Hi Bodvar and all,
BO
> Right. I wonder if Islam will have a Renaissance of their own soon?
> It's due as this religion is 700 years younger than Christianity, but
> then Judaism is much older than both without reaching
> Enlightenment.
>
That's an unbelievably self-centered worl view, Bo. The "rebirth" of the
Christian world was to make up for centuries during which the church
actively suppressed any artistic or intellectual activity of which it
disapproved. The renaissance allowed many Greek values to reappear, though
to much of the Christian world, e.g. Northern Europe, these values were
totally new. Maybe the Renaissance was not so much a rebirth but a
Hellenization of Europe.
To claim that the same sort of renaissance would be applicable to the
Islamic world is totally inappropriate. It is only recently that one or two
fundamentalist Islamic regimes have appeared that behave like the Church of
the dark ages. For the most part, while Europe wallowed in the dark ages,
science and medicine flourished in the East.
As for Judaism, the Jewish people were too dispersed to suppress anything.
However, Jewish knowldege survived the longs years of dispersal, as evident
in the very rich Jewish literature. Furthermore, and not surprisingly,
although dispersed thoughout the Christian and Islamic worlds, Jews have
always been prominent players in science, medicine, art and philosophy.
Even worse, to consider Islam and Judamism as somehow unenlightened is
patronizing and bigoted. Maybe they don't need the Christian-style
"renaissance" that Bo expects of them.
Jonathan
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