david f,

All that you say is true but the reason that they did not all go to Holland was that the Dutch solution did not work, the group was becoming old and reaching the stage where it could not support itself.

They did go to America for religious freedom, freedom for themselves, just as the Church of England saw no hypocracy in not extending their own religious freedom to others so too the Colonists saw none in their own actions; burning witches was God's work and the separation of church and state was that of the devil in their eyes.

Dear Is Mise,

The religious freedom that is celebrated is freedom for everyone to believe what they will or will not.

That is not the meaning of the religious freedom that the Puritans sought. Their religious freedom extended only to their own religion and not to the beliefs of others. They did not like the kind of religious freedom they found in Holland. They also did not like the fact that their children were becoming Dutch.

In the US at this time states are passing what are called religious freedom restoration acts.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indiana_SB_101 tells about the one in Indiana. It allows individuals or businesses to ignore antidiscrimination laws on the grounds of religion. This is the kind of religious freedom there was in Massachusetts.

Dear Loudmouth,

Like you I am an atheist. However, I also recognise the part that missionaries played in saving Aboriginal lives. Before Darwin published the prevailing view was that the different races of humans were of different species. If one killed an Aborigine it was not murder as they were not human. Missionaries believed that all races were descended from Adam and Eve, and therefore Aborigines were human and must be protected.

Robert Kenny's "The Lamb Enters the Dreaming" tells of the first Aboriginal convert to Christianity.

".... If one killed an Aborigine it was not murder as they were not human...."
Not in NSW, where Governor Arthur Phillip made it plain that the penalty for the unlawful killing of an Aboriginal was death and vice-versa.
Non-aboriginals were executed in NSW for the murder of aboriginal people.

I watched "Four Corners" last night
and learned a great deal about ISIS.

The following link explains more about
who are ISIS - which may be helpful:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-tens/who-isis-everything-you-need-3715789

Dear Is Mise,

Governor Arthur Phillip left in 1792 four years after the First Fleet. No doubt it would have been different if he had been able to see that his policies continued to be followed.