Encyclopedia Britannica on Xianity
AutismUK@aol.com AutismUK@aol.com
Sat, 7 Feb 1998 03:15:08 EST (00886860908, 653ab8b9.34dc180e@aol.com)
In a message dated 07/02/98 06:09:59, you write:
RALPH NIELSEN
My computer was down while this discussion was current, hence the tardiness
of these remarks. A few months ago I ran across this information:
The Encyclopedia Britannica began in Britain, as its name implies. Sometime
in the 1920s (I think) it was sold to Sears, Roebuck in the U.S.
Appparently American Catholics persuaded Sears to let them rewrite all the
articles on Xianity, hence the Xian and Catholic bias in them. For more
scholarly information on Xianity in the Britannica it is necessary to look
in the earlier editions that were published in Britain.
Paul Robson:
Encyclopaedias are notorious in this respect. Sections on Atheism are not
written by the Farrell Tills of this world, but often by a religious person.
At
best they are slightly questioning of the idea. Entries for "Christianity"
are
usually written in the same style as an entry for say Charlemagne, and
you have to look hard for something like "Christians believe that..." as
a prefix.
Incidentally, my Encarta seems to have a link from Evolution to Creation but
not vice versa, which doesn't surprise me at all.
There seems to be a general media thing on protecting Christianity (we
still have a blasphemy law in England, which is occasionally used by
the more idiotic Christians), which, of course, does not apply to Moslems,
Hindus or anyone else, despite that these people now outnumber Christians
in England (unless you use the Church's own figures, which put all the
don't knows in with Christianity).
Paul Robson (autismuk@aol.com)
"Thou shalt not bear false witness".... Churches in England are desperate
for numbers (no Congregation = no Job). A recent study showed that the
figures returned by Vicars were overestimated by 40%. The Church was
outraged by this, because according to it's figures, numbers were only
overestimated by 25%.