I am writing in reply to Shirley Schneider’s letter about freedom and democracy. I agree with most of her letter until she gets down to the last two paragraphs and starts to confuse Christianity and the development of science and technologies.
When I read my history about the world it was very clear that Christianity (basically the Catholic church) all through history did everything they could to eliminate any form of scientific research and knowledge.
If you were a scientist or mathematician, and your findings did not sit well with the church doctrine of the time, you were possibly arrested, tortured and if you did not agree to change your way of thinking to conform to the church’s view then you could be put to death. This is a very known fact and many famous scientists had to hide their work from the church or write it in a way that the church could not understand it.
In the middle ages, it was in fact the Muslim world that was way ahead of the Christian world in terms of math and science etc. because their religion did not see the advancement of science as a conflict with the church.
It is unfortunate that even today in the Christian world there are fundamentalists that still do not believe in evolution, although it is a scientific fact. This belief is there because the church preaches against it.
It is unfortunate that fundamentalists of not just these two great religions but also other religions around the world have taken over and have caused so much pain and suffering. Because I am sure that the vast majority of people around the world would prefer to live in peace and freedom.
So yes, please enjoy our freedoms that have been won by the blood and lives of many of our citizens, but please note that people of all faiths fought together to keep us free and democratic.
My concern here in Canada is that the religious beliefs of our federal politicians, especially Steven Harper, will end up changing our country from the free and democratic country it was to one that suits his own personal fundamentalist beliefs. His religious beliefs have not been an issue previously in the mainstream media, but I think that with his latest “omnibus” bill that was just passed we will have to start looking at this man’s beliefs. He is certainly trying to eliminate any scientific research of any kind that could conflict with his beliefs. He thinks nothing of spending billions of dollars on fake lakes etc. but cannot find any money to maintain scientific research necessary to keep our waters, land and air clean.
I think that we all should read what is in that bill and realize how scary this guy really is.
We better wake up soon before we lose all of our freedoms.
Ron Evans
Oliver
