who_said_I_am_an_emu

who_said_I_am_an_emu t1_j53qkvb wrote

That isn't how it works. Natural selection is a filter limiting what is possible. It isn't like if people with bad eyesight are more likely to survive today compared to the past that all of us will have bad eyesight it is more like there is going to be people with bad eyesight not dying as much now.

Besides we have bad eyesight now because we are indoors all the time. But on the plus side lazy eye is becoming a thing of the past.

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who_said_I_am_an_emu t1_j2aj9xf wrote

I am sorry your PC version of history doesn't call it the Dark Ages anymore. Maybe you can get a refund?

>First universities started by the church

And all the ones that were not that taught real subjects not theology. Why didn't you mention those?

>First printing press was built to better spread the bible because most books prior had to be hand written by monks.

No, the first printing press with moveable type. Do try to get your details right. Was invented to make a dude some money.

>Basically all great collections of knowledge were done by monasteries.

Or kings or random rich people or sultans. Meanwhile it was a major founder of the Church that asked "what does Jesus have to do with Athens?"

>most of the great natural philosophers, scientists, and inventors were either directly members of or were educated by the church until almost the 19th century

Yeah all 5 of them. Good job. Totally makes up for the ones they imprisoned or burned at the stake.

>foundations of common law, and the basis of natural rights that form the basis of nearly every major power on the planet were explicitly based on Christian principles and law.

Not even close to right. There is nothing even resembling common law (which is just an Anglo-Saxon thing anyhow) or natural rights in the Bible.

>a large section of many of the greatest works of art, literature, and philosophy were commissioned by the church, or made by people trained/funded by the church.

Name 4 examples of each without searching online.

>That's what I was able to come up with off the top of my head in under 5 minutes.

Maybe you should take 6 minutes next time, you might be able to come up with 1.

>You act so high and mighty as an engineer, well I'm one too.

An engineeign student, yes? But you can pretend if you want. And yeah I am proud bastard. Are you going to talk about me or defend your claims about how wonder those children fuckers were that caused the black ages?

>Only difference between us is I have the humility to recognize the soil on which our culture and world are built rather than having the hubris to act as though everyone that came before me is some backwards neanderthal.

And so humble about it.

>Believe in God or not, but you can't say the church hasn't been a force for good in the world, or as if our modernity suddenly sprang from the earth fully formed.

Not and those children fuckers caused the Dark Ages.

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who_said_I_am_an_emu t1_j2aefxj wrote

>Most of the greatest cultural advancements, historical and knowledge preservation and dissemination, and even a large section of technological advancement, of the last 2000 years both here in the west and beyond has been a direct result of religious institutions.

The period of time in human history where monotheism was at its highest strength is called the Dark Ages. Only when religion started losing power did the era of science and engineer begin.

But hey, prove me wrong. I am an engineer. Tell me how religion inspires me at work.

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who_said_I_am_an_emu t1_j2a9usb wrote

Why is the idea that ideas matter so distressing to people?

If I went around telling people that I hate some race and then attacked a person of that race, I am confident someone on the internet will say "the real reason was because of x, not his racism".

Iran leadership continues to tell us, over and over and over again, what they want and we keep getting bothered by it and want some deep hidden meaning because the very concept that what we believe impacts our life is upsetting. I truly do not know what the motivation for this is, and I have done it myself.

Ideas matter, beliefs matter, they make us act differently.

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who_said_I_am_an_emu t1_j29xhza wrote

No, I want people to stop having religion or at least stop having real religion. The fake woo woke new ones are usually harmless enough.

Nothing I have ever said should be read as me arguing that people should be forced into not having religion.

Put another way: I want everyone to be healthy, I do not want to force anyone to go jogging.

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who_said_I_am_an_emu t1_j29uiqk wrote

Iran in particular? I would suggest the world democracies start spending money on sitcoms, dramas, movies, videos, etc. showing Iranian actors and actresses living normal life either without Islam or at most diet-Islam. Then pump that shit into there. Show a million examples to the people there that there is another way to live life. A vast propoganda campaign that advocates for lifestyles instead of nation states. The one thing the west can still make the best is content.

It would cost pennies to any national government let alone the NATO alliance. So much cheaper than any war. Also we really do not have to worry about them doing it to us in kind. Yes, you are now picturing those D.A.R.E programs you watched when you were a kid but trying to convince you to wear a Hijab. "Hey fellow kids, (says the bearded man), it's neato to wear a face covering. I did drugs but now I am high on Allah".

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who_said_I_am_an_emu t1_j299hya wrote

>A dictatorship has to promulgate some sort of distant goals and moral ideals in order to justify its rule and the people’s immolation; the extent to which it succeeds in convincing its victims, is the extent of its own danger; sooner or later, its contradictions are thrown in its face by the best of its subjects: the ablest, the most intelligent, the most honest. Thus a dictatorship is forced to destroy and to keep on destroying the best of its “human resources.” And be it fifty years or five centuries later, ambitious thugs and lethargic drones are all a dictatorship will have left to exploit and rule; the rest will die young, physically or spiritually.

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