No lie in the offer of salvation

Bruce Monson errancy@infidels.org
Wed, 21 Jul 1999 00:36:59 -0600 (00932557019, 1.5.4.32.19990721063659.006ff3ac@pop.pipeline.com) 

At 08:56 PM 7/20/99 -0500, Ddd wrote:

>>Bruce:

>>It would be a great thing if every religion and every religious book were

>>just expunged from the Earth, with no knowledge of their ever even

>existing.

>

>

>DDD

>I'll won't add any to your comment to Bell, since I don't think he will

>ever understand your point.  But, I will respond to this part of your

>comment.

>

>It's been suggested that Christianity was necessary for the Renaissance

>and the Scientific Method.  Sure, there were parts of the world where

>there were smatterings of inventions and scientific ideas.  But it was the

>Western Europeans, steeped in Christianity, who took the scientific method

>and ran with it.

>


BRUCE:

I agree with you:  First, that Bell will fail to comprehend my point on the
first issue.  

On the second issue, I can only comment that "religion" in itself does not
have to be destructive; rather it is the act of "imposing" one's religion
upon another that is atrocious!  Religion was created by Man, for Man, to
give himself something specific to grasp onto in his search for God.
Virtually every culture in recorded history developed a God-based religion
to deal with the mysteries, the wonder, the magic in their lives.  

I disagree that Christianity was "necessary" for the development of the
scientific method.  It does not, nor has it ever, required "religion" to be
able to think logically and critically; to observe and make deductions.  In
fact, it was Christianity that was stagnating (in fact, punishing) people
who expressed ideas counter to the exalted religious texts.  Galileo, a
faithful Catholic, suffered greatly for his support and advancement of the
Copernican theory of planetary orbit.  He always held fast to his belief in
the independence of science, speaking out against the bible in areas that
were obviously scientifically unsound when taken literally.  On several
occasions Galileo had to publically recant his beliefs and theories, else
suffer the consequences (compliments of the Pope and Church) *beyond* mere
imprisonment which he eventually endured until his death.  Were it not for
religion, he would have published much more than the two books he was able
to--the second of which had to be smuggled out of the country while he was
still imprisoned.

Yours in Truth,

Bruce Monson