Are the native americans that had no idea what Christianity was before europeans arrived, suffering in hell?
915820
No, there is no hell.
849353
There is no excuse for what happened to the Cherokees or any other Indian tribes in the early America history.  I am deeply disturbed by all the sorrow and pain my people have had to endure, even up to the present.
231691
Difficult to answer this question because "Hell" is either (a) a very specific mythic system from Christian religion, or (b) a general type of negative afterlife experience from many religions.\n\nThe Christian idea of Hell, to be brief, evolved out of the older Jewish idea of Gehenna, which in turn evolved out of Zoroastrian beliefs of the afterlife.  The first religions to develop the idea of a place of terrible punishment for actions committed in life into which we are transported after physical death were the Zoroastrians of Persia (present day Iran) and the Jains of India.  The Jewish Gehenna was more of a temporary holding place with punishment, closer in spirit in fact to the contemporary Catholic idea of Purgatory.\n\nThe ancient Egyptians have the first recorded idea of after-death punishment, but not so much for crimes committed in life as for other questions.  This was the terrible afterlife to which your soul (technically, since we are talking ancient Egyptian religion, one of your seven souls, but the immortal and personal one, that corresponds to the contemporary Christian idea of the soul) would be consigned by Anubis after weighing your heart against a feather.  If you were found lacking, into the abyss with you, to be devoured by the Crocodile Goddess Maat (this wasn't eternal punishment, though, for once you were devoured extinction followed, whereas the keystone of the Christian hell is permanence).  If you were judged worthy, the Egyptian afterlife guardians sent you to the Western Lands to await immortality.\n\nMost early religious history does not emphasize punishment after death.  That was partly a historical development, believe it or not, of the idea of civil law.  Once the earthly idea of judgment and punishment based on a code of conduct appeared (that would be starting with Hammurabi, of course, but it was under the Greco-Roman legal system that it became so much more central), a spiritual equivalent emerged also.
330334
They probably think killing somebody as stupid as you would be a favour to the rest of us\nFurthermore in 1492 a lot of native americans were asking the same question about Europeans.\nMaybe if you looked at the world as a full of people rather than "different" people you would have a little less to worry about
182014
No!  They had laws that they had to live by to determine if they were faithful to God.  \n\nThere's no hell....just permanent destruction.
123053
Columbus was the first person from Europe to write that the natives would be good for slavery and other forms of exploitation.  \n\nFor the most part, Native Americans don't like columbus.
633264
Hi.  This is a very interesting question and one that is close to home for me. I am a home educator and when I first began home schooling my children, like the year before, I brushed up on history.  So many things were difficult to tell my children, namely, the beginning when so many lives were lost during the Europeans taking over the land. I think what we walked away with year after year (now 10 years of teaching this topic) is that the native americans at first were quite puzzled as to why anyone would want to fight over this land, as they did not even view it as their own. The land didn't belong to them any more than the white man. If I am correct, they believe the land was there by \nGod(s) and we are to replenish it and respect it. White believed what ever they could take by force, should be theirs. Now I do not set around blaming Europeans any more than I hold present Native Americans responsible for the killings that some of tribes attributed to. But I do believe that lack of compassion is taught in our school books, when introducing America to our children. There are many Christian history books that I have bought and read and taught from however, that do teach this compassion to the original people, the Native Americans.  Interesing also is that some folks do not believe "native Americans" were the native people, but that vikings such as Leif Ericson were the first in North America.  Or maybe the Asians, who came across the Bering St. before the ocean covered it...and that is where native americans come from?  Sorry to be so lengthy. I just love history of America and this topic is near my heart.  God bless!
1100231
The US was originally settled by fundamentalists who were so God crazy they were run out of England. It's been downhill ever since.
