Superstitions were not the sole invention of "Christianity". Superstitions existed independently and predated "Christianity". In fact, that was one of the means which Christians went about spreading the general religion which soon became "religious denominations" --adopting pagan customs and superstitions, absorbing them into "religions" as Christianity as a whole spread throughout the world. and the belief in such things were around long before Christianity, just as scientific progress was.
Did Christians, not the general "religion" itself, contribute to scientific progress? Yes. Did some Christians believe in education? Yes. Did some build schools? Yes. Was education/progress potential inhibited by ancient customs / cultural beliefs that had been around, long before Christianity (i.e., belief in demons)? Yes.
All cultures/religions/people in general did contribute in some manner throughout history. It is a human achievement, not the result of theisms or atheism.
The precursor to modern science, began with religious thought and attempts to explain the unknown. Just as the ancient people WORSHIPED agriculture, they made a practical religion of everything that affected their livelihood from the sun and moon, to the tides, the seasons, the harvest -- at one point in history you could not separate science and religious thought, because it was all the same thing:
How Ancient Egyptian Religion Affected Farming
"To the ancient Egyptians, religion was inseparable from everyday existence. They were a nation of farmers, who depended on the fertility of the land and its creatures for their livelihood. In trying to understand how the powers of nature could bring life and destroy it, the Egyptians personified these forces, worshipped them as gods and created myths about them. To retain the favor of the gods, they believed they should farm in accordance with god-given rules, offer sacrifice and continually give thanks."
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Even the man who is credited for giving rise to the early precursor of "Evolution" (the Old Testament's "mythical account") bears similarities to his beliefs:
Evolution and Paleontology in the Ancient World
"...For Anaximander, the world had arisen from an undifferentiated, indeterminate substance, the apeiron. The Earth, which had coalesced out of the apeiron, had been covered in water at one stage, with plants and animals arising from mud. Humans were not present at the earliest stages; they arose from fish. This poem was quite influential on later thinkers, including Aristotle.
Had Anaximander looked at fossils? Did he study comparative fish and human anatomy? Unfortunately, we have no way of knowing what evidence Anaximander used to support his ideas. His theory bears some resemblance to evolutionary theory, but also seems to have been derived from various Greek myths, such as the story of Deucalion and Pyrrha, in which peoples or tribes are born from the Earth or from stones. His concept of the apeiron seems similar to the Tao of Chinese philosophy and religion, and to the "formless and void" Earth of the Hebrew creation account and other creation myths. However, even though Anaximander's ideas drew on the religious and mythical ideas of his time, he was still one of the first to attempt an explanation of the origin and evolution of the cosmos based on natural laws."
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The Oldest Medical Books in the World
"...Long ago, when writing was a secret science, the Egyptian scribe was not a simple copyist. He had the combined training of a calligrapher, a philosopher, a scholar and a scientist. Many physicians prided themselves on bearing the title of scribe among their others, and like Hesyreh, had themselves portrayed with the palette and reeds, the sesh, symbol of that learned class. The actual copying was probably performed in the pir-ankh or Houses of Life that were attached to the temples and where the scholars, physicians, philosophers and scientists of the time used to meet. We know of nine principal medical papyri. They are called after their original owners (Edwin Smith, Chester Beatty, Carlsberg), the site of their discovery (Kahoun, Ramesseum), the towns were they are kept (Leyden, London, Berlin) or their editor (Ebers).
The Kahoun Papyrus is the most ancient scroll and was discovered at Fayoum and was called by mistake the Kahoun Papyrus. It dates from 1950 B.C. And has on its back an account from the time of Amenemhat III (1840-1792 B.C.). Not only is this the oldest known papyrus, but the original from which it was copied seems also more antique than the originals of the other papyri."
"...The Ramesseum IV and V papyri were probably written about 1900 B.C., i.e. At about the same epoch as the Kahoun Papyrus."
"...The Ebers Papyrus is the longest of all the known papyri and the most important, considering the physiological and medical knowledge it reveals. It is complete in 108 pages and bears the date of the 9th year of the reign of Amenophis I (1550 B.C.)."
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Christianity is not responsible for Scientific Progress, nor is it to blame for inhibiting it. In spite of YEC (a cultural thing among some) scientific progress is continuing, and there are many Christians on board with scientific achievements. To cast blame or credit on all of "Christianity" is a sweeping generalization fallacy.
". . . Reverse copying: A strong case can be made that wholesale copying of beliefs and rituals by various religions has occurred in the past. However, as noted above, some Christian beliefs and practices may have stolen by the followers of Mithra from their Christian rivals rather than vice versa. This theory might have some validity with respect to Mithraism. However, it cannot explain the stories of the life of Horus which proceeded Jesus' ministry in the first century CE by a few thousand years."
