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Showing posts from February, 2016

Inconvenient History – The Barbary Slave Trade

Once upon a time, slavers ravaged the coastal towns of the European continent. Eventually, the response to that would include clear proof that the United States is not founded on a religion. Soon thereafter, European imperialism would become the driving force for the abolition of slavery around the world. Continue reading to learn more. The Barbary Slave Trade is a relatively small part of the Arab Slave Trade, which itself is only one part of the Islamic Slave Trade (which besides Arab slavers, includes Turks enslaving Europeans and Africans, Muslim invaders of India and Sub-Saharan Africa, Malay enslavers of local minorities, and other Islamic slavers). For example, the Arab Slave Trade may have enslaved up to 18 million people over its span (not including those born enslaved), while the Barbary Slave Trade enslaved some number over 1 million. Bear in mind that this number is three times the number of enslaved people (roughly 388 thousand) sent to the area of the United Sta

My Questions as a Christian

When I was a Christian, I still had some semblance of logic.  I had questions, but they were never answered in any coherent way that would make the answers seem fair.  That definitely pushed me towards atheism, although I don't remember an exact moment of transition.  Anyway, here are two questions I had when I was a Christian: 1) Will pets (like the family cat) go to heaven? The answer I got was, "Yes."  I asked if animals go to heaven, and the answer was something like animals don't usually go to heaven, but my pet cat would go to heaven because it was something I wanted there, and God would give me whatever I wanted.  I don't think I said more, but I felt that was an incredibly unfair system, because my cat would be equally deserving to go to heaven even if she didn't have a human family that wanted it in heaven.  (Note that an answer of "No" would have also been incredibly unfair as well.) 2) Did Native Americans and other unreachable peopl