What a find!

We now know without doubt that the Teotihuacan culture, the "prehistoric heart" of what is now Mexico, was a thriving community dedicated to helping men ascend the spiritual ladder to become gods. 

How do we know? Archaeologists have discovered a temple where priests sacrificed children. 

Ancient altar found in Guatemala jungle apparently used for sacrifices, "especially of children," archaeologists say https://t.co/HcB2UTIVMJ

— CBS News (@CBSNews) April 14, 2025

You and I may look at the practice of human sacrifice to appease the gods as barbaric, but apparently, these archaeologists see the temple as an example of a sophisticated culture whose influence was interwoven with other societies to build a vibrant, kinda, transnationalist community with a rich spiritual life. 

An altar from the Teotihuacan culture, at the pre-Hispanic heart of what became Mexico, was discovered in Tikal National Park in Guatemala, the center of Mayan culture, demonstrating the interaction between the two societies, Guatemala's Culture and Sports Ministry announced this week.

The enormous city-state of Tikal, whose towering temples still stand in the jungle, battled for centuries with the Kaanul dynasty for dominance of the Maya world.

Far to the north in Mexico, just outside present day Mexico City, Teotihuacan — "the city of the gods" or "the place where men become gods" — is best known for its twin Temples of the Sun and Moon. It was actually a large city that housed over 100,000 inhabitants and covered around 8 square miles.

The still mysterious city was one of the largest in the world at its peak between 100 B.C. and A.D. 750. But it was abandoned before the rise of the Aztecs in the 14th century.

It's not mere speculation that the temple was used for the sacrifice of children. Skeletons have been unearthed along with the temple, and the practice of human sacrifice survived in the Americas until the evil Christian colonizers wiped it out along with the "civilizations" that practiced it. 

Edwin Román, who leads the South Tikal Archaeological Project within the park, said the discovery shows the sociopolitical and cultural interaction between the Maya of Tikal and Teotihuacan's elite between 300 and 500 A.D.

Román said the discovery also reinforces the idea that Tikal was a cosmopolitan center at that time, a place where people visited from other cultures, affirming its importance as a center of cultural convergence.

María Belén Méndez, an archaeologist who was not involved with the project, said the discovery confirms "that there has been an interconnection between both cultures and what their relationships with their gods and celestial bodies was like."

"We see how the issue of sacrifice exists in both cultures. It was a practice; it's not that they were violent, it was their way of connecting with the celestial bodies," she said.

A lot of people are criticizing CBS for publishing this story as is, but let me defend them for once. Their only sin was platforming an "expert" who holds these views, not asserting them themselves. The moral vacuity is inherent in the academic culture that spawns these ideas. "Journalists tend to be intellectually downstream of the academics and intellectuals that promote them. 

You’ve heard of mostly peaceful riots. Now introducing non-violent human sacrifice. pic.twitter.com/R9Aub9bOVE

— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) April 14, 2025

When I was an academic myself, I was horrified to discover that many colleagues could explain quite seriously that female genital mutilation was merely a cultural variation and that we shouldn't look down on it because that was using white supremacist ideology. Cultural relativism and its cousin, moral relativism, were more appropriate lenses through which to view others. 

Nope. I don't buy it, and to be honest, I don't believe that most of these "intellectuals" do either because they will turn around and viciously criticize Western culture and work assiduously to undermine it. They assert a belief in cultural relativism because it is a tool to undermine our value system, not because they believe all value systems are essentially equal. 

It is another variation of Critical Theory--using words or intellectual assertions to prepare the ground for a new, in their eyes, superior, value structure. 

No doubt there is much to criticize in our own history--I look at how the mentally ill and petty criminals were treated at some points in Western society and cringe, but I do so based on a firm belief that there is a fundamental morality by which our actions can be judged. 

Our failures can be judged in terms of those principles. There may be extenuation and forgiveness, but shrugging our shoulders at moral failings is the path to accepting evil. 

Nobody can live in a moral vacuum aside from socio- and psychopaths. It is pretty much the definition of sociopathy. So when we are treated to lectures about cultural relativism, remember: the goal is more undermining the belief in our own values than making us believe that other cultures are equal to ours. 

Were that true, these same academics would extol the engineering prowess of the Nazis. They invented rockets! Look at their superhighways! The Nazi Party Rally Grounds designed by Albert Speer were monumental! Their sacrifice of Jews, gays, and the mentally ill were sacrifices to create a greater humanity. 

None of them would even hint that, even though consistency with moral relativism would demand it. They aren't really moral relativists; they are Critical Theorists selling moral relativism to undermine your belief in a higher morality, which would inspire you to fight their ideology. 

The goal is to make us open to transnationalism, not to make us admire the people who sacrifice children.