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Page: Profile: Wren's Nest News Local
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Article: 14712
[Society]
Date Posted:
1/7/2006
9:48:02 am EST
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Comments: 24
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Christianity credited for West's success
Author: Richard N. Ostling Source: Winnipeg Free Press
Title: Christianity credited for West's success
IT'S one of history's most important questions: Why did Europe and North America embrace democracy and thrive economically while countries elsewhere suffered oppression and stagnation?
Leading U.S. sociologist Rodney Stark says many scholars purposely overlook the obvious answer: It was the spread of Christianity that made possible political and economic freedoms, modern science and resulting western advancement.
Such is the Baylor University professor's contention in The Victory of Reason: How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism and Western Success (Random House), one of the more provocative of recent books, whose vigorous prose reflects the author's one-time employment as a newspaper reporter.
Though western intellectuals play down theology, Stark sees Christian beliefs as the key.
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Community Thoughts: There are 24 comments posted | Reverse Sort |
| ... | Jan 10th. at 12:53:50 am EST
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Reverend Rat (Rochester, New Hampshire) - Email Me
{the basis for the West's rise was "an extraordinary faith in reason" resulting from Christianity, which "alone embraced reason and logic as the primary guide to religious truth." }
You've got to be f-ing kidding me.
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| Success By Disease,War,Genocide...... | Jan 8th. at 2:23:50 pm EST
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Richard Brownbear (North Wilkesboro, North Carolina) - Email Me
Christianity loves to hide it's darker past, or ignore it altogether.
Wasn't it Christians who:
Invented the Dark Ages?
Made slaves out of whomever they could subjugate?
Burned Witches and Heretics?
Killed 50-100 million North and South American Natives by disease?
And even more by slaughter?
Including Australia, Hawaii, Phillipines, and 100's more.
Destroyed non-Christian cultures where ever they went? Tore down their temples and burned their texts?
Completely destroyed the Aztec civilization?
Progress by trampling technologically inferior peoples....oh yeah, that's something to be proud of.
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| Let Us Not Forget | Jan 8th. at 11:21:10 am EST
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stalkingwolf (Bullhead City, Arizona) - Email Me
the many contributions xianity did make to history
during history.
From Germany we have Malleus Maleficarum, A literary masterpiece still quoted today although
not with the esteem and prestige it had in its day.
From Austria's Empress the 3 degrees of torture.
from whence our modern use ( contrary to popular belief) of " getting the 3rd degree"comes. from this
came three specific methods of torture. each step
more severe than the last , It the subject passed through the 3rd "degree" with out confessing they were pronounced innocent. it is from this sequence of events that I believe the the modern image of the
green skined,hunch backed, broken, disfigured
" witch " comes. In the 1st degree devices were
used to break bones and joints in the most painful
manner imagineable ( and they were some very sick and twisted individuals, flaming phallus' inserted into
accused witches vagina's comes to mind.) .
So yes we have a lot to thank xianity ( at least Pauline
xianity) for.
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| YEAH. RIIIIGHT....! | Jan 8th. at 4:33:13 am EST
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Whitewolf (Schenectady, New York) - Email Me
THAT'S the biggest pack of bulls*** I've ever heard. My Native American ancestors were "successf ul" WITHOUT Xtianity.... why?
Peace be all
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| Um, Suuuurrre... | Jan 8th. at 2:00:24 am EST
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Istari (Hazel Park, Michigan) - Email Me - Web
But only after setting us back scientifically and spiritually by 2000 years, after destroying the Great Library at Alexandria, other pagan schools and murdering or otherwise supressing scientists, such as Hypatia and Giordano Bruno!
The Dark Ages were called such because the Christians who controlled everything forbade people to learn to read and write, so little was written or recorded then except by the church, for they alone were allowed the luxury of literacy.
I wonder where we'd be now and how scientifically and spiritually advanced we would be had pagans prevailed...
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| I Would Actually ... | Jan 7th. at 8:08:53 pm EST
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Cheryl Grant (Oakville, Ontario) - Email Me
say that the reason the west has done so well is because of the black population of slaves that came and built it!! Without the cache of free labour the west would never have grown to what it is today.
Could you see all those pompous white wigged men and stocking-ed women picking cotton, building houses and creating the infrastructure of the U.S.???
As said before, Christianity had little to do with it.
C.
