Thomas Aquinas restarted Christianity by the logic Milo explained in this video. But science itself was started by the ancient Greeks and Romans thousands of years before the birth of Jesus, A case can be made that the Chinese and East Indians did as well.
But certainly the ancient Romans had determined the circumference of the Earth and distance to the moon in 500 BC.
And twenty minutes reading on the seemingly miraculous discoveries and inventions of people like Pythagorus shows that science was well and good before the Muslims arguably caused the dark ages, and Aquinas helped kick of its revival.
Fjordman’s essay, Islam, the Greeks and the Scientific Revolution is a fantastic read on this subject.
(Looking forward to reading corrections and details in the comments on this post.)
Milo is good, if we are to defeat Islam we have to defend Christianity. I wish more people would accept this fact.
As an Orthodox Christian I feel that too much of the discussion focuses on western Christianity. Understandable since this lecture is taking place in the west but as a Greek I sometimes hope Milo would mention the influence of the Eastern Church. For example the Greek phase of the Renaissance was not a result of Muslims introducing Greek philosophy to the west but was the result of Greek scholars fleeing Constantinople in 1453. Islam had a role to be sure, its cruelty and violence led to the educated fleeing for their lives to the west and bringing their wisdom with them.
Fjordman says exactly that in his essay. You may have to find and read part II, im not sure. But the whole thing is worth reading, and he details what the muslims did to Constantinople, and how the Christians fled to Rome bringing the learning of the ancient Greeks with them. That is the only way the muslims helped spread knowledge. By forcing learned people to flee elsewhere.
Another good source is Fr John Romanides and his examination of the differences between how Eastern and Western Christianity developed. Thanks for the reply Eeyore.
And just after I posted the above comment I read this from Fjordman, “The Arabic translations, although they did serve as an early reintroduction for some Western Europeans to Greek thought, didn’t “save” Greek knowledge as it had never been lost. It had been preserved in an unbroken line since Classical times by Greek, Byzantine Christians, who still considered themselves Romans, and it could be recovered there. There was extensive contact between Eastern and Western Christians at this time; sometimes amiable, sometimes less so and occasionally downright hostile, but contact nonetheless. The permanent recovery of Greek and Classical learning was undertaken as a direct transmission from Greek, Orthodox Christians to Western, Latin Christians. There were no Muslim middlemen involved.”
I should learn to read the links before I comment.
Confucius said, “Don’t place a burden on another person that you wouldn’t want placed on yourself.” – Or something like that. The point is that those words could very well be “The Word” of Jesus. They both mean the same thing and were spoken 500 years before Jesus was born, and Jesus did go off on a spiritual journey before he did his thing in Judea.
I’d say there’s been a thing called “truth” weaving its way through world history for some time now, from Socrates to Jesus to Buddha to Confucius. And then you look at a piece of shit like Kim Jong Un and you see what the opposite of truth looks like. The moral relativist professors can wag their Marxist tongues all they like, but everything is not equal to everything else and sometimes there is a right way and a wrong way to do a thing. If beauty is in the eye of the beholder then why does everybody like looking at Taylor Swift so darn much?
The basic flaw of the leftist is that, when confronted by evidence that disproves their opinions, they refuse to admit they were wrong and change their opinions. Or is it that they’re afraid of losing their jobs and their friends if the wrong people find out they’re starting to doubt their left wing assumptions?
The basic flaw of the leftist is that, when confronted by evidence that disproves their opinions, they refuse to admit they were wrong and change their opinions. Or is it that they’re afraid of losing their jobs and their friends if the wrong people find out they’re starting to doubt their left wing assumptions?
It is a combination of the two, most leftists especially the alt left are so arrogant their minds refuse to accept any facts that proves them wrong. For the very few who have enough intellect and intellectual honest to accept those facts there is the justifiable fear that their friends will refuse to talk to them and that they will lose their jobs. Some of the latter will eventually learn that their friends are not really smart and that the right isn’t composed of monsters and will move to make friends among the right.
But imagine if you were a school teacher or a social worker or a city planner or something and you could hear how rage-filled your co-workers seemed to get at the very mention of words like, “Trump” or “Palin” or “radical Islam”. Do you really think a university instructor could possible hope to ever get tenure after being caught saying something nice about Donald Trump? It would be worth the welfare of your family to keep your mouth shut and pretend to go along…
Most will keep their mouths shut, some will move to other schools, there are still a few who want teachers who teach the subject they are hired to teach and don’t care about the teachers politics.
Some few brave souls will speak up. Because pretending becomes too much of a burden. Others might just leave good jobs because the atmosphere feels toxic beyond tolerance.
A friend told me her mother was a teacher when school bussing became the law in Boston. Every day was war: neighbors fighting, police everywhere, the media circus. Her father was disabled, confused by any changes in routine.
So the teacher made a decision. She gathered her 5 kids, my friend among them, and moved to a remote small town in the western part of the state. They lost most everything, their house and savings. She found another teaching job, poorly paid, but it would suffice.
Happy ending: the family thrived. And they all tell the story with the pride of pioneers.
Yucki
It is a great story.. And I love the true happy endings, particularly in the Christmas season.
We need more of such stories!!
I’m sure her own children are great strong people too.