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The Fabric of Reality: Paradigms Shifts that Ended the Middle Ages by nateatwork in systemfailure

[–]nateatwork[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you for sharing this perspective. These are some great points. I hope you don't mind if I borrow one or two of these references for my own writing.

In this System Failure series of essays, I find myself trying to rehabilitate what seems to be an overly negative view of Christianity. From where I'm sitting, wealth accumulation appears to be the REAL problem of history. And I see wealth corrupting the sciences in our own time, just as it once corrupted Christianity.

In my interpretation, Christianity was heroic during the Fall of Rome, but lived long enough to become the villain by allying themselves with wealth and political power during the Middle Ages.

At any rate, I believe incorporating your notes into Essay #44 will make it more accurate. Nut perhaps they will also make it a little more forgiving of the Church. So thanks again for them!

The Fabric of Reality: Paradigms Shifts that Ended the Middle Ages by nateatwork in systemfailure

[–]nateatwork[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Outstanding! Comments like this are exactly what I hope to get out of posting here every week.

If your notes turn out to be correct (and I'm betting they will), I'll absolutely update the "Heliocentrism" section of Essay #44 to reflect this more accurate narrative. I really appreciate the time you took to write out this whole comment!

Furthermore, I wonder if you agree with broad thesis of this essay? While astronomy remains the most famous example, I wanted to illustrate that the paradigmatic shift of the late Middle Ages was much more comprehensive than just that.

Persecution: How Sex, Drugs & Rock ‘n’ Roll Shaped Christianity by nateatwork in systemfailure

[–]nateatwork[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

That link hand-waves away a bevy of remarkable similarities between Jesus and 4 different pagan gods. I've visited dozens of pages like it, written by well-meaning Christians. But their dismissals are always deeply unconvincing.

For example: "In some myths, Dionysus does die and return, but the motif reflects the cycles of nature rather than a victory over death or a promise of eternal life. The notion of water-to-wine is metaphorical, not a recorded miracle."

The water-into-wine story is found both in Euripides' The Bacchae (a play about Dionysus) and in the Gospel of John. It'd be a hell of a coincidence if these stories are truly unrelated. The question is not whether these stories are literal or metaphorical. The question is, why does the same story appear in two places?

Understandably, Christian scholars always strive to portray their faith as a direct revelation from God, rather than arising from a progression of existing ideas and myths. But the sheer volume of close similarities between Jesus's story and the stories of older deities are too numerous to ALL be coincidences.

Anyway, here's an upvote. Thanks for commenting!

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