mahoney@bach.DEC (Be verwy verwy quiet I am hunting wabbits) (10/15/85)
>Yes, well Galileo was a Christian persecuted and tried for having the audacity >to say what he had observed in the scientific evidence- namely that the >Earth revolved around the Sun rather than the Sun revolving around the Earth. >For 200 hundred years Christian fundamentalists refused to acknowledge >that Earth might not be the center of the Universe. Now the same mentality >prevails amongst Christians arguing that there is no such thing as evolution >or that Homo sapiens could not be related to other animals by evolution. >It is doubtful the Catholic Church which tried Galileo for his "heresy" >thinks he will be in Heaven. >I agree with them - but then the Catholic Church won't be in Heaven either! > > tim sevener whuxn!orb >"Almost Heaven, West Virginia ..." Number one I don't believe that those Christians who believe in creationism prevail (unless you mean only that they have gained influence.). If this is what you mean then I want you to show me by statistics how far this influence affects other Christians beliefs. I consider myself a Christian and Catholic and believe in both Darwin's Theory and the Big Bang Theory. Most Christians I know also believe in these theories. So I am curious as to how far the influence of the Moral Majority has become entrenched in Christian thought. Personally I believe it is a small minority who is overly vocal and thus the politicians are afraid to buck them. (As they are of any vocal group) As far as the Catholic Church goes Galileo (unfortunately) recanted his believes and thus was never excommunicated. Since he never committed any major sins (that I know of) he would be able to enter heaven. The Catholic Church also learned its lesson about science and no longer pushes any one scientific belief. Your last line to me is offensive not only as a Catholic but as a person. It is highly prejudicial I believe it warrants an apology to Catholics. Yes there is much wrong with the Catholic Church as with any large organization run by men. The Church though has done many good things over the years and for that, should be praised. This attack upon the Church is just pure malice. (Of course I could be misreading your text. If so I apologize.) Brian Mahoney "Truth the ultimate reality and the ultimate destroyer"
jj@alice.UUCP (10/17/85)
Mahoney says that Galileo died without "major sin", even though he recanted completely his knowledge about the solar system, allowing people to be force-fed a superstitious view of the universe that he knew was totally false and untrue. I wonder, now, just what sort of behavior is it to recant something you KNOW to be true? Could you argue that the onus is on the Church for threatening his life? -- SUPPORT SECULAR TEDDY-BEAR-ISM. ". ...And it's, 'Oh boys, can't you code it, and program it right' ... ." (ihnp4/allegra)!alice!jj
squires@csd2.UUCP (Charles S Squires Jr) (10/22/85)
Creationism?? It seems fairly obvious that this whole idea of "creationism" (more specifically, "creation science") is a euphemism for a political "strategy". Consider this: Well, it looks like religion just ain't gonna make it in the schools any more. This whole damned atheistic system is so 'humanistic' and promotes nothing but that liberal, science stuff. So, let's call our religious belief in the Christian creation myth a SCIENTIFIC theory, and push it into the schools that way so our kids can be brought up as good Christians (i.e., Baptists). They wouldn't dare keep an alternate SCIENTIFIC theory out of the schools. So, yes... we should beware since the current movement among the religious fanatics is strikingly similar to the forces which surpressed and destroyed so much knowledge and progress during the pre-Reformation, pre-Renaissance era (i.e., the DARK AGES). But more specifically, we should face this situation head on and call it what it really is... PROPAGANDA.