(July 31, 2019 at 11:29 am)BrianSoddingBoru4 Wrote:Quote:Name me one time religion built something that increased freedom of thought and freely available information.
This is an easy one. Martin Luther translated the Bible into German. Happening around the same time as mass printing, this put spirituality into the hands of individuals as opposed to it being filtered through the priesthood. Are you going to claim that Martin Luther wasn't religious?
Boru
The printing press did not arise out of religion. Once it was in place, sure, one religious faction used it to partially bypass the Catholic clergy as mediators of holy writ. That just reflected a religious power struggle.
The church has been happy (sometimes) to take advantage of technology to pursue its ends, and unhappy (always) when technology or scientific discovery contradicts it.