Dr. James Fitzsimmons

Even the Aztecs hated the Aztecs.

Like most of the Aztecs in the Aztec empire hated the Aztecs.

They hated them.

Yeah, they hated them.

It's a sort of state-sponsored militaristic religion, expansionist.

Yeah, lots of death, right?

Lots of mass death.

And so you go and you sort of, you know, you create this religion around this.

One of the best ways to die if you're in the Aztecs is in battle, right?

You get to go and hang out with the sun god, who's the tutelary deity for them, right?

If you're a man, that's how you die, and that's how you get to the sun god.

If you're a woman and you die, and you die in childbirth, you go to the same paradise.

And the reason why is because you've died producing either a warrior, a potential warrior, or you've died producing a potential producer of warriors.

So you go to the same afterlife, right?

Um, and it's like that for all of the various deaths.

So, you know, we talk about sort of child sacrifice.

It's really the manner of the death that determines where they go.

Not so much the fact that they're infants, although there might be a point where the infant's not really considered a full human being yet.

So you might go someplace else.

Right.