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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!!
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To: nihil who wrote (42840)7/1/1999 12:54:00 AM
From: Dayuhan  Read Replies (3) of 108807
 
Let's examine this one a little more.

The disconnection between capitalism and Christianity is clear simply because every trade-based civilization in history has at some point practiced capitalism. All trade started as free trade; you can't regulate something that doesn't exist. Every trade-based society eventually faced conflict between traders and military/political leaders who wanted to tax trade for their own sustenance; every one reached some sort of compromise. This began long before a Bethlehem teenager thought of an extravagant tale to explain the fruits of her tryst with a Roman soldier (as credible an explanation as the other one).

I have in my office a celadon plate, recovered from a trading vessel which sank off the coast of Zambales, a little north of here, in the 10th century. It was manufactured in southern China and almost certainly smuggled past the attentions of meddlesome bureaucrats. If it had arrived at its destination it would have been traded to coastal middlemen who would in turn have traded it for gold panned by tribal people deep in the mountains. Were all involved not capitalists, though they flourished long before the Protestant ethic began? Not that the Protestants didn't take to capitalism as a duck to water, but to claim that they invented it is beyond ridiculous.

Every successful culture has at some point tried to prove that its success is a consequence of divine favor. The need for rationalization is one of the strongest reasons why people feel driven to create Gods.

Is the prosperity of the Northern European peoples a consequence of Protestantism? I see no logical case for it. It has been often observed that people in temperate climates tend to be more aggressive, more inclined to planning, organization, and assertive preparation for the future, by producing their own goods and by stealing those produced by others. All of these qualities are required to survive the winter. Is it any wonder that Northern Europeans developed a more rigorous alternative to the corrupt and lethargic Mediterranean version of Christianity? Is the culture a product of this religion or is this religion a reflection of the culture that adopted it? Would you care to argue the former proposition against the latter?

It could be argued that Christianity was the vehicle through which the learning of the Mediterranean cultures was introduced to those who would use it aggressively enough to bring it to the point we have reached today. It could be argued also that this was a natural extension of a trend that began when Caesar marched north to Gaul, and would have happened under any religion. Proximity does suggest that the two would have come into contact in any case.

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