This is a load of crap
Sorry, but this is a load of crap
With all due respect to the author, Western Civilization didn't begin with the teachings of Christ. In fact, many of us don't give a crap about Jesus of Nazareth at all.
The fact that another con man came along so much later and handed out "revelations" again doesn't reset things back to zero. Islam builds upon Judaism and Christianity. If anything, giving benefit of the doubt as to its authenticity, it should have started out more advanced.
Scientific discovery hasn't been kept secret from Muslims, nor has philosophical thought. They have access to all the same ideas we do, save only what their culture decides to reject without examination. The ignorance and poverty endemic to the middle east and many Islamic nations is because of their superstitious and collectivist cultures, not because we have had more time than they have to examine these things. The middle eastern nations even have great wealth- it's not our fault they have decided to amass that wealth in the hands of a few individuals who control their people through whimsical largesse and deprivation in the name of tribal loyalties. Again, they didn't start out in a vacuum the day Mohammed decided the religion racket was more profitable and fun than being a merchant dependent on a wealthy widow years his senior when his real taste was for pre-pubescent girls.
With all due respect to the author, Western Civilization didn't begin with the teachings of Christ. In fact, many of us don't give a crap about Jesus of Nazareth at all.
The fact that another con man came along so much later and handed out "revelations" again doesn't reset things back to zero. Islam builds upon Judaism and Christianity. If anything, giving benefit of the doubt as to its authenticity, it should have started out more advanced.
Scientific discovery hasn't been kept secret from Muslims, nor has philosophical thought. They have access to all the same ideas we do, save only what their culture decides to reject without examination. The ignorance and poverty endemic to the middle east and many Islamic nations is because of their superstitious and collectivist cultures, not because we have had more time than they have to examine these things. The middle eastern nations even have great wealth- it's not our fault they have decided to amass that wealth in the hands of a few individuals who control their people through whimsical largesse and deprivation in the name of tribal loyalties. Again, they didn't start out in a vacuum the day Mohammed decided the religion racket was more profitable and fun than being a merchant dependent on a wealthy widow years his senior when his real taste was for pre-pubescent girls.
posted by Larry at
11/09/2009 11:33:00 AM
4 Comments:
As I tend to recall my history, the Moors (or followers of Islam if you prefer) had a pretty good lock on civilization for a large chunk of European history. We pretty much looted them for such things as math, science, and art. I seem to recall they had a pretty good standard of living in general for back then too. I find it somewhat pertinent that their theocracies haven't really progressed since then.
Well, most of what they had was really preserved from earlier cultures and passed on, (a large part of what we got from the Greeks was filtered through the Arabs) but yes.
Have I mentioned recently how much I love the way you think?!
Here's at least part of what blows me away: the politically-correct factions never discuss 1) that the founder of Islam "married" (yeah, right, is that what we're calling it these days?) a CHILD, and 2) that Islam STILL allows men to have multiple wives (but if a woman doesn't do as she's told, it's okay to beat her to death).
So let me get this straight...child molestation and abusive polygyny is okay? Gee, seems like a strange stance for "progressives" to be taking.
In my own defense, I never said how or why they had various cultural tools, just that they had them.
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