Do religions support the developing/evolving minds? Do religious adherants maintain a focus on learning beyond the beliefs? What if knowledge learned, discredits a belief, does the evolving mind overcome the subjective theology?
All knowledge is subjective. Therefore, even the science that you seem to favor in other postings, is a subjective thing. When you speak of 'beliefs', are you including a belief in the laws held by science? Also, in the opening sentence you make reference to a plural form of mind by saying "minds". Is there more than one mind? Define mind please.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DI9ImScQGAo&feature=related"]Carl Sagan-Cosmos edited for rednecks - YouTube[/ame] Depends on the religion, however most are a hinderence to a humans mind.
I laughed my ass off the first time I saw this because it is oh soo true. And yes, religion is a hindrance to humans mind and society: We are a good thousand years behind in human progress because of this silly notion of 'god'
Sad thing is, I was schooled on a young earth creationist curriculum. With the omission of the Mountain Dew bit, the clip is far closer to the reality of creationist/religious thinking than what they would like for you to believe. To tie ones self down with dogma and fear is so asinine, its just beyond words.
Cognitive dissonance (and also the lesser-used cognitive disequilibrium). Unfortunately, no amount of knowledge can overcome a belief such as religion. (Generally speaking, not absolute)
Wow... that poster must have caught a wave i wrote many years back I used to show that the sciences have increased the life span of the population in an explosion reflective of the last 200 yrs of the global living population. I shared that the religions had practically stymede knowledge for well over a 1000 years. My comment was; If the religions did not control so much of the worlds knowledge, that "we all could be vacationing on the moon by now" and 'just think'................. the verbage is practically spot on The one i am really awaiting to see in print is the concept of 'energy upon mass'. I already see the math in many frames representing that (phonon, exciton, polariton, soliton) but i am awaiting the word usage as then i will smile knowing the lines have been crossed and the shift is in full swing. Do you see that signature below? There is only one idiot on the globe with that name. Soon, all will know............ one wave at a time! thanks as i almost cried when i saw that poster.
Much as I dislike religion, Christianity was the cause of any loss in infrastructure and discovery after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. Rather, that can be more laid at the feet of a few factors, most of them well beyond the control of humans. Among other things, the most advanced civilizations at the time were under constant attack from nomadic steppe peoples (Avars, Huns, etc.). The areas that were formerly under the rule of the WRE were a random collection of "barbarian" kingdoms that did not maintain the old Roman bureaucracy or educational system, thus depriving them of the competent engineering corps that the Romans had used so extensively. The Byzantine Empire, being the Eastern Roman Empire, still had that system in place, but they were essentially in constant conflict with Persia, and, later, the various Islamic powers in the Middle East from about 400 CE until 1453 CE. China was also involved in large numbers of civil wars (never good for the development of philosophy, as everyone is devoted toward the creation/maintenance of a legitimate government), as well as invasions from outside forces. Further, we're discounting a problem that arose due to the slowly but surely increasing numbers of people in the world: disease. From the start of the plague of Justinian in 541 CE until the last waves of that plague until 750 CE. The 200 years of plague throughout Afro-Eurasia decimated the population and killed a lot of the most skilled and educated people throughout Europe, Asia, and Africa (because they tended to live in cities, where the outbreaks and mortality were worse due to the population density). This led to a decline of innovation because of that loss. So, it's not really Christianity, or even religion in general's, fault. A lot of Christian monks, for instance, transmuted a great deal of Roman and Greek knowledge, while producing plenty of their own (William of Ockham, for instance). So, on that front, it's kind of a wash, given the fairly even mix of suppressing knowledge and creating it.
Generally and with absolute comprehension, i would say that bold claim is BS Thta would be like claiming, a religious wingnut would go to church over a doctor to put their faith in life
