[Peace-discuss] Historical myth

[C. G. Estabrook]

"Secularists invite us to believe the following story. In the medieval ages of 
faith, culture stagnated, science languished, wars of religion were routinely 
waged, witches were burned by inquisitors, and Western humanity was enslaved to 
superstition. The literary remains of antiquity had been consigned to the 
flames, and the achievements of Greek science lay forgotten until Islam restored 
them to the West. The age of faith was succeeded by an age of reason and 
enlightenment, which gave us the riches of scientific achievement and political 
liberty, and a new and revolutionary sense of human dignity. The modern 
separation of Church and State has put an end to the blood-steeped intolerance 
of religion. Western humanity has at last left its nonage and attained to its 
majority in science, politics and ethics. 'This is,' Hart says, 'a simple and 
enchanting tale ... its sole defect is that it happens to be false in every 
identifiable detail.'"

--From Oxford philosopher Anthony Kenny's review of "Atheist Delusions: The 
Christian Revolution and Its Fashionable Enemies," by David Bentley Hart (Yale 
UP, 2010). Kenny co-taught with the late Herbert McCabe, Terry Eagleton's mentor 
(and mine).

http://www.truthdig.com/arts_culture/item/anthony_kenny_on_atheist_delusions_20100514/

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