(March 2, 2014 at 3:25 pm)DeistPaladin Wrote:(March 2, 2014 at 5:36 am)max-greece Wrote: Brace yourselves for the typical Christian total reinterpretation of history to give Christianity all the credit.
He's following in the footsteps of McDowell and Strobel that because Western Democracies are either majority or at least historically Christian societies, that it follows that Christianity promotes scientific advancement and democracy. This is a classic fallacy of assuming correlation proves causation. Any cursory review of our history shows that enlightenment and liberty had to overcome Christian resistance and that our progress has only been made dragging Christianity kicking and screaming the whole way.
Go to Saudi Arabia? How about Europe of 500 years ago? Hell, the last witch burning didn't happen until the 19th century.
Quote:The truth is that Christian theology, like every other theology, is not only opposed to the scientific spirit; it is also opposed to all other attempts at rational thinking. Not by accident does Genesis 3 make the father of knowledge a serpent — slimy, sneaking and abominable. Since the earliest days the church, as an organization, has thrown itself violently against every effort to liberate the body and mind of man. It has been, at all times and everywhere, the habitual and incorrigible defender of bad governments, bad laws, bad social theories, bad institutions. It was, for centuries, an apologist for slavery, as it was the apologist for the divine right of kings.
— H L Mencken,
