Have you read Guns, Germs, and Steel? I think that makes a pretty good case for technological progress vis a vis Europe and Asia. I'm not sure Christianity had anything to do with it.
Well you're right. Christianity wouldn't have much to do with gunpowder. I'm speaking more of the "scientific" revoilution, not so much technological. The scientific leaps and bounds that took place under Christian supervision flies in the face of so many claims that Christianity and science are at odds with one another.
I think trade and interaction (violent and otherwise) had more to do with progress than anything else.
But Europe was blocked from trade for many centuries. That is why Columbus sailed to the New World. To find new trade routes to the east that had been blocked by Islamic forces.
marg,
Kevin having a book to read does not make it a science quide.
Exactly my point. So why are you bring it up in the context of scientific progress?
Please answer my question.
Marg, what question? The issue was whether or not Christainity fostered or stunted "scientific" progress. I said it did. I said modern science emerged from Christian civilization. You then bring up this anecdote about Tyndale and the English Bible and interpret it to mean something it doesn't. What has the Bible to do with "scientific" progress?
This sounds a lot like how JAK just scrolls weird websites, finds something negative in Christian history, and then just throws it out on the tabel whether it makes any sense to the topic or not.
I collect crosses and display them. So I appreciate Christianity's influence on cross designery.
(Rolles eyes)
Beastie, you're saying what I have been saying for quite some time, so I think youa nd I are on the same page. I only wish others, including Dawkins, would accept religion as a social construct and analyze it in that context. To say religion is dangerous because of certain sociological events, is just stupid. One might as well say human nature is dangerous. So let's prevent it by killing all humans! If religion wasn't here, we'd still be in a world of misery and oppression. I would actually argue that it would be much worse without it.
“All knowledge of reality starts from experience and ends in it...Propositions arrived at by purely logical means are completely empty as regards reality." - Albert Einstein