RE: Why Creationists don't realize the biblical Creation is just jewish mythology?
July 22, 2019 at 5:03 am
(July 22, 2019 at 4:57 am)Belaqua Wrote:(July 21, 2019 at 4:03 am)Anomalocaris Wrote: So when we look back on any past age with fondness, we tend to see a biased image where enlightenment of lasting value is remembered for their continued utility, and relative fundamentalism is forgotten precisely because they are incapable of making things of lasting value.
I'm curious how you're defining "relative fundamentalism" here.
Were the builders of Chartres Cathedral in this category? Is it of lasting value?
Stories serve as the foundations and pillars of human societies. As history unfolded, stories about gods, nations and corporations grew so powerful that they began to dominate objective reality. Believing in the great god Sobek, the Mandate of Heaven or the Bible enabled people to build Lake Fayum, the Great Wall of China and Chartres Cathedral. Unfortunately, blind faith in these stories meant that human efforts frequently focused on increasing the glory of fictional entities such as gods and nations, instead of bettering the lives of real sentient beings.
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
