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From: don@allegra.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Judeo-Christian State
Message-ID: <1888@allegra.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 15-Oct-83 15:22:11 EDT
Article-I.D.: allegra.1888
Posted: Sat Oct 15 15:22:11 1983
Date-Received: Mon, 17-Oct-83 23:30:45 EDT
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill
Lines: 19

I don't think there is an immediate danger of Fundamentalists taking
over.  Still, rational people must be on the lookout.  Historically,
very bad things have happened when orthodox religions dominated
cultures.

Christians in the third century brought about a thousand years of
darkness by destroying the technical underpinnings of their
civilization (burning libraries, assassinating scientists, artists, and
philosophers).

The same things occurred in the Middle East around 1000 AD when the
ultra-conservative Asharite movement "cleansed" Islam.  Up until then,
Islamic scholars had preserved the knowledge of the ancient world, but
from then until this day, progressive thought has been suppressed.

Oddly enough, Fundamentalists often blame the fall of civilization in
Rome and Greece on their "unchristian morals".  All I can say is that
those people flourished for a thousand years with those morals.
Perhaps civilization can survive perverts better than preachers!