[aShepard]

....The Catholic Church was Christianity for the first 1500 years and that's historic fact.....

I guess that this is my whole point. The book is entitled:

How the Church Built Western Civilization

But the poster changed the title by adding - Catholic -

I don't think that there had to be a Pope, or Saints, or other precepts of today's Catholism to advance western civilization. Just the opposite, as many independent thinkers decided to break away from these religious trappings starting in the 1500's.

Certainly these thinkers have added as much wisdom to modern man, although they're not Catholic. Also, certainly Judiasm was instrumental in the early years, and their influence has growth over the centuries.

Maybe we're talking semantics, like what the meaning of is - is, but I reject the notion that it was the trappings of Catholicism that fostered knowledge, and that if other Christian idealogy had been in place during that period that the growth of knowledge would have suffered.

[mike182d]

But the poster changed the title by adding - Catholic -

The official title of Thomas Woods' book is "How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization." The error lies in the reporter's omission.

See:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2005/05/23/DI2005052300939_pf.html

You'll find that specifically "Catholic" beliefs and missions are responsible for some of the greatest progress in Western Civilization, such as the need to better educate Priests in seminaries created what is now the university system, and so forth.