406066
yes it is their culture not yours and we can judge that is not right for us but we should live and let live and accept that other people are different and if according to your beliefs they are going to burn in hell well so be it someones gotta do it , and the same human sacrificers who are trying to make sure they wil have good crops this season could look at the american society and say those barbarians they executed a german and two mexicans without giving them a translator at their own hearing and they bombed the hell out or iraq killing millions, they have serial killers, and gangs what monsters and have you seen their form of christianity they protest at funerals and have websites that say god hates america and god hates fags and their tv evangelist christian leader pat robertson made a terrorist threat against the president of valenzuela,their president annialates civilization for lesser crimes than that, or you could look at india or japan where ther is a caste system and outcaste system and these outcaste are raped killed tortured exploited enslaved what ever does not matter they are disposable members of society to filthy to live in society but not to filthy to have sex with and saudi arabia and some african countries still stone people for religious reasons or rules that were broken , should we just make it all worse by condemning each other and being intolerant because hey cant have too much evil.,I dont think that is the answer if we want to be taken seriously as individuals and as societies then we need to give different societies the same respect that we expect to take from them
162732
People say that hell is for people who haven't eccepted Jesus as their personal savior.\n\nAll non-christians are burning in hell simply because they didn't believe something?That always bothered me as a child.Most christians were raised with their religion,so were other religions.People have been told that their religion was true all their life.Don't you think it is unfair for christians to  have been raised with the "right"religion,while others were raised with the "wrong" one."they have a choice",some christians say.If a hindu went to a christian and said,"You will reincarnate when you die",the christian would have a hard time believing it because all his or her life he/she has been taught that heaven is where you go when you die.If a christian has a hard time accepting reincarnation,then a hindu would have a hard time accepting Jesus.People were raised with their religion throughout  their entire childhood.It's their truth.\n\n\nI really don't believe there is a hell.Man made concepts of good and bad,not God. I don't care what the bible says.I don't believe it is the word of God.The messages are too inconsistant.If it was the works of God,then he couldn't seem to make up his mind.
73839
I think the messy business of the European colonization of the American Continents is pretty much common knowledge.  Who, exactly, are you trying to incite then?  Is it the millions of North & South Americans who now lead comfortable, modern lives, or the two or three other people -- like yourself -- stuck in 1492?  Besides, people are solid believers in something that was made 'by man', but they are also free to choose not to believe, or to not be 'solid' believers.  Let it go, no one appriciates the people like you who have mistaken this service as a soapbox (though your ranting does help make the rest of us feel better about ourselves, so thanks for that public service) ;)
203405
NO. America did not exist in Christ's time.
621586
What about what the Native Americans did to the white man?!?!? Convincing those poor, hapless Euros to take over this seriously polluted land with all of these toxic pesticides and cow sh!t and those ugly cement housing developments everywhere?\nAnd THEN, when they didn't ALL die of diseases right off the bat and the early US government had to chase them all over hill and dale to murder rape, pillage and small pox 'em out of the rest of the place?  Really.  Why can't people just stand still for genocide once in awhile?  They're always trying so hard to defend their families and stuff.  Seems like it would be EXHAUSTING for the perpetrators.
933052
Where was the "Christ" in Christianity during the witchhunts? During the several Crusades? Where was the "Christ" in Christianity during the horrific Inquisitions, where non-Christians, Jews, Muslims, homosexuals, pagans were brutally tortured in the name of Jesus, and slaughtered by the thousands? And the list goes on, to the Native Americans, who were forced to convert  or die.\n\n"Christian" extremists may have claimed "Christ", but it should be obvious that "Christ" would never have claimed them. They don't care, though. They think they own "God" and can make "God" anything they want "him" to be.
420460
Christians have always labeled people with different ideas and beliefs as pagan, savages, etc. etc.\n\nMany Christians have an honest desire to help people, but most just can't accept that they might be wrong. They think people who don't go along with the Christian movement deserve to burn in hell.
207929
Yes, this place is just crawling with God botherers. Many are Americans but, not all. \n\nWe should feel sympathy towards these people, not scorn. I mean, from their perspective, they're trying to help we godless heathens get our chance for eternal life. \n\nIt may be arrogant, it may be annoying, but some of these earnest but deluded people are really trying to make a difference. That's surely a good thing.
208136
Because either A. they are not saved and are so lost or B. they are not from America..the one's who are seem to be hypocrites..i see your point here 100%