Strega,

I am no Prohibitionist and make fun of them frequently, but having to drink alcohol as a necessity is not appealing, and minor children doing it is not a good thing either. And remember alcohol is brewed with water, so there shouldn’t be anything in water that could kill yeast culture.

Ancient peoples associating alcohol use with health…[Read more]

TheEncogitationer wrote:
Tribes and clans can be and were dismantled by travel and trade between different peoples.

Travel and trade come into the story.  But in the first place, if family, clan and tribe ties are dissolved to a great extent, then people become individuals.  And religion provided the trust necessary for individuals to trade, o…[Read more]

I think Holy Water is meant to have some spirit in it? And 10 year old scotch is no longer for 10 years olds.

“Always carry a flagon of whiskey in case of snakebite, and furthermore, always carry a small snake.…..W.C. Fields.

Ha! Enco, the Church guided water ignorance had a strange but happy side effect. It turns out that the locals (in the uk) discovered that people who drunk wine, gin or beer did not get sick, whereas those drinking water were keeling over everywhere.  As a result, adults and children alike were swigging back the alcohol, giving gentle rise to the…[Read more]

Reg,

I misspelled and couldn’t edit in time.

Diogenes wouldn’t care whether his lantern put him out of the Net Zero Club.

Was Diogenes Woke?

We agree. He was not! 🙂

Jake,

All very well put! Attributing the progress we take for granted to religion and in particular Christianity and Islam is often a Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc Fallacy. Proximity in time is only one element of causation. David Hume listed a bunch of other elements of causation, but I’ll have to look that up.

You’re right also about the…[Read more]

Reg,

Was Diogenes Woke?

Where does one get that?

Diogenes wouldn’t want the “Free Palestine” crowd pitching tents next to his Grecian Urn home and possibly using it as a public toilet in his absence.

And Diogenes would care whether his lantern put him out of the Net Zero club.

And Diogenes sure wouldn’t want anyone of any identity getting in…[Read more]

Christianity back in the day and Islam in any islamic nation today is the death of individuality and individual rights. The regulation of life is all encompassing and it swallows up all that is decent and desirable in life. Listen to any honest Muslims who have forsaken their cults and you will see i know of what i speak. And everything i have…[Read more]

Simon,

I’ve got a book that says just that, and they make a good point. The Western Church, in the medieval period (500 – 1500 AD), dismantled the tribe/clan system of family favouritism, and this led to people becoming more individualist and also promoted the idea of free will (so that people could be judged, presumably). So, Christianity was…

[Read more]