Sunday, July 17, 2022

Profit-based Western Religion Began with the Crusades? Tell that to Chimpanzees and the National Association of Manufacturers

Profit based Western religion began with the Crusades, organized by the Popes, as armies looted and took over trading routes to the East. These concepts came to the Americas. - An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States, 3 Comments Mark Rego Monteiro Yeah, that´s pretty much wrong. By the "Crusades," the meme seems to mean "profit-based Christianity," to get one semantic issue closer to empirical reality. If "religion" involving conquest is the sociological and historical subject, it already begs the question. Islam began by conquering with the sword as it expanded out West to Africa and even into Europe. It also expanded East through India out to Indonesia and part of China, I believe, more or less, for starters. "Christianity," meaning actually Western European Roman church Christianity, meanwhile, had developed into a complex societal structure with a centralized political monarch in the Holy Roman Empire, among other components. "Profit-based Christianity", itself is a modern kind of category, so that trying to project that very category back so far into the past is questionable. The category is economic activity and its relation to different kinds of players in historical context. Charlemagne united politically Christian Europe around 800 AD, for one thing, after the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 AD. Charles Martel, no less, had effectively defended against the Islamic invasion around 732 AD. Historical issues are interesting, but are more related to the preludes to the pivotal shift in Western culture as Christians developed monastic schools into Universities that Christianized philosophy with empiricism, pivotally with Thomas Aquinas at the U of Paris in the 1250s. The results of modern philosophy with empiricism underlie the historical development of modern science, shareholder business economics, and constitutional democracy, for starters. It seems to have preliminary beginnings in the Medici-era of Italian bankers related to the Silk Road trade. That was a foundation for Portugal then Spain, with Portugal able to seek the source of slave and gold markets in Africa first after 1400. As Luther´s inspired Reformation freed various areas, no less, Great Britain´s own qualities were able to leapfrog and build on Portugal´s accomplishment by taking over India in the British East India Co´s capacities. That gives far more historical context. The modern "profit-based religion" reflects those channels, but also requires identifying the merchant, soldier, and political identity in all social groups and societies that human beings are responsible for in the first place. It´s not the Christian religion that´s on trial. It´s spiritual practice adequate to tame the human meta-animal that has been given the fruits of Jesus´ legacy in University-based education that needs to be ascertained. Reply 15h John H Clemson Mark Rego Monteiro Love the part about monasteries. We are taught how they saved the knowledge of the ages before, but don't look at how they would have morphed it to fit their ideas. Fortunately there were other "storage units" that saved knowledge from the Library of Alexandria, for example. ------ The idea at the top is from the first 4 minutes of an audio book sample: An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States, so it was aimed after the European powers that colonized, I am curious about the rest of the book. Reply 14hEdited Mark Rego Monteiro John H Clemson With regards to monasteries, there are a number of complex issues to be discussed. However, the assertion that they "morphed the knowledge of the ages to fit their ideas," your view is simply resorting to the assumption that "knowledge of the ages" is, or was, as you or somebody might speculate, pre-Christian in its highest form. However, the Roman imperial Gen Sulla destroyed Plato´s and Aristotle´s schools in the 140s BC/E, and the Library at Alexandria was actually severely damaged at first by Julius Caesar, I recall. Cassiodorus in the 500s AD played a major role in developing ancient classics for monastic study. Plutarch´s Christian humanism involved Italian monasteries, I recall. It was in fact specifically Christians who turned monastic schools into modern Universities, and the pivotal role of the monk Thomas Aquinas in laying the groundwork for modern philosophy with empiricism. The Greeks didn´t do experiments for similar reasons they didn´t go far with democracy. They didn´t want to do manual labor. The question of sustaining knowledge in "storage units" has its own complexities, that includes the even less coherent experience of the Muslims. Their scholars weren´t supported by the Islamic religious clerics, for one thing. "Anti-Christian" ideology is itself an ideological position. I´ve found that to value indigenous people, for their good and bad sides, I´ve had to give special attention to the meaning of "Christianity." While identifying Jesus´ special role and loving integrity standard with spiritual teachings is crucial, so is the importance of high integrity spiritual Christians and the way they resurge through history. What that reflects is not "Christianity´s" waywardness, but human bio-psychosocial tendencies to indulge in things like power, privilege, and pleasure, and in different areas like merchant, soldier, and politician roles. Or church institutions. By the same token, Indigenous scholars trying to trash and scapegoat Christianity are showing their own indulgence in the abuse of the privilege of knowledge. Instead of recognizing indigenous people´s own expression of human diversity, even before having access to the benefits of the fruits of Jesus´ legacy in scholarship. In context, then, there is also the violence and enslavement among all tribes and civilization attempts. for example China´s Hongwu Emperor´s purges, India´s pre-Buddhist King Ashoka´s shock at violent conquest, Islamic violent conquest, Africa´s conflicts and enslavement as in O Equiano´s case, and American indigenous cannibalism around M Nóbrega´s case, raid and capture in Native Am Attakullakulla´s case, and Sacagawea, no less. I can appreciate how resentment can motivate such forays into scholarships that involve scapegoating. They are valuable attempts for learning scholarship. There are reasons, however, for understanding the philosophical criteria for truth and the difference with ideology. Biology grounds us in what is a kind of "original sin" of sorts, as our close cousin Eastern African chimpanzees also commit the massacres of neighboring groups at their own level. That is not typical of normal animals, but appears linked to their, and then our, newly evolved levels of cognitive intelligence. In a way, we are kinds of meta-animals. In North America, and now the whole world, Indigenous people, like African Americans, are among the conquered people of the colonial past who are developing a new modern identity in globalized civilization with FD Roosevelt´s vision and legacy UN and human rights, and sustainability. I like to keep clear that Jesus´ legacy of loving integrity for Moses and God created the context of University-based "fruits" meaning powerful cultural tools disconnected from the monastic, or even more clearly and officially religious, spiritual discipline of their origins. That´s where the context of the resurgence of integrity in Jesus´ standard in the form of George Fox et al´s Quaker Friends is so important, and their protesting slavery. The UN, its human rights declaration, conventions, and openness to Civil Society is an important step forward that has helped empower many movements. The establishment of the PFIP, Permanent Forum for Indigenous Peoples after 2000 is also worth noting.

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