Jan 10 2006 Historical ignorance

I'm going to attempt a link here.

What is the common link between the world view of an Atheist, environmentalists, and a
Liberal democrats (socialist)??

Its a blurred, distorted, and uninformed opinion/view of History.

Lets take them case by case shall we.

Atheists:

My "favorite" class of the woefully uninformed are notorious for their distorted view of History. The atheist mind-set on historical events is so all encompassing that I can only touch on a few of their most glaring inaccuracies.

Here are just a few of their claims:

1.) All atrocities that have been committed by men have been done in the name of Religion. In particular Christianity.

I have heard this remark made by atheists so many times that my eyes start to glaze over in utter boredom. In evitably the Inquisition, Crusades and of course the witch hunts will come up. Now, I am not saying that these things did not happen for indeed they did. I am also not saying that these atrocities where not horrible. For indeed they where. What I am saying is that we need to examine these events in a historical context, with the accurate facts being presented.
The Inquisition: Lets go back for a second to the time between 1184 and 1808 when the Medieval Inquisitions, Spanish Inquisition, Roman Inquisition, and the Portuguese Inquisition occurred. The world during this time frame was not in anyway similar to what we have today. Society was always one step away from anarchy. Tight control of the population by those in power was often required to keep order. The Catholic Church was the one institution that keep society from unraveling as the people looked to the church for guidance and survival. Those that the inquisitions persecuted where often instigators of attempts to unravel a society always on the razor's edge. These instigators (such as the Cathars)where on the level of modern day terrorists. I grant that more than a few where innocent but even in today's society with our technological advances in forensics and the criminolgy sciences we still manage to convict the innocent at times.
Today we are not teetering on the razor's edge as they where in those days and so we can afford to be more tolerant. However During the time of the inquisition such heretical stances posed a very real threat to the overall stability of the society as a whole. However wrong the inquisitions where in application they where still simply a response to a perceived danger to public life and stability.

The Crusade are somewhat of a different matter however. Though they where instigated under religious pretenses they where in fact nothing more than political machinations by Popes that where more political than pious.

2.)The middle ages where called the dark ages for a reason. The Church squashed scientific, economic, and social advances.

For one thing the middle ages are no longer called the dark ages. Scholars have discovered and indeed are still uncovering vast advances in many fields of study.

Rodney Stark university professor of social-sciences at Baylor university penned the book "The Victory of Reason" How Christianity led to Freedom, Capitalism, and western success. He writes:

"...Capitalism was not invented but evolved beginning early in the ninth century by catholic monks who where seeking economic security for the monastic estates. Because of the immense increase in agricultural productivity from the invention of the moldboard plow, and the three-field system during these times the estates began to specialize in particular crops and allowed them to move from simple subsistence farming. These specialized crops where then sold for a profit which led to intitating a cash economy. These profits where reinvested to increase productivity and to hire a labor force, which the monks found to be more productive that tenement labor. This also lead many monastery's in to becoming banks, lending to nobility. As a result of hiring a labor force this freed the monks to become executives and foremen and thus the operation soon resembled a modern firm- well administered and quick to adopt the latest technological advances.
As Randal Collins notes this was not a proto-capitalist system but a version of the developed characteristics of capitalism itself.

Augustine taught that wickedness was not inherent in commerce but that, as with any occupation, it was up to the individual to live righteously.

-Along with capitalism rose the belief in the virtue of work. The notion of the dignity and virtue of labor was unthinkable to the Romans and in most other precapitalist societies.
The preferred approach to work in the Roman era was to have someone else do it and failing that do as little as possible.
In China for instance the Mandarins grew there fingernails as long as they could in order to make it evident that they did no labor.
Max Weber called this virtue of work ethic the "Protestant ethic. However it existed long before Martin Luther. It was first made evident in the sixth century by Saint Benedict, who wrote his famous rule:
"idleness is the enemy of the soul. Therefore the brothers should have specified periods for manual labor of their hands, as our father and the apostles did, then they are really monks."
In contrast with eastern Holy men, who specialized in meditation and lived by charities, the medieval Christian monastic lived by their own labor, sustaining highly productive estates. This ethic prevented an "ascetic zeal becoming petrified in world flight"( Friedrich Prinz) and sustained a healthy concern for economic affairs.

Individualism-
Look at the Shakespearian tragedies and compare them to those of the ancient Greeks.
For instance: "Odeipus's personal character is irrelevant to his misfortune, which was decreed by fate irrespective of his own desires" (Colin Morris)
In contrast Othello, Brutus, and Macbeth where not captives of blind fate. As Cassius points out to brutus " The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in our selves..."

...From the beginning, Christianity taught that sin is a personal matter- that it does not inhere primarily in the group, but each individual must be concerned with there own salvation. The doctrine of free will is central to the idea of individualism...
...Unlike the Greek and Roman gods who where not so concerned with Virtue other than the failure to propitiate them in an appropriate manor. The Christian God is a judge who rewards virtue and punishes sin. This concept of God is incompatible with fatalism
The admonition "Go and sin no more" would be absurd if we where captives of our fate.
One of the basic tenants of Christianity is the doctrine that humans have the capacity and responsibility to determine their own actions.
St Augustine wrote
"we posses a will" and that "from this it follows that whomever desires to live righteously and honorably, can accomplish this"
He also asserted "But that all things come from fate, we do not say; nay we affirm that nothing comes to pass by fate."
While God knows what we will do, he doesn't interfere! And so it is up to us to chose virtue or sin...

...Augustine fully anticipated Descarte's " I think therefore I am"
by saying "But, without any delusive representation of images or phantasm, I am most certain that I am, and that I know and delight in this. In respects to these truths, I am not at all afraid of the arguments of the academician, who say, What if you are deceived? For if I am deceived, I am. For he who is not cannot be deceived; and if I am deceived, by this same token I am... And, consequently neither I am deceived in knowing that I know. For as I know that I am, so I know this also, that I know...

...Though free will did not originate with Christians (Cicero for one) It was not simply an abstract philosophical matter. Rather was a central core of their beliefs.
While the Greeks and Romans embraced fatalism. Jesus thought that each individual must atone for moral lapses precisely because they are wrong CHOICES...

the culture of collectivity and suppressing the sense of self was in the majority at this time. Whatever rights or priviledges that an individual had was granted by the society not inherent in the person...
...When Plato wrote The Republic, his focus was on the polis or the city, not on the citizens. He even denounced private property. In contrast the individual citizen was the focus of Christian political thought...
...There isn't even a word for freedom in many non-European languages."

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As you can see there where great advances during this time. Not to mention advances in production of steel, eyeglasses, medicine, exploration etc etc.
Not only did these advances occur alongside the rise of Christianity but indeed they where because of the inherent theology within the doctrines of Christianity.

That's all I have time for today. I will continue tomorrow with the link between lack of historical knowledge and the environmentalists and socialist.

Luken