Babylon 5: Believers

[Beastro]

Finally got around to watching the video.

All it left me wishing is that JMS had found a way of working his Twilight Zone plot into an episode of B5. Maybe have a ship show up at the station with having had to do something like that and have a court martial held over the legality of the crews choice akin to old trials over shipwreck survivors having to survive by resorting the cannibalism.

[CareerKnight]

Alright, lets say that some aliens scooped up twenty five thousand Aztecs and their surrounding vassal peoples from around 1500, plopped them down on an alien planet with access to a library of technology allowing them to accelerate their technological development as they kept up their religion (adjusting it in light of scientific insight but retaining The Gods Demand Sacrifice parts) so that by 2259 they had Spaceships of their own and an Aztec Priest from what is effectively an alien civilization removed from the Earth Federation arrived.

Zor

It would likely depend whether they were considered part of humanity or not (and whether such a group would even be welcome on B5 in the first place). If yes then who the hell knows how it would work out. If no then the station would probably go along with it (we invited them knowing they are like this, can't really complain) as long as they didn't target aliens or humans... and did it far away from everyone else.

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

Fun Fact: most aztec human sacrifices were volunteers!

[Beastro]

Fun Fact: most aztec human sacrifices were volunteers!

That wasn't the worst the Aztecs did.

It doesn't excuse the vassal system of not-so-vassal states that they're periodically declare war on so they could always have someone to fight and beat up instead of trying to integrate them into a proper working empire that could have resisted a small band of Spaniards instead of flocking to aid them.

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

Fun Fact: most aztec human sacrifices were volunteers!

That wasn't the worst the Aztecs did.

It doesn't excuse the vassal system of not-so-vassal states that they're periodically declare war on so they could always have someone to fight and beat up instead of trying to integrate them into a proper working empire that could have resisted a small band of Spaniards instead of flocking to aid them.

Yeah I'm not saying they were nice. Just correcting a commonly held misconception about how their religion worked.

[Yukaphile]

Even if 90% were volunteers, I can't support the sacrificing of even one unarmed innocent who is unwilling, especially since we know their beliefs were wrong. They stopped sacrificing, and the sun is still rising. Sounds just like a group of priests who were abusing their power. Just like any other religion throughout history.

[Beastro]

Sounds just like a group of priests who were abusing their power. Just like any other religion throughout history.

Assumes a modern mentality where there wasn't one, effecively that they were more like cynical company producers making product with maximum appeal than people trying to figure out the best way to make things better for their people. That may sound hard to understand, but such is religious way of thinking for many in the moern world.

Sacrifice is a complex concept, but it boiled down to embodying sacrificing something important today for a better tomorrow, something we still act out every day, we just have removed the literal ritual of offering something important as a symbol of our willingness to make tomorrow better.

Nothing is more important to us than a human life, which is why we find the act so repugnant, but to them it was why it was so importantas it was the greatest thing they could offer. That's where the voluntary angle matters, and as you said, even if 90% were voluntary it doesn't change the remaining 10% that were sent off to make others lives better.

[Yukaphile]

This seems like historical revision, tbh. An attempt to paint a tribe as less barbaric than they were. Take the Incans. I prefer them over the Aztecs. And their beliefs were just plain wrong. We know that. The sun is still here. They didn't make others' lives better, they died needlessly. It doesn't matter if it's here or a thousand years ago. There were other, "more civilized" peoples back then. Again, the Incans. So don't give me that "it was another time" argument. Hell, why do you think people were so eager to ally with the Spanish? They HATED the Aztecs that much. If they hadn't been so obsessive with their need for sacrifices to the point they set up garland wars that drew many unwilling victims, I doubt the Spanish would have been able to conquer them. I don't see this as a situation that's like TOS's "A Taste of Armageddon." I can't see any culture behaving that way unless their culture is bankrupt, pure and simple, whether it's now or 15,000 years ago.

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

I think the Incas hated them more for the territorial expansionist bullshit than the human sacrifice stuff.

[TGLS]

But the Inca were pretty far away from the Aztecs in the Andes.