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Politics : World Affairs Discussion -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Emile Vidrine who wrote (1390)	8/8/2002 6:51:38 PM
From: hal jordan	Respond to of 3959

>>The need for truth, righteousness and peace cannot be attained in the writings of man.<< Clearly not from your writings...

To: Emile Vidrine who wrote (1390)	8/8/2002 8:57:15 PM
From: goldsnow	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3959

about 100 BC: god is invented; the mystery cults, with help from the devolved platonists, segue into the first, more or less, true monotheism; but this semi-god doesn't completely deny the existence of its rivals, and it confines itself somewhat to only lording it over Judea; the midsize Hebrew nation, after vast rewriting, declares all of its national literature to be "perfect," and "holy"; this grabbag of often poorly-written, inept, contradictory pamphlets is "canonized" and eventually comes to be called the "old testament" and "jewish" bible; pure irrationality and pure evil become possible; religion begins 00s: the Hebrew nation invents many "messiahs"; religion becomes fanatically opposed to reason and philosophy, reality and truth -- and even life and happiness; religious mania and zealotry begins 70s: Hebrew men of god rebel against the world's most civilized and benevolent country, Rome; 960 fanatics and zealots commit suicide at Masada pureliberal.com about 500: religion inaugurates the longest, deepest, worst Dark Age in the history of man; 1000 years of god and misery ensue after 500: religion ruthlessly eviscerates -- if not outright destroys -- most other societal institutions; the church becomes a center and virtual monopoly of human learning, socializing, governing, litigating, etc. -- all of these important activities are intensely stunted and perverted; like with the 20th century communist party, many good men in a bad society are essentially forced to join the church because it's the only important cultural institution that exists; this overwhelming societal warp, deviancy, and degeneracy continues for at least a millennium; its dolorous and destructive influence is heavily felt to this day 529: christian zealot Emperor Justinian terminates almost 1000 years of glorious history by closing down Aristotle's Lyceum, Epicurus' Garden, Plato's Academy, Zeno's Painted Porch, and all the other philosophy schools; even token opposition to the christian antiphilosophy is forbidden 1233: the Inquisition begins; people who refuse to tell terrible lies and do horrific evils in the name of "god" are hideously tortured, burnt, and killed for an unbelievable and soulless 600 years 1543: Nicolas Copernicus discovers the earth revolves around the sun -- not vice-versa -- and he works out various mathematical proofs of this; but he's so afraid of the evil catholic and protestant authorities that he refuses to publish his discoveries until on his deathbed 1600: philosopher and scientist Giordano Bruno confidently advocates Copernican heliocentricism and speculates that each star in the sky is another sun, possibly with its own planets revolving around it; the church tries him for "heresy" and burns him at the stake 1600s: religion continues to decline in Europe as quality of life continues to ascend 1633: the world's best scientist, Galileo, is mercilessly persecuted by men of god for the crime of gingerly telling the truth about heliocentricism; he's threatened with torture and forced to recant his beliefs -- but still is kept under arrest for the remaining 10 years of his precious life; the church refuses to apologize for over 350 years 1300s: the Renaissance begins in Northern Italy; the unbearable Long Night of god is finally declining -- for a while; reason and philosophy ascend; civilization, prosperity, humanity, and a modicum of happiness return