Robert W. Wilson, a philanthropist and retired hedge-fund manager, said he is giving $22.5 million to the Archdiocese of New York to fund a scholarship program for needy inner-city students attending Roman Catholic schools.
Wilson, 80, said in a phone interview that although he is an atheist, he has no problem donating money to a fund linked to Catholic schools.
“Let’s face it, without the Roman Catholic Church, there would be no Western civilization,” Wilson said. “Shunning religious organizations would be abhorrent. Keep in mind, I’m helping to pay tuition. The money isn’t going directly to the schools.”...
Vishal Mangalwadi is publishing a new book titled, Book of the Millenium. he also has some mp3s out there on the internet. He traces the roots of our modern world directly to the printing of the Bible and also to the old monasteries.
...there is also the phenomenon of the 'Carolingian Renaissance,' an impressive intellectual phenomenon of the early 9th century (in the heart of the so-called 'Dark Ages.' Charlemagne, for some reason, was concerned about the integrity of biblical and patristic manuscripts--copyists on the Continent were by that time speaking developed dialects of Latin (e.g. Franco-Romance in France = eventually 'French' or Ibero-Romance = eventually 'Spanish) and their dialects were bleeding into their Latin scholarship and corrupting it, so Charlemagne brought in a number of Irish and Northumbrian scholars who had learned Latin as a second language (i.e. purely), and they set to work copying manuscripts correctly. The Carolingian renaissance also gave us the font called 'Carolingian Miniscule' which was clearer and separated words from one another (since prior to this in the entirety of Latin and Greek writing there were no divisions between words--just endless strings of letters). They had other impressive accomplishments too.
Not to mention the Dark Ages, so-called, saw the emancipation of slaves. That is, slavery was replaced by serfdom which, though nasty, is indisputably far better than slavery, and this was the first time in the west that a society functioned w/o slavery. Big deal.
Jim Lincoln- One good thing that came directly from the Catholic Church was the western university, the educational envy of the entire world. Check into it--Charlemagne, the admonitio generalis, cathedral schools, the formation of faculties, etc.--you might not find it in in your websites but you'll find it in any text on the history of medieval europe. Yep, the RCC pioneered the university right in the middle of the nasty dirty old 'Dark Ages'
Not to say the RCC has always been an ally of education though--in the later middle ages the RCC clamped down quite a bit and it was the early Lutheran church which distinguished itself as being a friend of public education (and indeed since then Protestantism has been a great friend of free education--such as in Knox's Scotland).
I would remind you and others that the whole corruption-repression-Dark Ages interpretation buys into a historiography invented by atheists and secularists, not Protestant Christians. That historiography was conceived and prosecuted against Christianity at large.
Furthermore that interpretation was not held by Luther or Calvin (both of whom were fans of quite a few later Catholic thinkers--not just early ones--such as Anselm and Bernard).
And the fact that it fostered architectural innovation helps to vindicate its other (often horrific acts)? In addition, God is not interested in gradiose buildings supposedly used to worship Him. The New Testament states that believers are the temple of God, and that the Holy Spirit indwells them. There are no N.T. admonitions regarding the building of costly "houses of worship," but, in fact, just the opposite.
GG, God doesn't weigh people's hearts to see if they will make it into Heaven. He looks into the Lamb's book of life to see if the have been cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ. Your works based religion will only serve to bring condemnation on your soul when the balance tips toward Hell. Your good works can NEVER outweigh your sin. Repent, turn to Jesus, confess you are a sinner deserving of God's just punishment, and call out for the mercy that can be yours through the precious shed blood of Jesus Christ!
It will take them to stand before God, where he will weight their heart and decide their everlasting fate. The Devil didn't jump into hell, God put him there!
GG, are you sure the RCC didn't also invent the internet? They also gave us the Inquisiyion, pedophile priests, and a false religious system sending millions to Hell! Now that's something to be proud of!
The incessant, borish, inept, and historically incorrect, Protestant propaganda line has always been that Rome is the cause of everything from slavery to tooth decay and bath tub ring. Ho-humm! The truth of the matter is that there is a Western Civilization, with Law, Art, Science, the University sytem, Medicine, Accounting, the wine and Champagne industry, Astronomy, cartography, and Linguistics, because of the Catholic Church. On top of this, there are the monks that have faithfully copied enumerable ancient texts of Greek, Roman, and Arabic orgin, not the least is to maintain good copies of Holy Scripture. For which you Fundie's would be in one hell of a fix. You would have to invent scripture and THEN twist it into a pretzel.
Jim, the RCC is the church that built the Romanesque and Gothic cathedrals, works of architectural art that no subsequent age has been able to approach.
It filled these cathedrals with magnificent works of art.
In these cathedrals music flourished, developing the arts of counterpoint and harmony to a supreme degree.
Were it not for the RCC, Europe would never have amounted to anything.
Lord Macauley: "During the last three centuries to stunt the growth of the human mind has been her (that is Rome's) chief object. Throughout Christendom whatever advance has been made in knowledge, in freedom, in wealth and in the arts of life has been in inverse proportion to her power".
and,
John Milton: "Popery is a double thing to deal with, and claims a twofold power, ecclesiastical and political, both usurped and the one supporting the other". --- http://www.ianpaisley.org/main.asp
One other interesting quotation just for you Lance.
'Pope Leo X's declaration that "the fable of Christ was very profitable to him" infuriated the people of God.' from --- http://www.williamtyndale.com/0biblehistory.htm
Corruption is the only thing that sprang from the Roman Church, Anon.
You could just as easily say that without western civilization there would never have been a RCC. Any idiot who's studied European history knows the two grew up together, and were in many ways inextricable--and the 'Middle Ages' are an idiotic myth invented by atheistic, humanistic figures of the so-called 'Renaissance' who hated the church and Christianity period. Too many protestants (and speaking as one myself) believe that rubbish. Protestants who talk about the 'Dark Ages' and the RCC holding civilization back don't have thse sense to know they are quoting chapter and verse a false, polemical, atheistic interpretation of history which was invented in opposition to Christianity by figures of the Italian Renaissance and the French so-called 'Enlightenment.' (Although the French Enlightenment, unlike the German, English or Scottish, was a church-hating athestic bloodletting which invented a large part of the mythos of freeing human reason from the Church).
John, this fellow is wrong on both counts! The Catholic Church is one of the biggest enemies of civilization!
William Gladstone, Prime Minister of England, on Roman Catholic Education: "No more cunning plot was ever devised at least by man against the freedom, the happiness, the virtue of mankind". Archbishop Whatley on Roman Catholic Education: "Nothing could exceed the unblushing audacity of its falsehoods, except the atrocity of its principles, and that the perversion of its morals is still worse than its perversion of facts". Adam Smith in his famous 'Wealth of Nations': "The Church of Rome is the most formidable combination that ever was formed against the authority and security of civil Government, as well as against the liberty, reason and happiness of mankind". --- http://www.ianpaisley.org/main.asp
Dr. Alan Cairns | 8/3/2009
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