(November 5, 2015 at 2:04 pm)abaris Wrote:(November 5, 2015 at 1:20 pm)Rhondazvous Wrote: I shudder to think what it would be like to really disagree with you about something. Well, at least I'll have a worthy opponent.
Well, don't.
Especially the people settling on the shores of the Mediterranean largely preserved the classical Greek heritage and were not shy to build upon it. The Western world just stopped dead in their tracks. There's also a distinct line between the Western world and the Byzantine empire.
One of the reasons being the peoples involved. One of the reasons being their understanding of religion being more liberal than what Rome dictated. It offered more space for exploration. What we now understand as, and make blanket statements about is largely dictated by uneducated people, who basically were nomads from the desert, coming into power. All these movements, feared by the West, have one thing in common. All of them are melting pots of rural or urban disadvantaged people, who didn't get the opportunity at higher education and see no future for themselves where they live. That's why I said, it's political as well as religious. It's an outlet for violent reactions for perceived wrongs. Religious fanatics build on that. Pretty much in the same way as rightwing populists build on our growing disadvantaged populations. And they both point fingers at and are scapegoating each other.
It’s a complicated mess, isn’t it? One really can’t tell the players without a score card.
Rome as a bastion of conservative Christianity and yet to this day Christians wear the badge of martyrdom in Roman arenas
If only Yahweh and Allah would ago the way of Zeus and Apollo. Part of their distant heritage.
The god who allows children to be raped out of respect for the free will choice of the rapist, but punishes gay men for engaging in mutually consensual sex couldn't possibly be responsible for an intelligently designed universe.
I may defend your right to free speech, but i won't help you pass out flyers.
Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.
--Voltaire
Nietzsche isn't dead. How do I know he lives? He lives in my mind.
I may defend your right to free speech, but i won't help you pass out flyers.
Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.
--Voltaire
Nietzsche isn't dead. How do I know he lives? He lives in my mind.