Doesn't take into account the advanced civilizations that already existed prior to the European explorers wiping everything out in the name of Manifest Destiny, rebuilding Rome, and of course saving primitive savages in the name of Jesus.

Greed and the desire for conquest fuels human civilization. Most of this has been in the form of (sorry, SJW rant here) white, Euro-Christian greed and desire for conquest over brown and yellow people who didn't look like they did or believe in the same religions or philosophies. Even today, the same white Euro-Christian conquerors in conservative political parties are fighting "the good fight" against secularists who arguably believe a lot more in freedom and liberty than they do, against people of non-Christian faiths, and against brown people who are increasing in numbers and posing a threat to their hegemonic global political prowess.

The powers that be, however, have two things on their side: money (the party of unbridled industry, war, and big business) and "faith" (that what they are doing in crushing the barbarians will get them bonus points and favors in the afterlife). How many of them are true believers in the latter is uncertain; regardless, such beliefs held by many of their political supporters has proven to be very useful in holding onto power by exploiting the sincerely held beliefs of the "faithful." As long as there are people in coal and oil country who believe that man has a god-given duty to "have dominion over the earth," fossil fuel manufacturers can continue to make billions from fracking pipelines and dirty energy, because people who want things like solar, wind, and other renewables are godforsaken pagans who worship the sun and have festivals in the name of Gaia. They don't like people cutting down trees for human profit; hence, there's a war on Christmas, and Al Gore is their four-star general.

I don't think we should celebrate Columbus Day or Thanksgiving simply because of what European explorers and settlers did to the Native Americans. I don't care if someone wants to celebrate Christmas privately; however, I don't think it should be a federal holiday because it is ultimately a religious festival regardless of all the secularization that it's undergone with Charlie Brown cartoons and shopping days and everything else. You really can't take Christ out of Christmas, which is why we should take Christmas off the calendar.

All that aside, curiosity in the name of the greater good should be celebrated, which is why we need more investment in and study of science, especially so that we can counteract superstitious beliefs that keep our society rooted in idiocies like racism, homophobia, and gender inequality -- which, as stated above, serve the goals of (white-sponsored) religion as well as (white-sponsored) crony capitalism and (white-sponsored) destruction of indigenous societies and exploitation of (non-white) peoples domestically and abroad. We should be studying stem cells of all kinds, including embryonic ones, with zero regard for what the religious wingnuts think about there being a "soul" in a clump of cells. We should be dismantling oil drills and shutting down coal mines right now, with the speed of an Amish barn raising, and putting solar panels along every highway and on every building in the entire country. We should be legalizing all drugs and abolishing the D.E.A. and studying the potential for legitimate medicinal uses of previously illegal substances, as well as investing whole-hog into publicly-funded treatment for addiction rather than throwing people away because they "sinned." We should withdraw all funding from the military-capitalist-industrial complex's resource wars and pouring it into research and public benefits and infrastructure. Stop wasting taxpayer dollars to kill people and use it to help them. Stop wasting money to appease 5,000-year-old nonexistent war gods and start using it to bring us into a better future.

But, like I said, we won't do that as long as religion and big business are held sacrosanct, and the powers that be are perfectly content to continue operating by the rules of their own game, and keeping the directly-beneficial status quo.