Headlesschickenfarm Posted June 22, 2016 Posted June 22, 2016 I like to argue that Mr Molyneux is incorrect in Globalism vs. Culture when he states that the atheist did not create a heaven and a hell. The 19th century atheists did not only create an idea of heaven and hell but it is more ingrained into the western mind than the Christian view of the early church of that the we receive from Dante. My idea is reasonably straightforward, in order to promote atheist Ideas European history was “bastardised” into 3 periods the “dark ages” (Hell / Christianity), the “Renaissance” (Purgatory / Reformation) and the “Enlightenment” (heaven / Rationality). I first came to this conclusion about 15 years ago when I was doing my dissertation for fine art degree. The dissertation was on the changes in representation in Christian art due to theological changes in the church. Unfortunately I no longer have the paper and cannot give the sources It was a Bachelors degree and the required length was an insult to the topic. I would however recommend that anyone who is interested in that part of western history should read “God’s Philosopers” by James Hannam. It is almost Impossible the talk about the Byzantine Empire or western Europe in the medieval period without scorn or contempt here is an example of the kind of thing I often come across: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QV7CanyzhZg It is complete and utter drivel. -The Chinese are praised for the plow but the Europeans invented it first. -The Islamic Empire was not the only empire to preserve classic literature. The Byzantine empire preserved the works of Plato where the Islamic empire had more works of Aristotle. Byzantine scholars and researchers were as prolific as Islamic scholars and inverted thing like the gold standard and the concept of the separation of church and state (Though not as we think of it today). And Charlemagne instituted the largest attempt to preserve knowledge the world had ever seen. -Byzantium had trade with the Scandinavian countries (The Varangians pretty much the dictionary definition of “bad-ass” at least to the 12 year old boy in me.) and China. the Islamic world having trade with India is not an astounding achievement. Although the concept of 0 was most likely taken by force (very few intellectual concepts were ever traded freely) and the Indians have a huge influence in the hindu-arabic numerals. We do not however use the Arabic numerals but modified version which we improved in Europe (after the capture of records ). - The Gothic and Romanesque cathedrals are far more revolutionary than anything built in the Islamic world (it does not matter how long they took to build). Almost all Muslim architecture derives from Middle Eastern Christian architecture most importantly the Hagia Sophia which is still the greatest architectural feat in the Middle East. The mosque in Cordoba is beautiful but not revolutionary the time taken to build it is more an because it was controlled from above the cathedrals were public projects built by volunteer communities. - "How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?" is a joke it was never used in scholastic though the earliest mentions of it are in the 16th and 17th century. The actual argument is "Can several angels be in the same place?" which is exactly the same question as the Pauli exclusion principal (Can 2 things be in the same place at the same time). This type of question was not even that common and in many ways scholasticism was the panicle or Aristotle’s idea of reason. I could go on, this is just one video and I know you (Mr Molyneux) know about a lot of this history. I could write books about the way the universities are misrepresented, how the Christian church has been neo-Platonic since the second century and has had multiple neo-Platonic revolutions… My first argument is that there is very little evidence of the concept of the Renaissance as a concept prior to the 19th century beyond the normal idea that we have surpassed our predecessors and their ideas are vulgar combined with an obsession with classical concepts which had been supposed 1000 years prior. The obsession with classical concepts originated from those who fled to Europe with the fall of Byzantium bringing works of Plato. The humanists were not hippy atheists and are almost always misrepresented. My second argument is that the date that coincides with the “Renaissance” is 31 October 1517 and that this is more important to the concept than anything that happened in Italy which from an art history point of view is also laughable (The most important economic and artistic centre was not Rome or Florence but Venice, saltwater however is terrible for frescos ). The Protestant movement is often portrayed as opening the gate for reason. Ideas like the protestant work ethic promote the idea that the Roman Catholic church was backwards and prevented progress, there is no empirical evidence to justify the Protestant work ethic but the idea is still often promoted. I have more things I can say in this regard but I am tired of typing. Although I would like to sum up my statement by saying this the majority of atheists are sadly not driven by an open exploration of thought but a desire to reject the faith they have lost and thus to demonise these values. This is done because they do not recognise that they themselves biological entities. There are a lot of popular science books which are about the belief in god being genetic written with the assumption that they have overcome their own genetics. The tendency among many atheists can be viewed as a desire to escape from God in which case they tend to demonise faith and this kind of thought led to concepts like the middle ages and the tendency to ignore esoteric traditions. Sadly way too few atheist are the rational open-minded people they think they are. I know that the summary does not fit well with the theme and is based off my personal experiences (Much of which comes from working in a bookstore for 15 years and having quite a debates on this matter). But I hope my main point will not be lost as I truly believe that the portraying of over 1000 years of history as hell on earth has done no good for our culture. Simon
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