[lit-ideas] Re: islam 'r us
- From: Jack Spratt <dosflounder@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 20 Aug 2006 13:02:11 -0700 (PDT)
You are correct in saying that preserving is not creating but creating is
useless if it is not preserved and built upon. When Rome disintegrated monks
preserved Plato, a disaster for free thought, and ignored Aristotle. Paul
preserved, and some say created, the idea of Christ. Preservation has varying
degrees of impact on history. On the list of blockbuster ideas the Mesopotamian
sky god culture isn't even a blip.
Islam, Judaism and Christianity all admit that they flow from Abraham and all
have been infused with pagan ideas from the Greeks and Romans to the Bedouins
in the desert. Prophets cross the lines drawn between religions but hardliners
preserve the line not the flow of thoughts. Think doppelganger.
Eric Yost <eyost1132@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>why this disengagement by westerners from recognizing
Islam as a major contributor to what the west has become?
Quick response: preservation is not creation. Preserving
Aristotle is not the same as originating Aristotle.
Further, Mesopotamian sky god cultures are based in the
notion of God or Allah being the source of all knowledge.
All wisdom comes from the Lord, as the Bible says.
Hellenistic culture (and by extension Roman culture) is
based in the notion that an individual can ask the universe
questions (empirical experiment) and the universe will
disclose its secrets without the sky god's mediation by
priests or sacred books.
Remember that the Stoics coined the term "universe." The
Stoics also promoted equality of the sexes and an end to
slavery as early as 300 BCE.
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