Gosh! Who'da Thunk It !?!?

Note: This is a very interesting article. The book will not be widely reviewed by our third rate press, but deserves a wide audience.

Conversely, is Islam (Koran and Sharia) responsible, mainly, for the world-wide poverty of the muslims individually and as societies? Yes? No?

This issue certainly deserves public discussion and not the avoidance which is the current format in dealing with every problem associated with Islam.




Researcher credits Christianity with West's success

It’s one of history’s most important questions: Why did Europe and North America embrace democracy and thrive economically while nations elsewhere suffered oppression and stagnation?

According to leading U.S. sociologist Rodney Stark, many scholars purposely overlook the obvious answer: It was the spread of Christianity that made possible political and economic freedoms, modern science and resulting Western advancement.

Such is the Baylor University professor’s contention in The Victory of Reason: How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism and Western Success, one of the more provocative of recent books whose vigorous prose reflects the author’s one-time employment as a newspaper reporter.

Although Western intellectuals downplay theology, Stark said he sees Christian beliefs as the key. He said the basis for the West’s rise was “an extraordinary faith in reason’’ resulting from Christianity, which “alone embraced reason and logic as the primary guide to religious truth.’’ Faith in humanity’s reasoning capacity, in turn, stimulated scientific theory-making, democratic theory and individual freedoms. Capitalism applied this to economics, producing an explosion of wealth, he said.

Stark rejects the century-old scenario of Max Weber that Protestantism under-girded capitalism. He said that the main elements were invented by Catholic monks and lay Italians centuries before the Reformation.

But Stark ignores the impact of the Jews’ biblical view of the world that was later adopted by Christians. He also impugns Islam, arguing that a major segment of Muslim thought “condemns all efforts to formulate natural laws as blasphemy in that they deny Allah’s freedom to act. Thus, Islam did not fully embrace the notion that the universe ran along on fundamental principles laid down by God at the creation.’’

— The Associated Press

Comment: This book 'The Victory of Reason: How Christianity Lead to Freedom, Capitalism and Western Success' should be on the history syllabus in every Australian school. It won't be, of course, because of the intellectual decay that has taken place at the top of Australian public administration.

Perhaps a sensible Australian government could finance translations of this book into all the languages of Asia, especially Bahasa Indonesia.

Is anyone awake in Canberra?