[Phys-L] Re: THE WEDGE STRATEGY of The ID Movement

[clement at HAL-PC.ORG (John Clement)]

OTOH the city states in Italy and along the Dalmatian coast had extremely
prosperous functioning republics while still being firmly Roman Catholic.
Venice was a republic and extremely prosperous at the same time.  The
Venetians still resent being part of the rest of Italy and often long for
the old republic.  Algebra was invented in an Islamist world.  The
industrial revolution began in large part in the monasteries in Europe where
slavery was forbidden and there was a labor shortage.  So they learned to
use wind and water power.  And remember that smallpox vaccination was
practiced by the Caucasian women to keep their complexions good enough for
the Turkish harems.  This was long before it was known in the West.

I would say the positive and negative connections are not that clear.  Look
at how Stonehenge and the Pyramids were constructed for religious purposes.
But then the renaissance involved the glorification of humankind.

Social development has many aspects.  If you wish to equate it with security
and a leveling of social classes, perhaps you should look at how the Mormon
church provides security for its members.  Follow the rules and they will
take care of you.  Violate the rules and you may be out in the cold.  Sweden
has certainly provided security and development.  However, some prominent
Swedes have left because they considered the price of security to be too
high.  The director Bergman, as I recall, was one of these.  All societies
have both benefits and deficits, and it is simplistic to attribute these to
one factor.  High development consists of many factors.  Remember that
Scandinavia shared with the US both natural resources and a relatively low
population density.

I would say that the accidents of good geography are showered on both the
religious and irreligious alike.  But I would agree that an overly theistic
state can be a deficit.

Incidentally the Chinese neatly solved the problem of the Mongol invasions
by converting them to pacifistic Lamistic Buddism.  Everyone ended up happy.
So religion in this case definitely promoted peace.

John M. Clement
Houston, TX

> Religion has little influence in Sweden, very few Swedes attend Church.
> This
> may explain Sweden's high level of social development.