Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Pastimes : Don't Ask Rambi -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JF Quinnelly who wrote (30343)	6/29/1999 7:42:00 AM
From: Ilaine	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 71178

>>>>>Kepler, Copernicus, the Bacons, Newton, Maxwell, Heisenberg, all these backward dopes and many others failed to see Christianity as an impediment to their scientific work.<<<<< I am not sure why Christianity has a reputation for being backward - perhaps because some of its most vocal self-appointed spokesmen are such jackasses - e.g. Falwell spouting off about Tinky Winky and the Lilith Fair. The incident with Galileo doesn't do much for the reputation of the Catholic Church, but anyone who has been taught by a Jesuit knows that Christians are not backward. As an antidote to Reverend Falwell, I suggest a promenade around someplace like Georgetown University, or perhaps a light dip in the writings of Teilhard de Chardin.

To: JF Quinnelly who wrote (30343)	6/29/1999 10:52:00 AM
From: Rambi	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 71178

Some of the brightest and most highly educated people Dan and I know are devout Christians. And there are certainly scientists among these- and lawyers and doctors and computer wizards. For them I think it has been a much more challenging journey to faith, as you yourself have found. On the surface, Christianity seems to be a fairy tale. Virgin birth, miracles, angels getting 80 year old women pregnant, rising from the dead, saved from your sins, abook inspired by God.. As Coby pointed out, the popular form of Christianity is what we hear on TV, or at church. And as I said earlier, there aren't too many people willing to do the reading you have done- most people are too busy just getting by. I don't know enough about Copernicus, Newton, etc, their lives, their knowledge, to have a clue what conflict they would have felt, if any. I never heard of the person Cobe mentioned, and if I haven't, my guess is that the majority hasn't. Perhaps the highly well-read and learned people here on this thread have, but really, you must admit you aren't representative of the average joe. I consider it my job to remind you of the level at which the real world, the average mind functions. You need to be very careful not to be condescending or insulting in your tone. People aren't trying to be stupid, even if it looks that way.

To: JF Quinnelly who wrote (30343)	6/29/1999 12:57:00 PM
From: nihil	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 71178

Copernicus was so inconvenienced by Christianity (he was a cleric) that he dared not publish his work, Kepler was an astrologer as well as an astronomer and was hardly an orthodox Christian, Friar Bacon spent much of his life under condemnation of the Church, Newton, of course, was a Unitarian and had to commit perjury to hold his appointment at Cambridge. Christianity has been a terrible obstacle to scientific thought. I notice you didn't mention Galileo who was humiliated, threatened with death, and imprisoned by the church. You failed to mention Giordano Bruno, or Michael Servetus, both burned as heretics. You didn't mention the Jewish scientists expelled from and killed by Spain, Germany, and France. You didn't mention the scientists fired from American universities because they questioned Christian doctrine. Do you have any knowledge at all of the war between science and superstition that has been taking place for a thousand years?