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Originally Posted by pigglet
Man, I totally just changed my mind. I'm switching to a sub-culture variant called piggletism where it's acceptable to beat women, kill minorities, and burn babies with hot candle-wax. You might not like it, but don't tell me it's wrong. It's my new heritage.[/i]
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So what should we do when we make true (not conspiracy-based) first contact with an alien civilization? If we're willing to accept different ways of life from other planets, then it's not that much of an extension to expect us to accept it from within our own species.
Many historical precedents have been set, with the most notable being Christopher Columbus. In the late 15th Century, the Christian church had convinced everybody in Europe that it was impossible to lead a decent life without Christ. So when Columbus "discovered" millions of perfectly happy, healthy, and productive people who had never heard of Christ, it radically shook the foundations of Christianity. One of the tangible outcomes of the 1492 discoveries in the New World was the Protestant Reformation of 1517, where Christians told their churches they were fed up at being lied to. And predictably, the church did everything in its power to completely eliminate the heathen Indians.
ARTelevision started a fascinating thread along these same lines in Tilted Philosophy (
http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/showthread.php?t=66403) and it's worth a look.