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From: gsmith@brahms.BERKELEY.EDU (Gene Ward Smith)
Newsgroups: net.religion,talk.religion
Subject: More Non-History
Message-ID: <15499@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>
Date: Tue, 2-Sep-86 02:33:22 EDT
Article-I.D.: ucbvax.15499
Posted: Tue Sep  2 02:33:22 1986
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Reply-To: gsmith@brahms.UUCP (Gene Ward Smith)
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     Plot synopsis: Brian "Easter Bunny" McNeill takes on Stuart "2001"
Gathman. Kismet, probably. In any case, Brian seems to be a recent graduate
of the Oleg Kiselev School of Historical Analysis. We find:

In article <3554@sdcc3.ucsd.EDU> za56@sdcc3.UUCP (Brian McNeill) writes:

>The reason why one of the few
>documents from the 1st millenium is the Bible is because the church
>took over and instituted a "purge" wherein all non-Xian documents
>were destroyed, as well as most non-Xian's (hear about the
>Crusades?)  Guess why the Church was all-powerful during the middle
>ages?  Because of the above purge. Why?  Because the people had no
>exposure to anything non-Xian (fortunately, this changed).  Note
>that the middle ages were one of the most stagnant in all ways
>non-Xian (no technology, little non-Xian artwork, slavery rampant,
>power concentrated COMPLETELY in the hands of the Church and nobles,
>etc)

    While there were book burning incidents, on the whole the Church is
credited much more for *saving* the literature of the ancient world than
destroying it. It is false that all non-Christian documents were destroyed,
many remain. It is false that the Crusades destroyed most non-Christians
(that is not even what they attempted to do). The Albigensian campaign
and the Spanish Inquisition were the main attacks on non-Christians I
can recall. It is false that the Middle Ages were stagnant. In particular,
there was a considerable development of technology then. It is false that
the art of the Middle Ages was almost all religious. Read the poetry, 
listen to the music, then judge if the secular art was so insignificant.
And the Middle Ages were not one of the worst times for slavery by any means.

In article <3556@sdcc3.ucsd.EDU> za56@sdcc3.UUCP (Brian McNeill) writes:

>Really?  The only evidence remaining from that time period [1st cent.] (due to
>the Xian purge in the middle ages, wherein all "heretical" works
>were destroyed (or at least as much as could be found))  we have
>is the Bible, plus a very few other scattered works of no relevence.

    Care to document this claim?  

ucbvax!brahms!gsmith    Gene Ward Smith/UCB Math Dept/Berkeley CA 94720
ucbvax!weyl!gsmith                  Institute of Pi Research