Has anyone ever heard that catholics are the reason we are so far behind in technology?

Question

I heard someone say that the world is 500 years behind in the development of technology because the Catholics burned information in China. I don't believe it but I also want to know where this information came from.

Answer 1

I don't know about that, but I do know that the Roman Catholic church was once at the belief that earth was the center of the universe, because we are god's chosen people. They prosecuted anyone who believed differently as blasphemers, including those who tried to say that the earth orbited around the sun (those dirty satan worshippers).

Thank goodness our laws are no longer governed by medieval mythology. Unfortunately, there are still some countries that are - Iran, Syria, Afghanistan (was) - are you starting to see the similarities here?

I also do agree with the guy below - religious fundamentalism can hold back scientific research. And I am on the donor list.

Answer 2

You could make similar arguments about the Roman Empire of around 2000 years ago., The Romans were great imitators and adopters of technologies invented in other parts of the world, but not great innovators.

In other hands might steam power have ben developed practically nearly 2000 years ago, rather than less than 300 years ago.

500 years ago Catholics would not have had much power or influence in China. And China is a huge area of land, with porous borders, especially a long time ago.

And "500 years" is a long way to be put behind by any act of forbidding of knowledge etc. Somebody somewhere would have come up with ideas that would have put he world somewhere near where it is at the moment. Indeed China was in advance of Europe in some forms of technology 500 years ago.

Answer 3

Is a sad fact, but is true that the pressure made by the Catholic Curch during the almost 1500 years since it's creation and the Ilustration has been one of the main reason cience didn't seem to improve at all. During the Middle Age, the Church took over all knowldege, and got all Europe into a intellectualy and cientific very dark period. This caused general ignorance, bad living conditions, and the spread of deseases all over the continent.
I think the saddest part is thatthe knowledge, in fact, did exist, most developed by the ancient greek and roman cultures, but because of the Church's fear of loosing it's influence if the cientific truth was known, this knowledge was kept away from most of the people.
Who knows how far we would have reached if the Catholic Church had never taken control of Europe...

Answer 4

No doubt that religion is at fault for many delays in the education of the world. And not just "organized religion" - the old superstitutions of praying to the sun, moon, animals, etc held back mankind.

ALSO you can blame wars - the library at Alexandria had knowledge dating back hundreds of years was destroyed [by what group I don't remember].

I don't just blame catholics - EVERY religion has a bias toward their own "book" [bible, torah, etc] as being the only source of "truth". FACT is that while there can be many GOOD ideas [helping your fellow man,etc] are found in these books, they also expound HATE of anyone that does not follow the specific religion.

And the "truth" in the bible is not the WHOLE truth!! There are MANY sections removed because they didn't say what some ruler [Ceasar & such] wanted people to know. Corner a Jesuit sometime & you can find out a lot [as my mother-in-law did decades ago].

Answer 5

The way you frame your question is very simplistic. If you look back in history you will find that many civilizations were running parallel to Europe during the past 500 years. Take for instance Japan. They were not under the influence of the Catholic Church but what had they contributed to human knowledge?
China? Ok the Chinese knew some interesting stuff but their culture is very secretive and they did not like to share knowledge and they did not. Most of what we know of their knowledge was studied by Westerners who translated the ancient texts.

Answer 6

Its is true!

It took the catholic church over 500 years to say, Oh yeah earth is not the middle of the solar system." Galileo was almost killed for advocating science. What does it say about an organization that takes 500 years to admit what scientists have known all along.

Answer 7

I hardly think you should limit the blame to Catholics only. Just think, nearly half of the American population are so backward that they reject evolution and they are mainly Protestant. All fixed idea systems such as religion limit mans ability to see clearly and hold back every form of development.

Answer 8

I believe we are far behind from were we could be. All this fuss about morals and crap is just holding us behind. we could have a cure for cancer or paralysis but nooooooo. Things like stem cell research is immoral and we cant do that. And yes, before you ask me about if I would put my son or myself on a donors list if we were to die,YES. with out a second thought.

Answer 9

It is typical anti-Catholic bigotry. Go to catholicanswers.com for the truth. It is a shame that Catholics are subject to so much prejudice and hate speech in this world.

Answer 10

I never heard that one.