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Should we blame the Greeks for "corrupting" Christianity? Or that Christianity itself is a product of Greek thought? Where history is concerned, you've got to take the good with the bad. At one time, Science and "Religion" were the same thing. It emerged as man began trying to explain how things came to be. The best any of them could offer were baby steps.
Even Thomas Jefferson, one of the world's most progressive and intelligent thinkers... that thanks to him, and men like him, that secured your right, to freedom of speech and to even question religions -- owned slaves.
Should you thank a slave owner for your liberty?
Revelation 9:8-10 "...They had hair like the hair of women, and their teeth were like the teeth of lions. [...] And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five months."
Greek Thought.
". . . Sphinx... THE SPHINX (or Phix) was a female monster with the body of a lion, the breast and head of a woman, eagle's wings and, according to some, a serpent-headed tail. She was sent by the gods to plague the town of Thebes as punishment for some ancient crime. There she preyed on the youths of the land, devouring all those who failed to solve her riddle." (Source)
Do we gather up every ancient Greek writing and toss it into the trash bin with the Bible which was yet, another product of Greek thought?
THOMAS JEFFERSON ON "GREEK THOUGHT" :
Thomas Jefferson
TO GENERAL ALEXANDER SMYTH MONTICELLO
January 17 1825DEAR SIR,
I have duly received four proof sheets of your explanation of the Apocalypse with your letters of December 29th and January 8th; in the last of which you request that so soon as I shall be of opinion that the explanation you have given is correct I would express it in a letter to you. From this you must be so good as to excuse me because I make it an invariable rule to decline ever giving opinions on new publications in any case whatever. No man on earth has less taste or talent for criticism than myself and least and last of all should I undertake to criticise works on the Apocalypse. It is between fifty and sixty years since I read it and I then considered it as merely the ravings of a maniac no more worthy nor capable of explanation than the incoherences of our own nightly dreams. I was therefore well pleased to see in your first proof sheet that it was said to be not the production of St John but of Cerinthus a century after the death of that apostle. Yet the change of the author's name does not lessen the extravagances of the composition and come they from whomsoever they may I cannot so far respect them as to consider them as an allegorical narrative of events past or subsequent. There is not coherence enough in them to countenance any suite of rational ideas. You will judge therefore from this how impossible I think it that either your explanation or that of any man in the heavens above or on the earth beneath can be a correct one. What has no meaning admits no explanation and pardon me if I say with the candor of friendship that I think your time too valuable and your understanding of too high an order to be wasted on these paralogisms. You will perceive I hope also that I do not consider them as revelations of the Supreme Being whom I would not so far blaspheme as to impute to Him a pretension of revelation couched at the same time in terms which He would know were never to be understood by those to whom they were addressed. In the candor of these observations I hope you will see proofs of the confidence esteem and which I entertain for you.The Writings of Thomas Jefferson By Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Adgate Lipscomb, Albert Ellery Bergh, Richard Holland Johnston, Thomas Jefferson memorial association of the United States
The great navigators from ancient time who discovered new lands and increased scientific knowledge about geography, the size and shape of the Earth, also went out to sea and came back with "Great mythical tales" -- similar to the Greek Sphinx about "mermaids" -- human heads and torsos attached to bodies of animals... in this case Fish... should we gather up all the "sailors' diaries" and "Navigators" journals, and toss those in the waste basket too?
Perhaps have another book burning like the one at the Library of Alexandria?
Mermaid
". . . A mermaid is a legendary aquatic creature with the upper body of a female human and the tail of a fish.[1] Mermaids appear in the folklore of many cultures worldwide, including the Near East, Europe, Africa and Asia. The first stories appeared in ancient Assyria, in which the goddess Atargatis transformed herself into a mermaid out of shame for accidentally killing her human lover. Mermaids are sometimes associated with perilous events such as floods, storms, shipwrecks and drownings. In other folk traditions (or sometimes within the same tradition), they can be benevolent or beneficent, bestowing boons or falling in love with humans.
Some of the attributes of mermaids may have been influenced by the Sirens of Greek mythology. Historical accounts of mermaids, such as those reported by Christopher Columbus during his exploration of the Caribbean, may have been inspired by manatees and similar aquatic mammals."
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Mermaids, Religion, Sphinxes, Greek, Occult, ... Science ... Darwinism... Atheists are not the only one that would like to toss it all in the trash can :
Evolution in the Ancient World:
"...For Anaximander, the world had arisen from .... mud. Humans were not present at the earliest stages; they arose from fish. This poem was quite influential on later thinkers, including Aristotle. Had Anaximander looked at fossils? Did he study comparative fish and human anatomy? Unfortunately, we have no way of knowing what evidence Anaximander used to support his ideas. His theory bears some resemblance to evolutionary theory, but also seems to have been derived from various Greek myths.... Anaximander's ideas drew on the religious and mythical ideas of his time, he was still one of the first to attempt an explanation of the origin and evolution of the cosmos based on natural laws."
