Why I am an atheist/naturalist

It’s actually reply to the author of this thread…Not to you…

@dad1

If I say yes do you stop the threatening?

Threatening what? Stop threatening you with being banned? No, that won’t cease, unless you stop trolling. Other than that, no one has threaten you with anything.

Why pulpit pound your particular choice of fables? -- dad1
So ironic

You are not being threatened. You are being shown the rules.

@lausten dad1’s handle alone shows he wants to control others.

A papist perhaps.

I said that because it got me to thinking about how the catholic church has dominated so much of western thought/philosophy and today’s individual thinking, think the entire abortion contraception strangulation. Most church do seem to demand faith over facts, etc., etc.,

{oops, started getting into some thing I really don’t have the time for. perhaps later, gotta shut down this thing, get on with the day.}. See ya.

The Catholic Church probably accelerated progress in the Middle Ages by preserving and transmitting certain scientific and technological knowledge inherited from antiquity (it can be argued that Islam did it more, in particular for mathematics, medicine, or architecture).

After that, the Catholic Church and its conservative dogmas arguably hampered progress (for example, by preventing medical research).

Protestantism allowed the acceleration of economic progress (and the enrichment of England, Holland, and Prussia).

The philosophical revolution of the 18th century allowed the acceleration of scientific and technological progress.

With the enrichment of Western societies, social progress (i.e., social protection) has also accelerated.

In the 19th and 20th centuries, Catholic institutions (for example, residential schools in Canada or Ireland) were hotbeds of abuse and injustice (for example, mistreatment and sexual abuse of women and children).

The Catholic Church has tried unsuccessfully to slow progress (for example by opposing evolutionary theses, research, or birth control) and progress of ideas. a pope has published an encyclique denouncing the idea of human rights.

A nicely condensed summation!

Indeed. Behold the evolution of the human mindscape. :v:

The Catholic Church probably accelerated progress in the Middle Ages by preserving and transmitting certain scientific and technological knowledge inherited from antiquity (it can be argued that Islam did it more, in particular for mathematics, medicine, or architecture).

After that, the Catholic Church and its conservative dogmas arguably hampered progress (for example, by preventing medical research).

Protestantism allowed the acceleration of economic progress (and the enrichment of England, Holland, and Prussia).

The philosophical revolution of the 18th century allowed the acceleration of scientific and technological progress.

With the enrichment of Western societies, social progress (i.e., social protection) has also accelerated.

In the 19th and 20th centuries, Catholic institutions (for example, residential schools in Canada or Ireland) were hotbeds of abuse and injustice (for example, mistreatment and sexual abuse of women and children).

The Catholic Church has tried unsuccessfully to slow progress (for example by opposing evolutionary theses, research, or birth control) and progress of ideas. a pope has published an encyclique denouncing the idea of human rights.


Christianity had a strong intellectual tradition until the protestant reformation. Even today the catholics still have an impressive record. The scientific revolution would not have happened if it weren’t for them.

Christianity had a strong intellectual tradition until the protestant reformation. Even today the catholics still have an impressive record. The scientific revolution would not have happened if it weren’t for them.
As long as the science did not conflict with Scripture the Church was indeed instrumental in many practical inventions, such as "double entry" bookkeeping invented by Fra Luca Bartolomeo de Pacioli.
Luca Pacioli was an Italian mathematician, Franciscan friar, collaborator with Leonardo da Vinci, and an early contributor to the field now known as accounting. He is referred to as "The Father of Accounting and Bookkeeping" in Europe ... The essentials of double-entry accounting have for the most part remained ...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luca_Pacioli#Impact_on_accounting_and_business

 

OTOH, the Illuminati was an archenemy of the church

Illuminati

The Illuminati[1] (plural of Latin illuminatus, 'enlightened') is a name given to several groups, both real and fictitious. Historically, the name usually refers to the Bavarian Illuminati, an Enlightenment-era secret society founded on 1 May 1776 in Bavaria, today part of Germany. The society's goals were to oppose superstition, obscurantism, religious influence over public life, and abuses of state power. "The order of the day," they wrote in their general statutes, "is to put an end to the machinations of the purveyors of injustice, to control them without dominating them."[2]
The Illuminati—along with Freemasonry and other secret societies—were outlawed through edict by Charles Theodore, Elector of Bavaria, with the encouragement of the Catholic Church, in 1784, 1785, 1787, and 1790.[3] During subsequent years, the group was generally vilified by conservative and religious critics who claimed that the Illuminati continued underground and were responsible for the French Revolution.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illuminati
The Catholic Church probably accelerated progress in the Middle Ages by preserving and transmitting certain scientific and technological knowledge inherited from antiquity
It's pretty well documented that the Catholics pushed that knowledge out and it was carried east where the Muslims eventually recovered it and spread it back across north Africa.