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From: mmt@dciem.UUCP (Martin Taylor)
Newsgroups: net.flame,net.religion
Subject: Re: Why attack Christianity?
Message-ID: <808@dciem.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 24-Mar-84 13:48:24 EST
Article-I.D.: dciem.808
Posted: Sat Mar 24 13:48:24 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 24-Mar-84 16:57:16 EST
References: <2624@azure.UUCP>
Organization: D.C.I.E.M., Toronto, Canada
Lines: 33

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We would all be secure in the knowledge that the Earth was the center of the
universe and that everything in the Bible was the literal truth.  Yes sir,
the answer to any question could be found right there in that one book.  Why
would we even need science?  Everything that we need to know is in the Bible,
and any observation that conflicts with Biblical knowledge is false by
definition.
===============
(The above based on the idea that the Catholic hegemony had continued to
the present).

Wasn't one of the precepts of the Church that the common people SHOULDN'T
read the Bible, because they might get ideas and question their priests?
Weren't Huss, Savonarola, Luther and such people dangerous to the church
for just that reason?  The Church burned people, not just books; Hitler
was by no means the first to do both.

Sure, the Christian world would have no science now.  But not all
Christians should be tarred with the same brush.  The spirit of enquiry
nurtured by Islam in the early part of this millenium was the same spirit
that led to the Reformation: Think for yourself. Don't take the word
of the Book, whether it be the Bible or Aristotle. Look at Nature and
ponder.  Don't believe -- even yourself.

Is the current balance of hardware technology vs. social technology
favourable to our continued existence?  Could the two technologies
have evolved differently with respect to one another if the Romans
had been more successful in eliminating the fanatic monotheists?
Who knows?
-- 

Martin Taylor
{allegra,linus,ihnp4,uw-beaver,floyd,ubc-vision}!utzoo!dciem!mmt