This is exactly what happened to Islam in the 1300s. After the fundamentalists took over, rationality was dispensed with, and centuries of scientific progress were deemed sufficient for Islam for all time. And so it seems that Islam went from world leadership in science to where it is today.
Fortunately the same did not happen to the Christians. But based on John's comments, I wonder why not. Richard On Thu, Jan 24, 2013 at 10:32 AM, John Clark <johnkcl...@gmail.com> wrote: > I sincerely hope that nobody believes I'm picking on Catholics because > Protestant "thinking" is every bit as brain dead dumb as the Pope's. Martin > Luther knew perfectly well that religious ideas cannot survive the slightest > amount of rational analysis without completely falling apart, but his > solution to that problem was not to get better ideas but to simply insist > that people check their brain at the door before they start to think about > God; here are some of the noises that particular bipedal hominid made with > his mouth, although I think the noises made from the other end of Luther's > gastrointestinal tract may have contain more wisdom, at least they might > have disclosed some evidence on how the human digestive system works: > > > “Reason is the greatest enemy that faith has; it never comes to the aid of > spiritual things, but - more frequently than not - struggles against the > divine Word, treating with contempt all that emanates from God” > > "Whoever wants to be a Christian should tear the eyes out of reason." > > "Reason should be destroyed in all Christians." > > "Reason must be deluded, blinded, and destroyed. Faith must trample > underfoot all reason, sense, and understanding, and whatever it sees must be > put out of sight and know nothing but the word of God." > > "Reason is the Devil's greatest whore; by nature and manner of being she is > a noxious whore; she is a prostitute, the Devil's appointed whore; whore > eaten by scab and leprosy who ought to be trodden under foot and destroyed, > she and her wisdom ... Throw dung in her face to make her ugly. She is and > she ought to be drowned in baptism... She would deserve, the wretch, to be > banished to the filthiest place in the house, to the closets." > > "We know, on the authority of Moses, that longer than six thousand years the > world did not exist." > > "People gave ear to an upstart astrologer [Copernicus] who strove to show > that the earth revolves, not the heavens or the firmament, the sun and the > moon. This fool wishes to reverse the entire science of astronomy; but > sacred scripture tells us [Joshua 10:13] that Joshua commanded the sun to > stand still, and not the earth." > > > After this contemptible performance, after flat out praising the virtues of > stupidity and unapologetically trying to turn everybody into imbeciles I > don't see how anyone could call themselves a Lutheran or a Protestant or > even a Christian without intense embarrassment. > > John K Clark > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Everything List" group. > To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en.
