Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site cca.UUCP Path: utzoo!decvax!cca!diegob From: diegob@cca.UUCP (Diego Gonzalez) Newsgroups: net.med,net.kids,net.social,net.legal Subject: Re: Changing Left-handedness to Right-handedness Message-ID: <3919@cca.UUCP> Date: Tue, 3-Sep-85 18:09:30 EDT Article-I.D.: cca.3919 Posted: Tue Sep 3 18:09:30 1985 Date-Received: Wed, 4-Sep-85 23:20:00 EDT References: <127@unc.unc.UUCP> <464@petrus.UUCP> <1149@teddy.UUCP> <761@brl-tgr.ARPA> <363@ccice1.UUCP> <238@bcsaic.UUCP> Distribution: na Organization: Computer Corp. of America, Cambridge Lines: 58 Xref: cca net.med:1850 net.kids:1633 net.social:817 net.legal:1995 > > PLEASE!!!Don't blame the Catholic Church for the Dark ages! It DID NOT > Cause the Dark Ages! (Perpetuated it a bit maybe...but it did not > start it! The COLLAPSE of the ROMAN EMPIRE did that.) The Church was > the few institutions that was able to retain a bit of the knowledge > through that time period of what had been known before. (Note I did > not say ALL of the knowledge, NOR an unbiased viewpoint. It was just > better than nothing.) I was pleased to see that something with a greater social bearing fell out of the current discussion. (I am sympathetic toward suffering lefties and agree that greater consideration needs to be lent to the design of commonplace mechanical devices. However, the problems of handwriting cannot be easily addressed; the majority -- a large one in this case -- have already established a pattern (left to right reading) that precludes simple solutions.) Pam's (I think that's right) comment in response to the accusation of the Church touches on something that has affected all of us. That is: to what extent did the Church contribute to the dimness of the "Dark" ages. While a great deal of the fact about that long and mysterious time will never be known, it is without doubt true that Church leaders and clerics consciously controlled and manipulated access to the available information. That this had a marked effect on the shape and tone of society, on the interchange of ideas, and on the common attitudes toward learning in the west is also indisputable. Now my speculation is that the early Church was filled with religious radicals and that such people tend to produce societies that are less flexible, more doctrinaire, and in general prone to lesser social and technoligical advancement. This concept is drawn from the known experiences of Galileo and Copernicus (albeit at a later period). While notable inquisitive minds were at work -- both clerical and lay -- throughout the middle ages, there was a definite discouragement of research into philosophies, arts, and sciences of other cultures. Since a great deal of the mathematics, medical science, and other learning of the "ancients" was recorded in the Middle East when the Roman Empire's borders were at their greatest extent, this information was excluded from western teaching for many, many years. In similar ways, the Church excluded teaching of any information contradictory to its accepted interpretation of Biblical readings. (Not too unlike the "Evolution vs. Creation" arguments of some today.) Motive? Power, of course. From the persecuted minority to the persecuting majority in only a few hundred years. Incredible, but true. Today, they would write a book. And by allying the Church with the feudal nobility (read: today's nobility as well), the clergy became supporters of the status quo. Which included preventing the masses of European people from gaining access to the knowledge (Why couldn't Johnny read then?). Consider also, that for most of the period from A. D. 300 or so until the founding of secular schools (I think around 1000 A. D.) that all of the educated people in Europe were in the clergy and had taken a vow of celibacy. The effect was that the gene pool of the intellectuals was constantly being culled. So I wonder just how innocent the Church was of the darkness of the age during which it flourished in significance as it has in no other. Comments?