(Source)
ERASE IT ALL:
Facebook Comment:
"...The Greek Philosopher Empedocles ( same guy who believed he was a "god" and threw himself into a volcano), philosophized that man came from "fish like creature", which were birthed from Fish from the SEA. ( based not on observation, but on conjecture, and the idea dates back to the Mystery religions of Babylon and Egypt, where the first time we hear the word "Evolution" is in Egyptian religion, as the gods "evolve" from the waters of chaos, and "The Goddess" emerges from the SEA. ( Virgin Mother Goddess Motiff of Antiquity). The Greeks adopted this pagan belief system, with modification into their system of thinking, and theorized of the Scala Natura, or "Great Chain of Being" ( from insects to fish, to beasts, to men, to angels, to God, etc. . .). Erasamus Darwin was the leading Freemason in all of Scotland, and was a member of the Lunar Society ( a symbol for the Goddess of Antiquity). The Darwin family were nearly ALL Masons, and Occultists, and BELONGED to this organization. Such organizations are OBSESSED with ancient "god-wisdom" and "serpent-wisdom" and "the mysteries", and thus, they superimposed their a priori ideas UPON what little Charlie Darwin had OBSERVED. The fact that evolution is taught as "science" is absurd. It is actually a very ancient pagan philosophy or origins, from MYSTERY cults dating back to the first pagan and occult civilizations. Of course, we can't talk about THAT in Public Schools now, can we??? Evolution is a bucket of CRAP. It is a LIE, and no matter how many times these zoo monkeys REPEAT it, that will not change."
(Source)
Scala Natura, or "Great Chain of Being"
Abstract
"...All living beings on Earth, from bacteria to humans, are connected through descent from common ancestors and represent the summation of their corresponding, ca. 3500 million year long evolutionary history. However, the evolution of phenotypic features is not predictable, and biologists no longer use terms such as "primitive" or "perfect organisms". Despite these insights, the Bible-based concept of the so-called "ladder of life" or Scala Naturae, i.e., the idea that all living beings can be viewed as representing various degrees of "perfection", with humans at the very top of this biological hierarchy, was popular among naturalists until ca. 1850 (Charles Bonnet, Jean Lamarck and others). Charles Darwin is usually credited with the establishment of a branched evolutionary "Tree of Life". This insight of 1859 was based on his now firmly corroborated proposals of common ancestry and natural selection. In this article I argue that Darwin was still influenced by "ladder thinking", a theological view that prevailed throughout the 19th century and is also part of Ernst Haeckel's famous Oak tree (of Life) of 1866, which is, like Darwin's scheme, static. In 1910, Constantin Mereschkowsky proposed an alternative, "anti-selectionist" concept of biological evolution, which became known as the symbiogenesis-theory. According to the symbiogenesis-scenario, eukaryotic cells evolved on a static Earth from archaic prokaryotes via the fusion and subsequent cooperation of certain microbes. In 1929, Alfred Wegener published his theory of continental drift, which was later corroborated, modified and extended. The resulting theory of plate tectonics is now the principal organizing concept of geology. Over millions of years, plate tectonics and hence the "dynamic Earth" has caused destructive volcanic eruptions and earthquakes. At the same time, it created mountain ranges, deep oceans, novel freshwater habitats, and deserts. As a result, these geologic processes destroyed numerous populations of organisms, and produced the environmental conditions for new species of animals, plants and microbes to adapt and evolve. In this article I propose a tree-like "symbiogenesis, natural selection, and dynamic Earth (synade)-model" of macroevolution that is based on these novel facts and data."
