Thursday, April 14, 2005
Enlightenment, a Formidable Enemy of Christianity?
Intelligent design theorists, and their country cousins, the biblical literalists, are down on evolution, down on science, and down on the Enlightenment. Even Red State Rabble, worldly as we are, was surprised to learn this little fact.
For the skeptics among you, RSR knows you're out there, here's the evidence:
Ellen Myers writing at Creationism.org has this to say:
It was a little before our time, but as RSR remembers it, the 17th century was torn by witch-hunts and wars of religion where Catholics slaughtered Protestants, Protestants slaughtered Catholics, and Protestants slaughtered each other. In those dark days, people could be imprisoned for attending the wrong church, or not attending at all. Every pamphlet and book, was subject to prior censorship by both church and state, often working hand in hand.
The pilgrims who came to America to escape religious persecution, didn't come because they were under attack by humanists and scientists. Rather, they came to escape persecution at the hands of their fellow believers in the established churches, such as the Church of England.
Those in America now, who want the schools to teach their religious beliefs, want laws enacted that enforce those beliefs, demand the courts to be ruled by judges from the next pew, should remember that legacy. The freedom to worship, associate, and speak as they believe is a legacy not of the Christian fundamentalism they preach, but the Enlightenment they despise.
For the skeptics among you, RSR knows you're out there, here's the evidence:
Ellen Myers writing at Creationism.org has this to say:
"As we defend the biblical Christian position, we must be alert and prepared to carry the battle into the enemy's camp. We will find that the unresolved and ever recurring internal inconsistencies in all worldly philosophies reasoning not from God but from man are the most vulnerable spots in the unbelievers armor. Let us consider the eighteenth century enlightenment, a formidable enemy of Christianity, as an example."
It was a little before our time, but as RSR remembers it, the 17th century was torn by witch-hunts and wars of religion where Catholics slaughtered Protestants, Protestants slaughtered Catholics, and Protestants slaughtered each other. In those dark days, people could be imprisoned for attending the wrong church, or not attending at all. Every pamphlet and book, was subject to prior censorship by both church and state, often working hand in hand.
The pilgrims who came to America to escape religious persecution, didn't come because they were under attack by humanists and scientists. Rather, they came to escape persecution at the hands of their fellow believers in the established churches, such as the Church of England.
Those in America now, who want the schools to teach their religious beliefs, want laws enacted that enforce those beliefs, demand the courts to be ruled by judges from the next pew, should remember that legacy. The freedom to worship, associate, and speak as they believe is a legacy not of the Christian fundamentalism they preach, but the Enlightenment they despise.
