Constantine Early Church BR_Breaking the Spell D.C. Dennett Flashcards
- Early Church
Constantine start of the Early Church
Constantine was Roman Emperor from 306 to 337. First Roman Emperor to convert to Christianity.
[MN: Not devoted. He kept all his other Gods also. Constantine made an amazing discovery. He discovered that Religion was more powerful than Rome’s largest Army. With Christianity the people would police their own behavior. By merging Christianity with the Roman government, it brought him total control.]
The state church of Rome was established on 27 February 380 with the Edict of Thessalonica, when Emperor Theodosius 1 made Nicene Christianity the empire’s sole authorized religion.
This was the beginning of the official church state, where there was no separation of church or state. The king and pope ruled the land.
[MN: back with Constantine. Constantine had an important battle over a key bridge. He told himself that if he won the battle, he would convert to Christianity. Well, it was just lucky that he won the battle. God had nothing to do with it, but before Constantine converted, Christianity was a tiny religion, only about 10% of the population. After it became the state religion, it jumped up to over 90% of the Roman Empire’s religious beliefs, at the tip of a sword many times.]
Constantine ended up having his say with the use of the Roman Army as to what were the correct doctrines. This was the first campaign of persecution by Christians against Christians, and began imperial involvement in the Christian theology.
[MN: This is the period of time that people made up their minds as to what to put in the Bible. As you can see, there are no eyewitnesses that actually saw or heard Jesus as these stories were selected and edited hundreds of years after Jesus lived. In fact it was actually a cold war that lasted for 400 years. There never was a formal vote. The Largest faction wrote down what they wanted to be in the Bible (actually the doctrine, the Bible did not exist for many centuries later). Since Roman soldiers had all the clout, their opinion is want ended up in the doctrines. Anything dissenting written papers were burned then and even centuries later with the Catholic Church. Because of the Agnostics, there were at least 100 Gospels that were destroyed. It ended up with the four Gospels we have today which did not even have a name assigned until the Marcion Bible circa 140 CE.]
- Here is born the official state religion. Later the crusaders would kill and burn all who didn’t agree with the state religion. Especially during the dark ages (6th to 13th centuries). Basically the poor person had about five minutes to become a Christian or he was beheaded.
Feb. 27, 380. Here we have the beginning of the government control of both church and state. This makes the Roman Catholic religion the supreme law of the land. Keep in mind that during this time, almost nobody could read or write. Even the Kings! Therefore the Kings and Popes could edit the scriptures at will to swing behavior their way. This gave Europe a firm hand of rule over the people.
- Breaking the spell
Breaking the Spell - D.C. Dennett
- You watch an ant in a meadow, laboriously climbing up a blade of grass, higher and higher until it falls, then climbs again and again striving to reach the top. Why is the ant doing this?
Its brain has been commandeered by a tiny parasite, a lancet fluke, that needs to get itself into the stomach of a sheep or a cow in order to complete its reproductive cycle. This little brain worm is driving the ant into position to benefit its progeny, not the ant’s. These hitchhikers cause their hosts to behave in unlikely, even suicidal ways, all for the benefit of the guest, not the host. [like a dog with rabies].//Does this happen to humans? Yes indeed. We find humans devoting their entire lives to furthering the interests of an idea that has lodged in their brains. [The idea works like a parasite to the mind]
Christians and Jews do likewise, devoting their lives to spreading the Word. Making huge sacrifices and risking their lives for an idea. So do Sikhs and Hindus and Buddhists. There are many ideas to die for.
Back to the ant. The Lancet fluke isn’t exactly a rocket scientist. It is no more intelligent than a carrot. It does not even have a brain.
For some people, prayer is not literally talking to God but, rather, a symbolic activity, a way of talking to oneself about one’s deepest concerns, expressed metaphorically. It is rather like beginning a diary entry with Dear Diary.
[MN: A valid point. God is our metaphor method of talking and reasoning to ourselves. Very similar to writing our concerns in a diary. Praying to a metaphoric universally accepted being that lives purely in one’s imagination.]
For many people on Earth, nothing matters more than religion. People get so upset at the mere thought of an intensive inquiry.
Religions are transmitted culturally, through language and symbolism, not through the genes. You get religion through your parents, through your language, through upbringing.
4. Only about a quarter of the population of the US. Understands that evolution is about as well established as the fact that water is H2O. Could so many people be wrong?** Not so long ago only **a small minority of Earth’s inhabitants believed that the Earth was round and traveled around the sun, so we know that majorities can be flat wrong. P.59.//So, who is to blame for this widespread misinforming of the population? //P. 64. [Why we create offspring with a mate instead of asexually.] Right now, no matter how healthy and clean you are, there are trillions of parasites of thousands of different species inhabiting your gut, your blood, your skin, your hair,
Before a female can mature to reproductive age, her parasites evolve to fit her better than any glove. This gives the offspring a big head start in the arms race. [My note: This explains why only 50% of genes goes into making a new fetus! Ie, a parasite could be killing a life form, but if blended with foreign genes, the new fetus has a head start to defend itself, and keep the parasite in check.]//Children grow up speaking their parents language and, in almost all cases, identifying with their parents’ religion.
Chapter Four: Cargo Cult
During WWII they used the locals to build an airfield on the neighboring island of Efate. The Americans gathered about a thousand natives to build an air strip. When the workers returned with tales of men who had possessions beyond the dreams of the people of Tana, the whole society tried to imitate what they saw. They started building landing strips, warehouses and radio masts out of bamboo. Carved figurines of American warplanes, helmets and rifles were made from bamboo and used as religious icons. Islanders began to march in parades with USA painted or tattooed on their chest and backs. John Frum emerged as the name of their Messiah, although there are no records of an American soldier with that name. //When the soldiers left, the islanders predicted the return of John Frum. [This is how a religion can get started] On February 15th, 1957, an American flag was raised in Sulphur Bay to declare the religion of John Frum. Each year John Frum Day is celebrated with parades and military drills. They believe these annual rituals will draw the god John Frum down from the volcano and deliver the cargo of prosperity to all of the islanders. [Still going strong as of December 2011 per
Wikipedia]
- Chapter Five.
