textbook sample from a history textbook touted for 5th to *12th* graders
And yet they blame atheism and secularism as the reason for american students constant steep decline in standardized testing scores.
They can't see that by only teaching things that conform to a 2000 year old book of fairy tales (A book which they hold up as infallible despite it's many inconsistencies) that they are robbing their children of important and vital information that could give them a distinct advantage in the world and allow them to rise above the delusions of mediocrity that would otherwise be their lot life.
Well, we know that pagans
And we will, no doubt, see just how little that the authors actually know about paganism.
who let their own
impulses rule as gods in their lives rather than acknowledging the supremacy of God and His lawsare quite happy to prey on the weak.
And christians don't do exactly the same? I can't count the number of times i've witnessed christians, both clergy and layperson alike, take advantage of someones personal tragedy or serious illness as both a means to forcibly convert them, and to solicite donations by implying that whatever has befallen that person can easily be fixed by turning to "god" and giving a "love offering" of X amount of dollars.
That is barbaric. Do you see?
How do you expect people to see what you are talking about when you don't even know in the first place?
Paganism automatically creates barbarism.
Would you care to explain why the Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Chinese, and countless other empires all reached their zenith as what you would call pagans? The Roman Empire was well into it's decline when it became wholly christian and completely collapsed just a scant century or so afterwards.
Also, since you seem to be completely unaware of this fact, most of the "barbarians" at that time had already converted to christianity. How can you author a history textbook when you are either unaware or willfully ignorant of history? History is not a subject in which you can make it up as you go along, nor is it a subject that you can embelish and twist until it fits into your agenda. When you do that you are no longer teaching history, you are teaching fiction.
Pound, pound, pound this truth into your head!
How can they? You haven't given them the truth.
When you are tempted to be your own god by acting on your own wrong impulses, remember that you would be acting like a pagan
You don't even know what paganism is.
which would lead you to do barbaric things, things which hurt others
Yes because burnig heretics and killing non converts hasn't ever hurt anyone... even the heathens, pagans, and heretics, right?
When the world around you says it wants to be free of God’s laws
The world around you isn't subject to the laws of "god". There is no "god" enforcing them, and for men to enforce them would make them not "god's" laws, but man's laws.
and makes that freedom’ sound happy-go-lucky
You can be quite sure that anybody who values their freedom isn't "happy-go-lucky" about. They are dead serious, those who would cast off their freedom for ideological slavery don't deserve it in the first place.
For their quest is just a pretty description of paganism.
It's not a description of paganism. For fuck's sake can't you even be bothered to look up the fucking definition before you put it into a so-called "textbook"? How can you claim to want to educate others when you can't bother to educate yourself? You can't make up history as you go along, nor can you redefine a word and then superimpose it on a period of history and then expect your new definition to retroactivly apply. How dare you consider yourself educator or a historian, or even a christian for that matter. What kind of good "god" fearing christian is going to constanly break the commandment's prohibiting lying and bearing false witness?
which will lead to barbarism. And to what does barbarism lead? Destruction! Suffering! Pain!
You forgot to include the "dark side" in your list there, Yoda. Do you even realuze that most "pagan" societies were not backward barbarians, but instead the very foundations of the civilization you now enjoy. Christianity didn't invent or create civilization as we know it, pagans did.
"Ignorance educate thyself!"