Freedom
When I got up this morning, it seems that the first thing I wanted was more news of the election. This morning it looks pretty bleak, it would seem even Kerry is looking at conceding. It’s bothering me how many people, especially in the religious right, feel that they should be able to legislate based on their religious beliefs because they are just doing what god wants. What they keep forgetting, most of the world’s tragedies that have been perpetrated by men claiming to do what god wants; Bin Laden and al-Qaeda are prime examples.
The Christians will point out they aren’t trying to kill people, to which there are two response. First, that they aren’t wanting to kill, just create an environment of prejudice and inequality where attacks, such as the one on Matthew Shepherd occur and murderers, as in the case of a Dallas judge, give lighter sentences because they killed gays. The other point is that you look at the rights taken away in most of the Muslim nations and the attitude that allows groups like al Qaeda to exist. Most Arabs, from what I understand, don’t support or believe that Allah wants al Qaeda to do the things they do but they don’t stop them either. Kind of like the groups of the religious right that burned abortion clinics and killed doctors. While they claimed to be against those groups, I don’t remember them taking action. Some even, while at the same time that they disapproved with the actions of these groups, still felt and conveyed the message that it was no more than what these clinics and doctors deserved.
I had an idea recently about what causes a civilization to have a "golden age", a period where learning and prosperity are increased. I realized that every civilization I can think of that was recognized as a leader in scientific advances and prosperity were also the most tolerant civilizations.
Although there are others, we’ll start with the Greeks. They fostered a culture of learning, even when that learning went against their beliefs. Sure, Socrates was killed, but that was more because he made political enemies than for his teachings. The Greeks believed in many gods and allowed men to worship as they may. They passed this learning to the Romans, who then took up the mantle.
There was largely a religious freedom in the Roman empire; in fact reading about the Romans and contrasting it to the attitudes of the Jews is interesting. The Christians will claim that, obviously, there wasn’t that much freedom in Rome, look at how the Christians were treated; to which I respond that it was toward the end of the Roman empire and was also, again, more that they felt the Christians were seditious, a threat to the empire. Even more interesting, the Rome only fell after Constantine declared Rome Christian, for the first time giving Rome a state religion. I’ll also point out that the concept of freedom of religion in ancient times was not as advanced as the ideas today.
The next center of learning was the Arab world. They were much different then, and they were tolerant of other religions. Spain is a prime example, under Islamic governments both Christians and Jews were permitted and to freely exercise their religions. One of the first things the Christians did when they regained control of Spain was to forcibly remove all the non-Christians.
Later, we see Europe finally having a Renaissance, this is the time of Luther and Calvin. We finally see a free exchange of ideas in Europe. Once again, it is not perfect but there is a freedom not seen before.
We then come to America, once again a freedom of religion and a free exchange of ideas. America was the beacon for the rest of the world, everyone was welcome - both Christian and non-Christian. And yet, America is now in decline. Many on the right would trace the decline to the sixties, when you had a revolution, of sorts, in thought. But, if you look closer, the sixties was still a boom period; the U.S. went to the moon and there were numerous scientific discoveries, many which have changed our lives. Plastics largely come from the sixties and personal computers trace their roots to what was needed for the Space program.
The change came in the early sixties and seventies when the people started attacking the freedom of thought and expression found in the sixties. You start having episodes of brutality against protestors and a crackdown on some of the freedom of expression. The religious right traces its roots back to this period, people wanted morality expressed as black and white again.
In the ensuing years, America has lost it’s edge, it’s no longer the shining example. It’s not in complete decline, but other countries have caught up and some seem to be pushing ahead. Religion is pushing government to ban or slow areas of scientific thought that conflict with their beliefs: stem cell research is being slowed, cloning in areas they want a complete ban, and the list goes on.
I admit, my theory is still a work in progress but there seems to be some kernel of truth to it. It would appear that the religious right is causing the decline in America, not the other way around as they’ve preached for the last 40 years.
The Christians will point out they aren’t trying to kill people, to which there are two response. First, that they aren’t wanting to kill, just create an environment of prejudice and inequality where attacks, such as the one on Matthew Shepherd occur and murderers, as in the case of a Dallas judge, give lighter sentences because they killed gays. The other point is that you look at the rights taken away in most of the Muslim nations and the attitude that allows groups like al Qaeda to exist. Most Arabs, from what I understand, don’t support or believe that Allah wants al Qaeda to do the things they do but they don’t stop them either. Kind of like the groups of the religious right that burned abortion clinics and killed doctors. While they claimed to be against those groups, I don’t remember them taking action. Some even, while at the same time that they disapproved with the actions of these groups, still felt and conveyed the message that it was no more than what these clinics and doctors deserved.
I had an idea recently about what causes a civilization to have a "golden age", a period where learning and prosperity are increased. I realized that every civilization I can think of that was recognized as a leader in scientific advances and prosperity were also the most tolerant civilizations.
Although there are others, we’ll start with the Greeks. They fostered a culture of learning, even when that learning went against their beliefs. Sure, Socrates was killed, but that was more because he made political enemies than for his teachings. The Greeks believed in many gods and allowed men to worship as they may. They passed this learning to the Romans, who then took up the mantle.
There was largely a religious freedom in the Roman empire; in fact reading about the Romans and contrasting it to the attitudes of the Jews is interesting. The Christians will claim that, obviously, there wasn’t that much freedom in Rome, look at how the Christians were treated; to which I respond that it was toward the end of the Roman empire and was also, again, more that they felt the Christians were seditious, a threat to the empire. Even more interesting, the Rome only fell after Constantine declared Rome Christian, for the first time giving Rome a state religion. I’ll also point out that the concept of freedom of religion in ancient times was not as advanced as the ideas today.
The next center of learning was the Arab world. They were much different then, and they were tolerant of other religions. Spain is a prime example, under Islamic governments both Christians and Jews were permitted and to freely exercise their religions. One of the first things the Christians did when they regained control of Spain was to forcibly remove all the non-Christians.
Later, we see Europe finally having a Renaissance, this is the time of Luther and Calvin. We finally see a free exchange of ideas in Europe. Once again, it is not perfect but there is a freedom not seen before.
We then come to America, once again a freedom of religion and a free exchange of ideas. America was the beacon for the rest of the world, everyone was welcome - both Christian and non-Christian. And yet, America is now in decline. Many on the right would trace the decline to the sixties, when you had a revolution, of sorts, in thought. But, if you look closer, the sixties was still a boom period; the U.S. went to the moon and there were numerous scientific discoveries, many which have changed our lives. Plastics largely come from the sixties and personal computers trace their roots to what was needed for the Space program.
The change came in the early sixties and seventies when the people started attacking the freedom of thought and expression found in the sixties. You start having episodes of brutality against protestors and a crackdown on some of the freedom of expression. The religious right traces its roots back to this period, people wanted morality expressed as black and white again.
In the ensuing years, America has lost it’s edge, it’s no longer the shining example. It’s not in complete decline, but other countries have caught up and some seem to be pushing ahead. Religion is pushing government to ban or slow areas of scientific thought that conflict with their beliefs: stem cell research is being slowed, cloning in areas they want a complete ban, and the list goes on.
I admit, my theory is still a work in progress but there seems to be some kernel of truth to it. It would appear that the religious right is causing the decline in America, not the other way around as they’ve preached for the last 40 years.