Sir82 said:
nothing creates more atheists than viewing the horrors of war from a foxhole.
True, but off the top of my head, aside from a college education in science (e.g. biology), another powerful force would surely be one like this?
FHN said:
I've known people who were not completely convinced either way about God's reality or non reality who decide to address their prayers to the Great Spirit. My father's maternal grandfather was full blooded native American. Dad always prayed to the Great Spirit. He was not agnostic, it's just what he was more comfortable with. When I left the org., I prayed to the Great Spirit. There are times I still address my prayers that way. I am not a doubter, but being a universalist, I don't feel a need to address God in any certain way.
WOW....
Knowing that one's ancestors were almost slaughtered via widespread genocide would make ME a bit gun-shy of worshipping ANY God, let alone the Abrahamic God worshipped by the very individuals who carried out the atrocities (and used the Holy Bible as their justification for doing it). You were a JW at one point?
If not outright genocide, there was the forced "acculturation" of American Indian children:
"Boarding schools and camps were set up where they underwent acculturation into white society. These schools were touted as an economical alternative solution to the nation’s “Indian problem” (as opposed to outright war). Under Grant’s Peace Policy of 1869, thousands of American Indian children as young as 5 years old were taken from their families and subjected to a life of harsh discipline and cultural cleansing. The schools were modeled after a prison school created by Captain Richard H. Pratt for Indian prisoners of war in Florida and were usually operated with military precision. Pratt’s philosophy of rigid order became the desired model. Punishment was swiftly meted out for offenses such as displaying any Indian tendencies. Students’ mouths were scrubbed out with lye soap for uttering any words in their native language. Children were virtual prisoners at the schools, forbidden to visit their parents, forced into hard labor, and subjected to a host of abuses including physical and sexual abuse by school officials and other students.
Since the schools usually functioned with limited funds, children frequently died from starvation or preventable diseases, although some managed to run away to their families and tribes, only to be hunted down like animals and brought back to what was Hell. Pratt’s philosophy to “kill the Indian to save the man” was widely embraced as a more humane, Christian solution for controlling the Indian population. Native children were trained to become “useful, contributing” members of the new America as domestic servants – the only role for which they were deemed fit. This policy of forced acculturation was supported by the U.S. government, which appropriated funds for more than 400 such schools. Many of these schools were governed and run by the Catholic Church, although I'm not sure if the RCC had any camps of their own. Many of these so-called "Christian" nuns and priests abused, starved and sexually terrorized their Indian wards."
