Evidently you didn't go to ORU. Or maybe.... you did, and that's why!?! No, I know you're a Cyclone.
"...Churches didn't collect gold for the greater glory of God... ", and "...they sure as hell didn't do it to materially improve the lives of those forced to tithe."
Where do you think the first hospitals came from? Where do you read that the first Christians DIDN'T make all their possessions available to anyone in their community who was poor? Was it the Greeks or the Romans who gave Western civ it's propensity towards taking care of the poor, or saving the lives of babies born and previously left outside the city walls to die? Modern day anti-religious Caligulas (religion is the opiate of the people) have brought us the Pol Pots and the Maos, as much as the pseudo-Christian emperors, and 'religious' zealots brought us the Crusades, and the Inquisition.
If you're thinking about arguing from the past excesses of different groups, forget it. Your poster boy for the day is Prof. Patsch. And this precious Prof. Patsch is simply the latest evidence that frauds infect all ideologies, even the supposed 'truth' oriented ones.
Oh, and by the way, Prof. Patsch liked his boatloads of science cash and science bling.
> Where do you think the first hospitals came from?
Well, lessee:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hospital
"In ancient cultures religion and medicine were linked. The earliest known institutions aiming to provide cure were Egyptian temples. Greek temples dedicated to the healer-god Asclepius might admit the sick, who would wait for guidance from the god in a dream. The Romans adopted his worship. Under his Roman name Æsculapius, he was proved with a temple (291 B.C.) on a island in the Tiber in Rome, where similar rites were performed.
"The first institutions created specifically to care for the sick appeared in India. Brahmantic hospitals were established in Sri Lanka by 431 B.C., and King Ashoka founded 18 hospitals in Hindustan c.230 B.C. The latter were provided with physicians and nurses, and supported from royal funds.
"The first teaching hospital, however, where students were authorized to methodically practice on patients under the supervision of physicians as part of their education, was the Academy of Gundishapur in the Persian Empire."
> frauds infect all ideologies
Well, DUH.