Christian = Progressive = Good
I read this article about the smirking smirktician...I mean politician Peter Costello (the Australian Treasurer for the non-Australians). Apparently the seperation of "church and state" and the equivalent schism in Islam would bring "greater technological and economic progress"
Because as we all well know, Islam the religion which was the catalyst for the preservation of Greek thought, the religion who's followers developed the foundations for western medicine, phillosophy, music, poetry, currency minting, paper milling etc etc is INHERENTLY a very backward religion/culture. In fact I'd say that it's alot like Indigenous culture which also according to the Australian government needs to change to be more successful and acheive "more progress"...
As if 'progress' is even desirable....Costello seems to think it is both desirable AND necessary somehow
Because as we all well know, Islam the religion which was the catalyst for the preservation of Greek thought, the religion who's followers developed the foundations for western medicine, phillosophy, music, poetry, currency minting, paper milling etc etc is INHERENTLY a very backward religion/culture. In fact I'd say that it's alot like Indigenous culture which also according to the Australian government needs to change to be more successful and acheive "more progress"...
As if 'progress' is even desirable....Costello seems to think it is both desirable AND necessary somehow
posted by Andrew at 6:57 pm
2 Comments:
In the UK religion isn't separated from the state. All schools are religious. The result is that kids of different backgrounds go to different schools. They don't mix and don't know each other. This often causes and maintains stereotypes and hate. Northern Ireland is a good example where Catholic and Protestant people live within metres from each other, but never mix.
Church SHOULD be separated from the state. Everywhere.
Just for the record I'm Irish, so I can argue with you on this example :P
I would say in the case of northern Ireland the reason for the separation is much more the history, rather than the current education system. Sure this plays a part in NOT breaking down barriers, but the lack of fair representation for the Catholic majority, the continuing celebration of things like Orange Day etc are probably much more likely the cause of the seperate state of affairs there.
On state and religion in general, I think that it's impossible to completely seperate the two. And I think it's somewhat of a ridiculous dichotomy set up by the west. The west ASSUMES that because of the events of its own history that political power mixed with religios orders NECESSARILY leads to destructive entrenchment of power and enforcement of dogmatic interpretations of a singular faith.
While this is a possible outcome, the presumption that this is the ONLY outcome denies the opportunity for genuine inter-mingling of the two apparently seperate sectors of the public sphere.
Inevitably someone's going to ask for some successful examples so I say look at Buddhist Siam and the Macassan period of rule in Kalimantan.
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