure rain."

http://archaeology.about.com/od/Aztec-Religion/a/A...

Hey, if you have a better way to get rain, I'd like to hear it!

Very funny, Ha, Ha. But you have no idea what your talking about.