In the history of humankind, There have been a pantheon of gods, sons of gods, and prophets that profess to not only know the future but be in communication with god/gods.
All of these myths and legends have been explicitly used to control a society, tribe, or group of people to obey worship and handover power and wealth to the professed "religious" leader.
The Egyptians have been the most successful with over 5000 years of uninterrupted power. Inevitably these beliefs all end, giving way to a new belief. The reason for this is simply that the people, tribe, or society wake up to reality. How does that happen? Well in many cases by simply tossing a rock.
In 1778 Captain James Cook anchored off the Hawaiian Islands to provision his two ships. There he discovered the natives. These natives, when seeing Cook thought him a god. They treated him as such. When his men took liberties, by raping the local women, the natives ignored this transgression. When ordered around, the natives obeyed. After a year of this abuse, some of the natives began to become disillusioned. After seeing your wife and children (girls & boys) raped, beaten and humiliated by drunken assholes, you can see why. One day at Kealakekua Bay one native had too much and rebelled. He threw a rock that struck Cook and caused him to bleed. Upon seeing their god bleed and thus being a mere mortal, the natives attacked Cook and killed him where he stood.
All religion is like this event. Every god, son of god, prophet, is a fake. One needs to but toss a rock to see the reality of the myth. That rock needn't actually be a rock. A logical question will do. No myth can stand the scrutiny of investigation.
Subscription Note:
Choosing to subscribe to this topic will automatically register you for email notifications for comments and updates on this thread.
Email notifications will be sent out daily by default unless specified otherwise on your account which you can edit by going to your userpage here and clicking on the subscriptions tab.
That slanderous version of Captain Cook's death was a Christian moralistic fable and anti-British propaganda concocted by an American missionary, Sheldon Dibble. Cook was killed in a dispute over a stolen boat. He tried to seize a local chief and hold him to ransom for the return of the boat, but in the confusion a local warrior hit him over the head with a club. While he was unconscious in the surf, another warrior stabbed him.
This incident happened during Cook's second visit to Hawaii. Dibble claims that Cook had allowed himself to be worshipped as a god and was condemned by the "real" god for that sin, and also for fornication by his crew. After Cook's ship left Hawaii, it ran into a storm and suffered a broken mast. He returned to Hawaii to repair and reprovision the ship.
It's a long time since I learned this stuff at school, but I recall that Cook had also gotten mixed up in a local religious conflict in progress in Hawaii.
Well, I grew up in Hawaii. There is a display in the museum of Hawaiian history that tells the story.
Dibble wrote the history book. Nobody challenged it until recent times. We had different textbooks in New Zealand. Cook's still regarded as a national hero there, even more than in the UK.
I've heard Hawaiians say that Cook was eaten, too. We were taught that the local people gave him a chief's funeral.
Very interesting, @Mykcob, and @Algebe.
This reminds me as a kid, I was taught the inventor of the first military submarine was Isaac Peral (I'm from Madrid); later in life, some Catalan friends told me they were taught it was Narcìs Monturiol and most of you were probably taught that it was David Bushnell or others... Also, national heroes are not different than divine entities regarding legendary additives.
It totally makes sense Cook's story was changed: In the Hawaiian version (probably the most accurate), Cook doesn't look like a very attractive hero, but an unscrupulous pirate instead.
P.S. I've just realized this was my 500th post. So for my sanity, I'm taking a break off the forum. Read you guys in a while. Have fun and be nice!
History is written by the victors. If we forget that, our view of the past will always be skewed.
I'm signing off for a while too. If I spend any more time on AR, my novel isn't going to get finished. But I daresay the rest of you guys will manage perfectly well without me.
@Flamencabot: "Cook doesn't look like a very attractive hero, but an unscrupulous pirate instead."
I'm sure he was no angel, but his achievements were monumental, especially for the son of a poor farm labourer. Did you know that he's the reason Americans call Brits "Limey"? Many sailors in those days suffered from scurvy. Cook figured out that it was something missing from their diet, so he made every sailor on his ships eat limes, which are full of vitamin C. The scurvy stopped. After that it became the on British ships that everyone had to eat limes.
As for the submarine, everyone knows that was invented by Jules Verne.
I don't think got a chief's funeral because there is no landmark as where he was buried. I doubt he was eaten as Hawaiians were not cannibals. He does have a landmark though. One of the first things he did was build an Officer's Mess or club. On the sight, there is still a bar called the Rose & Crown. It is very popular with Aussies. It's a fun place. A piano player is a star (they have a few) and every night the whole place regales in singing WW I fighter songs. The songs have been modified to fit modern sensibilities and some comical parodies. They sing "Oklahoma" from the musical but is has been changed to "Okinawa".
@Mykcob4: "I doubt he was eaten as Hawaiians were not cannibals."
Really? The Maori certainly were, and they have close cultural and linguistic links to the Hawaians and Tahitians. I guess we'll never know for sure because of all the lies and propaganda spread by missionaries in the Pacific. The Maori ritually ate warriors defeated in battle.
As far as I know, there hasn't been any acts of cannibalism committed by any Hawaiian on any record.