Every now and then the rain dances were rewarded by rain. [MN: Do we employ them today? This is just like someone praying for something and it happens to come to pass. They claim an answer to prayer. But in reality it was going to happen anyway. Prayer had nothing to do with it. Just like a dying person is prayed for. But the hospital, drugs and the doctors are the ones that pull it off, not the prayers. Yet they will stand up in church and give their testimony on how God answered prayer. Like my saying, “They draw a bullseye on a miraculous event and claim it as a miracle from God.”]
The religious ideas that hold up for hundreds or thousands of years are the souped-up winners of billions of competitions for rehearsal time in the brains of our ancestors. [hence the miracles to help soup up the movement]P. 151. As human culture grew and people became more reflective, folk religion became transformed into organized religion.
Chapter Six: It is surely no accident that almost every religion promises its adherents that they and they alone are the “chosen of god”, guaranteed salvation no matter what, they are assured that the almighty will assist them through their current difficulties if the right rituals and prayers are performed.//May the force be with you. Participation in religion creates or strengthens bonds of trust that permit groups of individuals to act together much more effectively. //“Religions exist primarily for people to achieve together what they cannot achieve alone.” David Sloan Wilson, Darwin’s Cathedral.//Why do people want religion at all? They want it because religion is the only plausible source of certain rewards for which there is a general and inexhaustible demand. – Rodney Stark “Acts of Faith”. P. 178.//The United States has more than 1,500 separate religious denominations. American religious donations currently total more than $60 billion per year. P. 190. //The Pope traditionally prays for peace every Easter and the fact that it has never had any effect whatsoever in preventing or ending a war never deters him. What goes through the Pope’s mind about being rejected all the time. – Andy Rooney.//The more you have invested in your religion, the more you will be motivated to protect that investment.
- Chapter 8: Belief in Belief
What do people do when they discover that they no longer believe in God? Some of them don’t do anything; they don’t stop going to church, and they don’t even tell their loved ones. They just quietly get on with their lives, living as morally as they did before. P. 204.
[Why don’t people wake up and question their faith?] People of all faiths have been taught that any such questioning is somehow insulting or demeaning to their faith.
“If anybody ever raises questions or objections about our religion that you cannot answer, that person is almost certainly Satan. Turn away! Do not listen! It is a trap!” p. 207.People have died for their theories. “Religious war is pathetic: You are basically killing each other to see who has got the better imaginary friend!” p. 215.
Many people believe in god. Many more people believe in belief in God! There are more people in the world who believe in belief in God than those who believe in God.
If God did not exist, it would be necessary for us to invent him.—Voltaire.
It is like falling in love. I believe all her wonderful qualities far outweigh her few faults. It is surely no accident that the language of romantic love and the language of religious devotion are all but indistinguishable. All religions have given their lovers a cornucopia of beauty to ravish their senses. Soaring architecture, music candles and incense. Great works of art and the cathedrals of Europe. P. 251. [Note: these follow nature like a bird doing a dance and mating call, trying to impress a lover. Same thing with religion.]
Many people insist that the anthropomorphic language used to describe God is metaphorical. P. 266.
The reason people care so much what other people believe about God is a fine reason, so far as it goes: they want the world to be a better place.
Pray to ask that the laws of the universe be annulled in behalf of a single petitioner. –Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary.
7. Chapter 10: Morality and Religion
Good people will do good things, and bad people will do bad things. But for good people to do bad things, that takes religion. – Steven Weinberg, 1999.
“The divine carrot and stick.” P. 278.
Brights have the lowest divorce rate in the United States, and born again Christians the highest. P. 279. [Brights defined p. 20. A new term for nonbelievers from an essay in the NY times, 2003.] [[Brights in this usage is a noun, rather than it being the normal adjective.]//Mitchell Silver notes, the God who rewards goodness in heaven bears a striking resemblance to the hero of the popular song “Santa Claus is coming to town”.//******* It is cruel and malicious to interfere with the life enhancing illusions of others. D.C. Dennet P. 288.
Mel Gibson thinks his wife is going to hell because she is not a Catholic Christian. P. 288//Most Muslims are sincere in their insistence that the hadith injunction that apostates are to be killed is to be disregarded. P. 289.It is always worth reminding ourselves that not so very long ago people were banished, tortured, and even executed for heresy and apostasy in the most civilized corners of Christian Europe.
You and I have been told there is no simple answer to complex problems that are beyond our comprehension. Well, the truth is there are simple answers. They are just not easy ones.— Ronald Reagan, January 1977.
Chapter Eleven:
Every athlete who prays to God for victory in the big game and then wins is happy to thank god for taking his side, and chalks up some evidence in favor of his theory of God—but quietly revises his theory of God whenever he loses in spite of his prayers. P. 311.//Higher education is associated with lower religiosity. P. 320.
“It was a schoolboy who said, “Faith is believing what you know ain’t so.” – Mark Twain p. 321.//Parents do have the right to raise their children the way they see fit. Never make the mistake of wandering in between a mother bear and her cub. P. 325.//We do have to admit that parents don’t literally own their children (the way slave-owners once owned slaves,) but are rather their stewards or guardians. //The role of the Catholic Church in spreading AIDS in Africa through its opposition to condoms. *[****** MN: Without child indoctrination, religion would wither and go away.]*
Ignorance is nothing shameful; imposing ignorance is shameful. P. 340.
