LittleTim

This was originally posted on Christianitytoday's website. Any thoughts or links to counterpositions?

LittleTim
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THE VICTORY OF REASON: How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism, and Western Success
Rodney Stark
Random House, 304 pages, $25.95

Rodney Stark is at it again. After two recent volumes extolling the benefits of monotheism and the rise of Christianity via its caring networks of interpersonal relations, the brash sociologist now turns to Christianity's support for reason.

Stark's argument is relentless: Christian theology, culminating in the great thinkers of the Middle Ages, such as Thomas Aquinas, inculcated trust in reason as a gift of God. On that basis, Christianity sustained a faith in progress that could easily morph into scientific and social innovations. The same trust in reason fueled a politics of human freedom and an economics of capitalist creativity.

Against the claim that Western progress occurred only as religion was overcome, Stark is unequivocal: "Nonsense. The success of the West, including the rise of science, rested entirely on religious foundations, and the people who brought it about were devout Christians."

The Victory of Reason is another bold, sharply argued defense of the Christian faith's social benefits. It is also an in-your-face challenge to antireligious assumptions of the modern academy. Disconcertingly, Stark argues without qualification, nuance, and the balancing of perspectives that academics love so much. Nonetheless, he may be right.

Mountain Man

He's just another christian apologist twisting history to make his sick religion look good. The christian did more to retard progress than help it. Those he talks about may have been christian, what they did was done in spite of their religious beliefs, not because of them.

Autonemesis

I also read that the decline in piracy on the seas is linked to global warming. Disconcertingly, it was presented without qualification, nuance, and the balancing of perspectives that I usually love so much. Nonetheless, they may be right.

LittleTim

Actually according to this link, http://www.iidb.org/vbb/showthread.p...t=rodney+stark, Rodney Stark is not a Christian. I myself am not sure of the value of Christianity. I grew up in church and it seems to me that the average Christian 'believes' only that which makes him or her feel good. Many Christians tout the 'good' that Christianity has done such as hospitals, schools, science etc, but I certainly have not seen how Christian charities or missions actually benefit individuals; and I have spent many hours volunteering for mission trips and other Christian activities. These are band-aid solutions at best, and not in-depth efforts to get to the source of a person's inabilities or disabilities and provide solutions.

I would be interested in any links or references to books or articles that present an unvarnished view of Christianity's place in history - both good and bad - not the sanitized version that many believers hold on to.

lpetrich

Claiming that Xianity was responsible for modern science is pure hooey. Why didn't modern science start in the first few centuries of the Xian Church instead of waiting 1500 years to start? And why did the more reactionary theologians fight a lot of important discoveries instead of embracing them?

Furthermore, modern science has much more in common with the theorizing of various ancient Greek philosophers than anything in the Bible. And it was the rediscovery of those ancient philosophers that helped pave the way for modern science. Aristotle became known as Ille Philosophus, The Philosopher.

Where in the Bible does one find the concept of proof that one finds in (say) Euclid's Elements?

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Furthemore, one wonders when such Defenders of the Faith will start trying to take credit for evolutionary biology. Or even metaphysical naturalism.

Toto

Stark called himself an "agnostic" at the time that was written, but was recently offered a plum position at Baylor U. and announced that he had decided to accept Christianity as the Truth. It sounded a little too convenient to me.

freigeister

History of the Conflict between Religion and Science. John William Draper; D. Appleton and Company, 1915.

rob117

Claiming that Christianity was responsible for the rise of rationalism and science is a common apologist technique. Read Guns, Germs, and Steel for a better explanation.

Vorkosigan

The "Conflict" Thesis is officially out in History of Science studies and probably will be for some time to come. So those old books are basically wrong.

Stark is a religiously-driven writer who uses data selectively, erects models that are self-serving, and often simply ignores counterexamples. I have reviewed his earlier book here and on my blog:

http://michaelturton2.blogspot.com/2...k-rise-of.html

Michael

PostMortem

Yeah, One.... HaHaHaHaHa WOOOOO BOY!!! HaHaHaHa!!! OH THAT'S A GOOD ONE!!! HaHaHaHaHa, my sides hurt!!! HaHaHaHaHa!!!
:rolling: :rolling: :rolling: :rolling: :rolling: