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Archiver > Scotch-Irish > 2000-03 > 0952493851


From: Frances <>
Subject: Re: Religious debate
Date: Wed, 08 Mar 2000 00:37:31 -0500


There is much talk about the religion issue and I feel that I need to put in
my two cents worth. Religion was a driving motivating factor in our
ancestors lives. The Scotch Irish held very strong religious principles and
those principles drove them from religious persecution into the new
world. Their religious history is very important not from an emotional
viewpoint, not from a view point of where we are in life, but from the view
point of a serious researcher trying to determine why their ancestors made
the decisions they did. Ancient documents contain words that we no longer
use. It makes a lot of sense to ask what those words mean in order to
translate them for our use and research.
I think that researchers must try to leave their feelings out of any search
they doing because you need to be objective in analyzing the information.
The religion thread was interesting to me because it stimulated another
angle of research. This is just my humble opinion, I don't think the
discussion belongs on another list if it is intended to research our
ancestors in the context of their lives.
Frances

Daphne Kilbourn-Jacob wrote:

> Tina McGarry wrote:
> >
> > Please move the religious debate to an appropriate list.
> Dear List Members,
> I have mixed feelings about this debate. However, my primary feeling is
> that without understanding of the history of religion, one cannot
> understand the Scotch-Irish Culture, the migrations due to intolerance
> and hatred, the slaughter of innocents that continues today in many
> countries throughout the world. People need not subscribe to any organ-
> ized faith to recognize how vital a need for religion fills in a peoples
> life. Even the cave dwellers felt this need in preparing their dead for
> an afterlife or making supplication for a successful hunt.
> Religious strife has marked the history of the Scotch-Irish since the
> Plantation Era. Can 400 years of history be ignored?
> If the details of the discussion at hand are not relavent to List
> Members, the delete button is available for any subject not interesting
> to the reader.
> Daphne Jacob

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