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Interview With an Atheist - David Mills (author
of Science Shams and Bible Bloopers)
I'm genuinely afraid that, unless we start teaching some
real science in our miserable public schools, we may find
that 21st-century America suffers an intellectual climate
resembling that of the Dark Ages. We tend to believe that,
once knowledge has been acquired and technology devel-
oped by man, the future will only build upon these past
achievements.
But history argues forcefully against such an optimistic
assumption. The ancient Greeks and Egyptians, for
example, made amazing scientific discoveries and wrote
detailed scientific analyses that the Christian Church
destroyed and suppressed for centuries.
A mob of religious zealots deliberately burned the greatest
library of the ancient world, at Alexandria, Egypt. And
it was not until Renaissance scholars emancipated Europe
from religious shackles that these scientific principles were
rediscovered 1500 years later.
Fifteen-hundred years of progress were therefore stifled
by the Christian Church. Were it not for religious perse-
cution and oppression of science, mankind might have
landed on the moon in the year 650. Cancer may have
been eradicated forever by the year 800. And heart
disease may, today, be unknown. But Christianity put
into deep hibernation Greek and Egyptian scientific
gains of the past.
Historically, the Church fought venomously against
each new scientific advance. But after fruitlessly criti-
cizing each new scientific achievement, the Church
soon flip-flopped its position and embraced the new
discovery as a "gift from God to mankind."
The Catholic hierarchy even opposed the invention of
the printing press because copies of Scripture could
be easily mass produced and placed in the hands of
those who might misinterpret or criticize "God's Word."
Before the printing press, Scripture had been read and
deciphered only by Catholic priests.
The Church angrily denounced the introduction of medi-
cines, antibiotics, anesthesia, surgery, blood transfusions,
birth control, transplants, in vitro fertilization, and most
forms of pain killers. Supposedly, these scientific tools
interfered with nature and were therefore against God's will.
Today, the Church is fighting cloning technology and
genetic engineering. But when cloning laboratories provide
an unlimited supply of transplant tissue for dying children,
and when genetic engineering cures all forms of cancer,
Church leaders will once again forget their initial opposition
and hail these achievements as evidence of God's love for
mankind.
Today, science is prevailing, but throughout most of
recorded history, religion strangled scientific inquiry and
often tortured and executed those who advocated the
scientific method.
Unless we drastically improve our educational system,
it is not inconceivable that scientific ignorance will once
again become so ubiquitous that ultra-conservative
Fundamentalists seize control of our government and
resurrect book burning and witch burning.
Five-hundred years from now, the hot topic of debate
in scientific circles may be whether the Earth is round
or flat. This frightening scenario is not likely, but it is
far from impossible.
- end excerpt -
- - -
From -The Dark Side of Christian History-, by
Helen Ellerbe, published by Morningstar and Lark:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0964487349
"By prohibiting and burning any other writings, the
Catholic Church eventually gave the impression that
this Bible and its four canonized Gospels represented
the only original Christian view. And yet, as late as 450,
Theodore of Cyrrhus said that there were at least 200
different gospels circulating in his own diocese. Even
the Catholic Encyclopedia now admits that the 'idea
of a complete and clear-cut canon of the New Testa-
ment existing from the beginning... has no foundation
in history'." ...
There has been no more organized effort by a religion to
control people and contain their spirituality than the
Christian Inquisition. ... Pope Innocent III declared
"that anyone who attempted to construe a personal
view of God which conflicted with Church dogma
must be burned without pity." ...
The Church turned to its own canon law to authenticate
an agency which could enforce adherence to Church
authority. In 1231 Pope Gregory IX established the
Inquisition as a separate tribunal, independent of bishops
and prelates. Its administrators, the inquisitors, were to
be answerable only to the Pope. ...
The names of accusing witnesses were kept secret. One's
only recourse was an appeal to the Pope in Rome which
was so futile as to be farcical. The friar Bernard Deliceux
declared: "...that if St. Peter and St. Paul were accused of
'adoring' heretics and were prosecuted after the fashion
of the Inquisition, there would be no defense for them." ...
By far the cruelest aspect of the inquisitional system was
the means by which confessions were wrought: the torture
chamber. Torture remained a legal option for the Church
from 1252 when it was sanctioned by Pope Innocent IV
until 1917 when the new Codex Juris Canonici was put
into effect. ...
Thus, with license granted by the Pope himself, inquisitors
were free to explore the depths of horror and cruelty.
Dressed as black-robed fiends with black cowls over
their heads, inquisitors extracted confessions from nearly
anyone. The Inquisition invented every conceivable device
to inflict pain by slowly dismembering and dislocating the
body. Many of these devices were inscribed with the motto
"Glory be only to God."
The rack, the hoist and water tortures were the most common.
Victims were rubbed with lard or grease and slowly roasted
alive. Ovens built to kill people, made infamous in twentieth
century Nazi Germany, were first used by the Christian
Inquisition in Eastern Europe. Victims were thrown into a
pit full of snakes and buried alive.
One particularly gruesome torture involved turning a large
dish full of mice upside down on the victim's naked stomach.
A fire was then lit on top of the dish causing the mice to panic
and burrow into the stomach. Should a victim withstand such
pain without confessing, he or she would be burned alive at
the stake, often in mass public burnings called auto-da-fe. ...
The Inquisition often targeted members of other religions
as severely as it did heretics. The Inquisition now lent its
authority to the long-standing Christian persecution of Jews.
Particularly during the Christian Holy Week of the Passion,
Christians frequently rioted against Jews or refused to sell
them food in hopes of starving them.
At the beginning of the 13th century, Pope Innocent III
required Jews to wear distinctive clothing. In 1391 Arch-
deacon of Seville launched a "Holy War against the Jews."
...
It was the 300 year period of witch-hunting from the fif-
teenth to the eighteenth century, what R.H. Robbins called
"the shocking nightmare, the foulest crime and deepest
shame of western civilization", that ensured the European
abandonment of the belief in magic.
...
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