“. . . It will be pleasing to God if . . . these peoples are introduced into and instructed in the Holy Catholic Faith, and the devotion, trust and hope which they now have in their idols turned so as to repose in the divine power of the true God; for it is certain that if they should serve God with that same faith, fervour, and diligence, they would work many miracles.”  (Hernan Cortes, Encounters, 83)

Why does everyone want religion? And what makes some people think they found the right one and should impose it on everyone else?

It goes back to a search for knowledge, a search for truth. As humans we always want to be updated on the latest info and know all the secrets. We not only want to know this information but know that these facts we found are the truth. Unfortunately, there are many cases in which they are not true. People skew data, or things get misinterpreted.  In religion, it is the same way. We have this natural desire to know the truth. Is there a God? Do I have a purpose in life? We have the answers to these questions, but they too get misinterpreted or changed. Truth can be found in every religion. As Cortes writes, it is evident that he believes he has the whole truth about religion and that he has the right one. His mind is so closed to the fact that the natives could have any truths in their worship.

In that time period it was all about conquest, about conquering and taking over and imposing your beliefs and cultural habits on everything in sight. The way this was done was usually through bloodshed. What they did not realize is that if they took time to learn about the other culture and learn their customs and rites of worship they too would find truth there. As people learn to give and take, to really study out for themselves the truth from the lies, they will find the real truth. That knowledge would have increased Cortes’ power in the end. He could have gained their trust and really helped them learn all the truth they could by building off of what they already knew. This would have saved a lot of the bloodshed and fear that Cortes caused. Who knows what their culture would be like today?