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Comment by dh2022 | Hacker News Reader

dh2022

Christianity is built upon “believe and do not doubt”. Sorry, I think your Chinese friend was a bit starry-eyed about Christianity…

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Fides quaerens intellectum (faith seeking understanding) is almost literally a millennium old at this point https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fides_quaerens_intellectum (and much older if you take it back to Saint John's response to the resurrection John 20:8-9)

What you wrote is quite obscure.

Much more popular is "believe and do not doubt".

Also: Jesus' response to Apostle Thomas after his resurrection from the dead is recited during every Easter mass: "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."

Yes, on the surface the religion is the textbook antithesis of free thought. And yet I think my friend was getting at something deeper I can't quite pin down easily. Maybe it was just a lucky combination of aristocrat philosophers justifying their pursuits? Then there was the Enlightenment thing...

On the surface the religion is the antithesis of free thought? Where does persecution of scientists during the Medieval Age belong to? Is it below the surface? Above the surface?

Enlightenment runs contrary to Christian Dogma - Enlightenment advocates for the separation of Church and State.

Sorry pal, but Christianity is firmly against free thought....

Jesus says, "I am the way and the truth and the life". And to Thomas He says _first_ (two verses earlier), "Put in thy finger hither, and see my hands; and bring hither thy hand, and put it into my side; and be not faithless, but believing".

And to add another famous example: Galileo Galilei 500 years ago was persecuted by the Christian Church because he (Galileo) defended helio-centrism. [0]

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_affair

Sorry pal, but Christian Church is firmly in the "believe and do not doubt" camp.

https://www.vaticanobservatory.org/resources/galileo/histori...

You are one of today's lucky 10K!

That's the short version. The LONG version is https://bedejournal.blogspot.com/2009/03/galileo-affair-1-pr...

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