BACKGROUND
"...In his Autobiography [1], Charles Darwin (1809 - 1882) presented a self-critical review of his achievements as a naturalist that revealed much about the character of this key figure of the evolutionary sciences and other branches of biology and geology [2-4]. With respect to the most influential of Darwin's 16 scientific books, On the Origin of Species, the author remarked that "Sixteen thousand copies have now (1876) been sold in England and considering how stiff a book it is, this is a large sale" [1]. This judgement is in part due to the fact that the Origin of Species was not designed by Darwin as a separate book; rather, it was published as an Abstract, taken from a much larger manuscript entitled Natural Selection [5]. Ironically, Darwin's major, scheduled "Magnum opus" with the tentative title Natural Selection never appeared in print, but the Extract published by the author in November 1859 in order to establish priority with respect to his theory of the "preservation of favourable variations and the rejection of injurious variations" became a best- and longseller [6].The second and more important reason for the "stiffness" of Darwin's Origin of Species is attributable to the almost complete lack of illustrations. In contrast to Darwin's books on botanical and zoological issues, which contain numerous pictures [2-4], his Abstract published in 1859 (6th and final edition, 1872) [6,7] contained only one rather "sterile" diagram, a phylogenetic scheme. This "tree-like" figure is part of Chapter IV entitled "Natural Selection" in the first edition [6], and re-named "Natural Selection; or the Survival of the Fittest" in the 6th and final version of the "Species book" [7]. It should be noted that the phrase "survival of the fittest" was borrowed by Darwin from the philosopher Herbert Spencer (1820-1903), who was also the first to introduce the word "evolution" sensu phylogenetic development (a term not used by Darwin in the first edition [6]) into the emerging biological sciences of the 19th century [5].
With reference to his abstract illustration, Darwin explained at length the principle of "descent with modification by means of natural selection", and concluded, with his Bible-educated readers in mind, that "On the view that each species has been independently created, I can see no explanation of this great fact (i.e., the relatedness of all animals and all plants) in the classification of all organic beings; but, ..., it is explained though inheritance and the complex action of natural selection, entailing extinction and divergence of character as we have seen illustrated in the diagram" [6] p. 100.
Although Darwin made many changes and added entire sections to the text during the five revisions of his original version of the Origin [6], one key sentence remained unchanged: At the end of Chapter IV, the author wrote, with reference to his tree-like diagram, that "As buds give rise by growth to fresh buds, and these, if vigorous, branch out and overtop on all sides many a feebler branch, so by generation I believe it has been with the great Tree of Life, which fills with its dead and broken branches the crust of the earth, and covers the surface with its ever-branching and beautiful ramifications" [6], p. 101; [7], p. 137.
In this article I argue that the metaphorical "Tree of Life"-statement quoted above was still heavily rooted in the religious pre-Darwinian "evolutionary ladder-" or Scala Naturae-thinking of earlier naturalists.
From the scala naturae to the symbiogenetic and dynamic tree of life
Ulrich Kutschera
Institute of Biology, University of Kassel, Heinrich-Plett-Str. 40, D-34109 Kassel, Germany
(Source)
Even Darwin's theory isn't immune to revision by Scientists:
Charles Darwin's "tree of life", is wrong and needs to be replaced, according to leading scientists. Darwin himself also wrote about evolution and ecosystems as a "tangled bank". Plants and animals regularly crossbreed - and the offspring can be fertile. According to some estimates, 10 per cent of animals regularly form hybrids by breeding with other species. Living things evolve into new species only to cross again and again."
- Evolution: Charles Darwin was wrong about the tree of life
- Avian Affairs, By C. CLAIBORNE
Q, Does bird mating ever cross the species line? - These Hybrid Animals Will Be Created Because Of Climate Change
- Are hybrid species being created due to climate change?
Pushed north by a warming climate, southern species mate with northern cousins, muddying gene pools and conservation efforts. - Global Warming Spawns Hybrid Species
The "Tree of Life" vs. the "Tangled Web" and how it relates to bird origins.
“...Many birds occasionally mate with members of other bird species, producing hybrid offspring,” said Dr. Lovette, about 10 percent of the world’s 10,000 bird species are known to have bred with another species at least once, either in the wild or in captivity. Hybridization tends to occur between species that are closely related, but an individual from ONE GENUS may occasionally form a pair with a bird from an altogether DIFFERENT GENUS, separated by many millions of years of evolutionary divergence."
Dagon, the fish god
"Some rather scant sources, counting the Catholic Encyclopedia, say that Dagon is a merman, with the upper half of his body that of a man and the other half a fish. This belief stemmed from the interpretation that the name Dagon is related with the Hebrew word for fish, dag. On the other hand, it is clear from the account of Phoenician history by Philo of Byblos that the Dagon word in question is just that: the Phoenician dagon (dagan in Hebrew), which Philo even translated to Greek, Siton, also meaning “grain.” The god of fertility was a Phoenician god; imposing a Hebrew word from the Bible in place of the native, specifically Phoenician name to explain the pagan god’s origin and makeup is inappropriate. So is the verbal maneuvering of theologians to equate the stump or torso that remained unbroken of the earth god in 1 Samuel 5 to the body of a fish based on that erroneous etymology. Above all, to the pagan people who worshiped the god of earth, it is highly doubtful that the image of a sea-dwelling merman would make sufficiently for the persona of a plough-wielding god of agriculture who administers the fields."
(Source)
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