[Jamestown1630]

I'm sorry if you perceived it as hostile, but it was a statement of fact - you cannot know them as they were, and your religion IS a relatively 'new' one.

Apropos the entire thread, though, there's a line from James Michener that I read long ago and has always stayed with me:

"If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion, and avoid the people, you might better stay home."

Michener was referring to actual travel, but I think it's just as true of intellectual 'travel' and reading history.

[ifinnegan]

“If you had been brought up and lived in Pompeii at the time, you would have understood it in a much deeper way than your ‘new religion’ has taught you to understand it now.”

You don’t understand that’s purposely hostile and demeaning.