From: Max More (maxmore@primenet.com)
Date: Thu Jan 02 1997 - 12:03:20 MST
At 08:23 AM 1/2/97 -0800, you wrote:
>On Jan 2, 10:02am, QueeneMUSE@aol.com wrote:
>
>} I know what you mean. I don't understand it either. But maybe you would get
>} tired of pleading and whining and accepting fate - and try something
>} (science? art? philosophy?) to empower yourself, even if it meant risking the
>} wrath of the big daddy-o.
>
>Wrath? What wrath? After medieval times many thinkers started viewing
>natural philosophy as due homage to God, by studying His greatest work,
>Creation. I think Francis Bacon had this view; Thomas Paine (after
>Newton, of couse) did; Franklin might have. I cannot evaluate the
>argument myself, but there are those who credit Christianity with
>fostering science, by establishing (according to some scholastics) that
>God was not whimsical and the universe would thus operate according to
>rules (which He could still violate at option, thus miracles, but the
>rest of the time there would be rules). This leads to the idea that it
>is worthwhile to look for the rules of nature
Don't give credit for that to Christianity! That was the Greek influence,
specifically Neoplatonism. Christianity absorbed that but didn't creat it.
If Christianity hadn't been around, we don't know what outlook might have
arisen instead. Possibly something which, overall, would have encourage
science and reason more strongly (rather than killing it for a millennium).
Max
Max More, Ph.D.
more@extropy.org
http://www.primenet.com/~maxmore
President, Extropy Institute, Editor, Extropy
info-exi@extropy.org, http://www.extropy.org
(310) 398-0375
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