One advantage of traveling out of town as I did a couple of weeks ago is that time in an airline seat allows for activities that are often hard to fit in otherwise, like actually reading a book. The book I read upsets the conventional wisdom of recent decades or, in fact, of the last two or three centuries.
How The Catholic Church Built Western Civilization by Thomas E. Woods Jr. Ph.D. is a revealing look at how the Catholic Church, through its principles and organization, provided the foundations for the progress we take for granted in our society today. The author provides numerous footnotes to source materials, so this work presents a real challenge to any would-be 'debunkers'.
Check out this TCRNews page for a review and Amazon link.
What Mr. Woods has deftly shown is that if anything, the opposite is true. Many of the principles that the Enlightenment promoted and that secular humanism embraces have actually been borrowed from Catholic thought! Far from being a threat to the concepts of equality, human dignity, peace, the advancement of science and other of the good concepts that secular thought cherishes, the Catholic Church is the very foundation on which these ideas are supported! Far from being a hindrance to the advancement of human culture, the Church was the only reason Western Civilization actually did advance at all! One shudders to think what would happen if Western culture did indeed altogether abandon its Catholic roots!
I think a big part of the issue is that the agenda pushed by politically correct forces today, including abortion, euthanasia, etc. is no longer compatible with the truly inclusive principles of human dignity espoused by the Church. Therefore, the myth of the Church as a regressive institution continues to be propagated today. Thankfully, Dr. Woods' work will be a powerful tool in setting the record straight.
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