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The Forum > Article Comments > 2000 years of shaping the west > Comments

2000 years of shaping the west : Comments

By Simon Smart, published 2/7/2012

Geoffrey Blainey is used to compressing the uncompressible, and has done it again in A short History of Christianity.

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Always nice to be called a one-dimensional hollow man, especially by someone promoting an integrated world culture, whatever that might be.

It is nevertheless the case that individual liberty is more highly valued in the Christian West than elsewhere and, in my view, the work of Locke, Hume and Mill would not have been possible without Thomas Aquinas, Luther and Francis Hutchesson.

The IPA's campaign to promote the values of Western Civilisation seems to me to be based on the legitimate view that Western Civilisation and particularly British political institutions form the basis of 21st century Australian society and provide the most satisfactory lens through which to begin to imagine our Australian future.

By the way, it has been predominantly government funded agencies that are promoting what we are supposed to see as a morally superior, 'healthy lifestyle'.
Posted by Senior Victorian, Monday, 2 July 2012 1:18:59 PM
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DavidG writes

'The world is just beginning to make some progress in its endeavor to rid the world of silly superstition and wishful thinking and another book comes along that is having an each-way bet. '

And no doubt he has enough blind faith to believe something comes from nothing. No doubt the arrogance of the new atheist increases while their faith based belief system wavers pathetically.
Posted by runner, Monday, 2 July 2012 3:51:26 PM
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"Yet Blainey sees not a dying out of Christianity, but a shift in its geographical centre. Latin America and Africa now hold the majority of Christian believers and the Church is thriving in these regions."

Just goes to show that western science, education and critical thinking, negate the need for a bible or the need to believe in a "Jesus".

Feel sorry for those poor Latinos and African's obviously now under the spell of more and more missionary derived mythological codswallop.
Posted by Geoff of Perth, Monday, 2 July 2012 6:29:55 PM
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A quick response to runner.

You assert the almost throwaway line 'believe something comes from nothing'. Presumably you are referring to the beginning of the universe (time, space, etc.). Why is this seen as an argument-ending line? Is it actually so inconceivable that something came from nothing? Obviously our minds are not easily able to comprehend the idea, and I am not arguing for it in any capacity. But perhaps you should not be using it with absolute certainty either.
Posted by AdamB, Wednesday, 4 July 2012 7:48:23 PM
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AdamB,

Just to save you the trouble of finding out for yourself, runner does assert such things with "certainty" - but don't ask him where God came from.
Posted by Poirot, Wednesday, 4 July 2012 8:06:39 PM
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Not all scientists have "…enough blind faith to believe something comes from nothing." But the recent successful experiments demonstrating the Dynamical Casimir Effect – which, as predicted, did actually create something from nothing – make it easier to believe conclusions based on the same quantum science.

Runner, I don't know why you're so unaccepting of faith-based belief systems.
Posted by WmTrevor, Wednesday, 4 July 2012 9:05:23 PM
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