Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!pyramid!octopus!avsd!govett
From: govett@avsd.UUCP (David Govett)
Newsgroups: sci.misc
Subject: Re: science is STILL religion
Message-ID: <51@avsd.UUCP>
Date: 21 Mar 88 16:42:12 GMT
References: <73600013@uiucdcsp> <1169@PT.CS.CMU.EDU>
Organization: Ampex Advanced Technology Division, Redwood City, CA
Lines: 69

> In article <73600013@uiucdcsp> pax@uiucdcsp.cs.uiuc.edu writes:
> >I used to think that.  A seminary student I once knew suggested to
> >me that maybe people really led better lives in the middle ages.
> >I thought he was crazy.  How could I even talk to someone so dense
> >as that.  But now, older and wiser, having seen something of our
> >modern world--not just the fairy land campuses, not just the hedonistic
> >narcissistic yuppiedoms, I have grave doubts.
> >
> >Those words--narcissist, hedonist--come from antiquity.  Those were
> >scienceless times but deeper and more intellectual as our language still shows.
> 
> A short checklist:
> 
> - intestinal parasites.
> - lice.
> - no changes of clothing.
> - no underwear.
> - no hot water for baths.
> - no soap until post-Roman times. (Technology in the service of mankind! )
> - no running water, or else downcreek from someone else's running water.
> - outhouses.
> - no dentists - and tooth decay was NOT invented recently.
> - backbreaking labor - literally. Dawn to dusk till you die of it.
> - dietary deficiencies.
> - vitamin D deficiency in winter. You too can be Snow White or a dwarf.
> - creosote poisoning of the lungs. See further, teepee and longhouse. You
> 	too can live in a chimneyless room with an open fire.
> 
> Oddly enough, people living on tropical islands escaped almost all of this
> (except the intestinal parasites). I guess swimming in warm salt water kills
> lice.  Seafood and tropical sun fix all the deficiencies. Few fires. No need
> of clothes. If the birth rate was controlled (by infanticide), life was OK.
> Well, not very intellectual, actually, and heavily marred by war,
> restrictive religions ("taboo"), and fun customs like ritual
> self-mutilation.  Sigh.
> -- 

Some of the luxuries of island life:

 - tidal waves
 - volcanoes
 - lice (despite what you say)
 - typhoons
 - malaria
 - malnutrition
 - raids by neighboring tribes (cannibals, slavers)


Some of the luxuries of our medieval ancestors:

 - rootedness
 - certainty (as outlined in the Bible)
 - identity with nature

These should not be minimized, especially since most Americans have no 
inkling of the security these engender.













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