I see this argument is long over, but I don't want to let this go unanswered:
Originally Posted By: FaxMeBeer
it was Celtic Catholic Monks who preserved the wealth of Western Cultural heritage during the attacks on the Christian world by the Godless Germanic tribes which lead to the dark ages.
This is a common and infuriating misconception. Those guys saved documents and adopted science in the tradition of Aristotle, who wrote many books on how science should be done. Problem is, Aristotle never did an actual controlled scientific experiment in his life. He liked logic instead. He would pull random ideas out of his ass, and if it held up to his own logical scrutiny, it was fact. The christian monks took this and mixed it with their own religious dogmas to make a "scientific" system that prevailed in western society for over 1000 years.
Back when these monks were saving the Greek tradition, they ignored or were ignorant of other cultures like the Chinese and Egyptians, who were much more scientifically advanced. The Muslims did not ignore these folks, and they were far advanced over the catholics. The muslims invented "zero", algebra, trigonometry, batteries, thermometers, etc, while the christians debated over whether or not rocks were hard. Catholic monks learned a hell of a lot from books "borrowed" during the crusades.
It's only recently that we're finally pulling away from the monastic Greek bullshit. Universities stopped requiring the study of Greek and Latin only a hundred years ago. Just think where we could have been if we followed the Chinese tradition instead and skipped the 1000 years of ignorance?
Case in point: When were most of the great (and even most of the mundane) western discoveries made? the last 100 years. Where were these discoveries made, in monasteries or universities?
Edit: I should add that I borrowed some of these words from someone whom I respect and admire named WitchGrl. I don't think she comes here.
dude cheers for putting this up im a big blackflag fan,didnt know were henry rollins stood on the whole religion front and i gotta say after watching this im glad to find out what his thoughts on the subject are haha
