Did the Republican idea of freedom come from Aristotle or Jesus?

[EdwardBaiamonte]

I'd say both can lay equal claim to establishing the idea of freedom on earth in Western Civilization? And, that idea has now spread to China.

 

[Luddly Neddite]

 

[TheOldSchool]

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

dear, its not an issue, we have capitalism which China just switched to to feed 1 billion human beings who had starved to death for 10,00o years.

Do you understand?

 

[TheOldSchool]

dear, its not an issue, we have capitalism which China just switched to to feed 1 billion human beings who had starved to death for 10,00o years.

Do you understand?

honeypoo, of course!

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

2 Thessalonians 3:6-12 ESV /

Now we command you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from any brother who is walking in idleness and not in accord with the tradition that you received from us. For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us, because we were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone's bread without paying for it, but with toil and labor we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you. It was not because we do not have that right, but to give you in ourselves an example to imitate. For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.

When Clinton made welfare workfare fully half decided they no longer needed welfare!

 

[koshergrl]

"A series of developments, in which reason won the day, gave unique shape to Western culture and institutions. And the most important of those victories occurred within Christianity. While the other world religions emphasized mystery and intuition, Christianity alone embraced reason and logic as the primary guides to religious truth. Christian faith in reason was influenced by Greek philosophy. But the more important fact is that Greek philosophy had little impact on Greek religions. Those remained typical mystery cults, in which ambiguity and logical contradictions were taken as hallmarks of sacred origins. Similar assumptions concerning the fundamental inexplicability of the gods and the intellectual superiority of introspection dominated all of the other major world religions.
"But, from early days, the church fathers taught that reason was the supreme gift from God and the means to progressively increase understanding of Scripture and revelation. Consequently Christianity was oriented to the future, while the other major religions asserted the superiority of the past. At least in principle, if not always in fact, Christian doctrines could always be modified in the name of progress, as demonstrated by reason. Encouraged by the scholastics and embodied in the great medieval universities founded by the church, faith in the power of reason infused Western culture, stimulating the pursuit of science and the evolution of democratic theory and practice. The rise of capitalism also was a victory for church-inspired reason, since capitalism is, in essence, the systematic and sustained application of reason to commerce something that first took place within the great monastic estates."

How Christianity Led to Freedom Capitalism and the Success of the West

 

[koshergrl]

"The success of the West, including the rise of science, rested entirely on religious foundations, and the people who brought it about were devout Christians.."

How Christianity Led to Freedom Capitalism and the Success of the West
And China is opening up largely due to a huge Christian movement there.

 

[koshergrl]

" Through all prior recorded history, slavery was universal Christianity began in a world where as much as half the population was in bondage. But by the seventh century, Christianity had become the only major world religion to formulate specific theological opposition to slavery, and, by no later than the 11th century, the church had expelled the dreadful institution from Europe. That it later reappeared in the New World is another matter, although there, too, slavery was vigorously condemned by popes and all of the eventual abolition movements were of religious origins."

How Christianity Led to Freedom Capitalism and the Success of the West

 

[TheOldSchool]

"The success of the West, including the rise of science, rested entirely on religious foundations, and the people who brought it about were devout Christians.."

How Christianity Led to Freedom Capitalism and the Success of the West
And China is opening up largely due to a huge Christian movement there.

Yes many scientists were devout Christians... who had to tone down or hide their findings lest they get burned at the stake by devout Christians.

 

[koshergrl]

"The success of the West, including the rise of science, rested entirely on religious foundations, and the people who brought it about were devout Christians.."

How Christianity Led to Freedom Capitalism and the Success of the West
And China is opening up largely due to a huge Christian movement there.

Yes many scientists were devout Christians... who had to tone down or hide their findings lest they get burned at the stake by devout Christians.

Nonsense.

They had to tone down or hide their findings lest they be burned at the stake by STATISTS.

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

Yes many scientists were devout Christians... who had to tone down or hide their findings lest they get burned at the stake by devout Christians.

dear, no one said Christianity didn't have pagan roots and evolve slowly. Do you understand?

The School of Athens fresco in the Vatican shows all the great Greek thinkers, and more, indicating respect for them all and a commitment to understand them all and evolve forward based on reason.

 

[norwegen]

"The success of the West, including the rise of science, rested entirely on religious foundations, and the people who brought it about were devout Christians.."

How Christianity Led to Freedom Capitalism and the Success of the West
And China is opening up largely due to a huge Christian movement there.

Yes many scientists were devout Christians... who had to tone down or hide their findings lest they get burned at the stake by devout Christians.

Nonsense.

They had to tone down or hide their findings lest they be burned at the stake by STATISTS.

Peculiar that the Anglicans allied with the Catholics in many regards, a church stuck on geo-centrism, and both of which partnered with the state for revenue. Yet these statists declared themselves enlightenment rationalists.

The evangelicals are the ones who put into practice a term coined by Plato and expounded on by the Romans (Cicero, chiefly). The natural law, code embraced in America's founding principles, like evangelical Christianity, recognizes the sovereignty of the individual and his equality to other individuals simply by virtue of his birth.

The conservatism inherent in America since its colonial era has deep roots in Christianity, and also roots that begin even before the Greeks. If we read the Old Testament, we see that the Hebrews, though they didn't articulate the principle, were intimately attached to the natural law.

 

[whitehall]

The Founding Fathers were better educated than 99.9% of the riff-raff that graduates from most of the liberal institutions that we consider elite today. The F.F. had the additional experience of having lived under the tyranny of an oppressive government and a possibly demented king. They all had prices on their heads and Franklin said it best "gentlemen we must hang together or surely we will hang separately". The document they created that established a government by the people was the turning point in human evolution. The dawning of the 20th century saw a few doddering old monarchies but government of the people is the established norm of civilized society today. Too bad kids today are too busy learning how to put a condom on a banana than to appreciate the geniuses and heroes who established the freedom enjoyed by most of the world today.