[NYer]

Catholic Ping - Please freepmail me if you want on/off this list

[murphE]

I see Thomas Woods at mass every Sunday. =D

[CaptainKeyword]

the church rocks. /anti catholic sentiment.

[rjp2005]

An excellent post. Good point about art and culture being an area needing more confident Catholic artists. Gibson's movie was a breakthrough and I'm still amazed at the level of publicity he generated.

[fizziwig]

Science, as we know it today, would not exist without Christianity.

Great article, thanks!

[txzman]

Although raised Catholic, I left the Church at 16, baptized at 40 in a Baptist church, now attend Chuck Swindoll's church in Texas (www.stonebriar.org). I was also a history major in college, love God and His history.

Since living in Texas I have been amazed at the number of folks in other denominations who do not seem to understand that the Bible Baptists or other Protestant denominations read came from the same place. Or that the history of Jesus Christ and all His churches all come from the same beginning.

I still do not understand why some Baptists keep Catholics at arms length - perhaps just the same misinformation that goes on in so many other areas of our everyday world.

[PajamaTruthMafia]

Mark for later...

[ikka]

This reminds me of a Hungarian customer I once had, who informed me that it was Hungarians who first invented the telephone; and that Tesla got some of his ideas from a Hungarian assistant. etc. etc.

Catholicism was definitely helpful; but, there is a reason it is called the "Protestant" work ethic.

[DoctorMichael]

Good post. Thanks!

[olde north church]

I was Baptized, Communioned, and Confirmed Roman Catholic. Although I was unable to experience my Marriage as a Sacrement, I had the wedding rings blessed.
I believe, it is our American culture which makes the celebration of any religion, well most religions, a truly wonderful gift. It's what sets us apart from the dour Europeanism from which are ancestors, thankfully, escaped.
I know my comments were tangential to the topic but nonetheless, are the result of a Roman Catholic upbringing.

[wideminded]

According to the well-known theory of Max Weber (1864-1920), it was the rise of protestantism that led to the economic progress of western civilization. It's not called the Catholic work ethic.

[annalex]

Slightly off-topic but still worth mentioning are two other calumnies against the Church:

• Myth: The Crusades were wars of conquest caused by land shortage
  Reality: The Crusades were wars of liberation of Palestine and North Africa from Muslim aggression several centuries prior; they were undertaken by the West after Byzantium had failed to defend itself and asked for help.
• Myth: The Holy Inquisition was brutal suppession of religious dissent by torturing and burning the dissenters
  Reality: The Holy Inquisition was systematic and lawyerly determination of men who held views that could not be properly called Catholic. The state executed heretics because they were considered traitors. Most of those investigated by the Inquisition were aquitted or given penance, such as tithes and pilgrimages. Very few were released to the state for execution. Only mild torture was allowed. The Inquisition did much to promote modern legal methods of adversarial justice and get rid of corrupt local clergy

[R. Scott]

Contrary to popular opinion, the Catholic Church historically has been the champion of scientific, economic, legal and social progress.

I’ve never believed that many thought the Earth was flat – at least, not anyone living near a coast or working the sea.
I also don’t buy that the Church encouraged science. While most early achievements were made by priests and monks it may have been because the Church controlled education. If a person wanted an education entering the priesthood was just about the only way to do it.
Economic advancement was helped along by secular guilds and monastic orders instituting a banking system and the development of large commercially centered cities – with help from Viking traders.
Our legal system owes more to the Vikings than to the Church – our jury system as an example. Much of our early civil and criminal law was based on Roman Law.
The Black Death contributed much to the advancement of Western Civilization – when a large percentage of the workers died their labor became a precious commodity, thereby helping social progress.

Not to denigrate the contribution of the Church – but it was hardly alone in advancing civilization, and should not be given credit for being the “Champion” of progress.

[Aquinasfan]

How can this be? The words "Christ," "Christian" and "Catholic" are absent from the new 70k-word EU constitution... < /s>

[television is just wrong]

they are also responsible for the downfall, because of advocating illegal immigration through their Catholic Charities. Aiding and abetting illegal aliens is a crime. The Catholic church is responsible for.

[conservonator]

This should be interesting.

[SuziQ]

Check this out!

[Graymatter]

Interesting. I'll check it out; a fresh perspective is always welcome. But he'd better have his facts, jots and tiddles lined up smartly!

[Graymatter]

One of the great men mentioned here, 17th c. scholar Athanasius Kircher, had to describe his own work on astronomy as fiction, to avoid the sort of trouble Galilio had encountered.

Kircher, incidentally, gave us one of the earliest descriptions of a functional camera. The man's contributions went well beyond Egyptology. Here's an interesting page:

http://www.strangescience.net/kircher.htm

[freelancer]

I'll read your post and all the comments more thoroughly later. Meanwhile, I suggest you (and anyone alse who has been following this thread) read Arthur Herman's book:

How the Scots invented the Modern World : the true story of how western Europe's poorest nation created our world & everything in it

Available at your local public library. If your library does not have it, try interlibrary loan.