Mr. Broken wrote:Back in the day, Rome had the entire gathered histories of both the Inca's, and the Aztecs, burned because they were considered heretical. I wonder if anyone even bothered to read them first, some how I doubt it. But the fact remains, centuries of accumulated knowledge went up in smoke because of someone's close minded, uninformed opinion. Im not defending Dogma here any more, but to butcher a quote " You can have my books to burn, when you pry them from my cold dead fingers."
You can find examples of people doing evil in the name of Catholicism (or Orthodoxy, or Christianity in general). So what? It is rather like seeing the German nation today as suspect because it had produced Hitler. Furthermore, since the prime thesis of Christianity is that all men are sinners, then if men sin, it is proof that that dogma of faith is true, rather than that it is not. Thus all arguments for "Christianity causing wars, doing evils, etc etc blah blah" wind up proving the Christian dogma (never mind confusing the teaching with the actions of people).
The first question I have for you, is, is Catholic (or other Christian) dogma right or wrong? If wrong, on what basis do you decide that? If even one of the Christian confessions is in possession of truth, you must seriously examine the position of that confession before you can condemn it. This seems to be the question you have not examined.
If it is right, then the importance to the Truth is not greatly affected by the evils committed by people like Cortez and Pizarro. Lost information is always a pity, I suppose, but on the other hand, I delete things from my computer periodically and no one accuses me of close-mindedness.
If it is wrong, then there is a tiny chance that something truly important to our lives was lost and must be relearned. But this is something that is not known and cannot be proved, only taken on faith....hey! Sounds just like a religious dogma!
Finally, on close-mindedness, which is used in rhetoric with an automatic negative assumption:
An open mind, in questions that are not ultimate, is useful. But an open mind about ultimate foundations either of Theoretical or Practical reason is idiocy. If a man's mind is open on these things, let his mouth at least be shut.
C.S. Lewis quoted in Credenda Agenda, 4(5), p. 16.
Merely having an open mind is nothing; the object of opening the mind, as of opening the mouth, is to shut it again on something solid.
G.K. Chesterton
