Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!dimacs.rutgers.edu!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: mls@sfsup.att.com (Mike Siemon) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Reincarnation and Christianity Message-ID: Date: 22 Mar 91 04:05:13 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories Lines: 34 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu Someone writes: > There was a sect of the Catholic Church at one time around the fourth > or fifth century A.D. that believed in reincarnation. This sect was > primamrily in France, where the Pope of the Catholic Church was located at > that time. I'm going to sound obnoxious as hell, but NO ONE who could write something so out of contact with historical reality has any business pretending to offer historical information. > ( I may have my timetable off a bit on this, The papacy was in Avignon (and moved there under a French pope somewhat beholden to the French crown, but although this is now French territory, it was NOT then under French rule) in the 14th century. You are not only a thousand years wrong, but could not possibly know anything about the 4th or 5th centuries (or the medieval church) and write such a thing. There is far too much pure invention running around in garbled form as "history" -- just because you've heard something or read something does NOT mean it makes sense. I'm sure the person I quoted was trying honestly to convey something interesting he'd come across -- but my advice is to *seriously* doubt all such bits of "historical lore" you hear (even from primary and secondary school "history" teachers, or non-historians at higher levels) UNLESS you yourself have are pretty widely-read in the period at issue, or have SOME good reason to trust the HISTORICAL creden- tials of the source. (One may trust people firmly on other grounds with- out necessarily trusting them as historians!) -- Michael L. Siemon "O stand, stand at the window, m.siemon@ATT.COM As the tears scald and start; ...!att!attunix!mls You shall love your crooked neighbor standard disclaimer With your crooked heart."