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| Only For Its Own Gain. Certainly Not For The West | Jan 7th. at 5:07:16 pm EST
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bigcat (peoria, Illinois) - Email Me
If the West was ever successful it was in spite of xtianity, not because of it. The Age of Reason was spawned during the time the Church ruled, but the Church tried desperately to contol it any way they could- and disputed vehemently any findings that threatened to run counter to the teachings they so espoused. It was early Pagans, the Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, and later the Middle East that kept knowledge and forbidden writings alive, during the times the Church was cleaning house. What they kept, they did not share, but shut behind the doors of the Vatican. It was only when Gutenburg finally created the printing press, and the knowledge of paper stolen out of China, did knowledge finally expand beyond the grip of the Church, for up to then, only the Nobility read and Monks copied the books of any writings thought worthy to be kept. As for the bible, in more than a few countries, no layman was allowed to either read or interpret it without church permission. When the Crusades came about, the writings and knowledge that was banned slowly made way back to the West with those that returned from the Wars. The growth of knowledge was in fact aided by the wars the Church had to fight against those who separated and split off. And again when various secular factions in varied countries, such as Italy, England and Spain began to try to make gains and consolidate their own Provinces through war.
The only thing to which we owe xtianity, certainly isn't any credit for the success of the West, it is the fact that it was the chief purveyor of the Dark Ages and the great stumbling block to knowledge. It may have credited itself for keeping the world together, but only to benefit itself at the expense of those it dominated.
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| I Never Knew ... | Jan 7th. at 12:48:56 pm EST
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Leafy (Albuquerque, New Mexico) - Email Me
... just how ignorant an "expert" could be on history. So the Dark Ages were a hoax? Oh, my. And it was Christians who burned the library at Alexandra and stoned the mathmeticians to death ... yeah, that's progress .... NOT! This guy probably doesn't think the Holocaust happened either - that's about the category of his thinking. The only thing I can say about that article is "pathetic."
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| What About The Black Plague? | Jan 7th. at 12:03:15 pm EST
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Sphinxring (Olympia, Washington) - Email Me
A case can be made to say that the Black Plague upended the class srtucture of Europe and raised doubts about Christianity 's view of the world. Empty lands were seized by peasents. Peasents began charging for labor. The Church and the aristocracy lost not only power but credibility. New ideas were accepted.
The West's "success" is not seen the same way by people who were conquered either. That's seen as the advantage of guns and cruelty.
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| Definately A Foil | Jan 7th. at 11:19:19 am EST
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arinna (Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina) - Email Me
I think it's very possible that Christianity did influence the development of science, but not by supporting it's advances. Someone previously called it a foil. Absolutely!
Science had to be extremely disciplined and logical to prove it wasn't just heretical. It had to set up a system of peer review before announcing it's discoveries or all scientists would have suffered the same fate as Galilleo.
The author of this book unfairly discounts the contribution of rediscovered Roman and Greek learning which reinvigorated the idea of searching for the truth instead of being spoon fed the 'Truth' by way of holy writ.
When the known world believed there was only ONE truth, why would they even bother looking any further for answers? It wasn't until competing ancient theories resurfaced that science really began it's quest for answers. It's obvious from the timeline of history and this author is just attempting to revise it the same way that the reconstructionists are rewriting history to erase the quest for religious freedom from the story of the founding of America.
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| Western Success | Jan 7th. at 10:56:14 am EST
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Ahr-Ohn (Bridgeport, Connecticut) - Email Me
"Leading U.S. sociologist Rodney Stark says many scholars purposely overlook the obvious answer: It was the spread of Christianity that made possible political and economic freedoms, modern science and resulting western advancement."
The same could be attributed to Jupiter, and has been. In fact, it was one Jew, Peter, who accepted Christianity into Roman Civilization.
"Such is the Baylor University professor's contention in The Victory of Reason: How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism and Western Success (Random House) , one of the more provocative of recent books, whose vigorous prose reflects the author's one-time employment as a newspaper reporter."
The formerness of this occupation may reflect an intellectual bias.
"Stark's praise for Christian accomplishments includes the controversial claim that non-Christian religions help explain why the West transcended other lands. "Christianity was oriented to the future while the other major religions asserted the superiority of the past," he contends. "
Christians have accomplished quite a bit, but it was the Work done as Worship, as prescribed in earlier Religion. The Worship done as Work has simply been more of the same.
Anyways, all the progress of Western Civilization can be traced back to Astarte, Jesus's Mother.
Arawn
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| Uh Huh.... | Jan 7th. at 10:55:51 am EST
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Snake (Creve Coeur, Illinois) - Email Me
What about all those good, devout, Christians that stole every bit of land they could from the Native Americans? Funny they're not mentioned in the article....
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| Well, I Suppose... | Jan 7th. at 10:50:17 am EST
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Raven-touched (Aurora, Colorado) - Email Me
...in the sense that intelligent, competitive people needed a foil, then yes.
Otherwise:
Baylor.
Waco.
'Nuff said.
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| Uh, Yeah... | Jan 7th. at 10:43:24 am EST
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Ruadhdarragh (Bradford, Pennsylvania) - Email Me
And the Romans weren't already a democratic and economic super-power long before Christianity came along. Sure. Whatever.
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