The Origins of Democracy and the Big Lie

tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18607427.post-50488906332791362172008-07-05T16:15:00.003-04:002008-07-05T16:46:31.209-04:00The Origins of Democracy and the Big LieI came across reference to a review today of a book written in the year I was born, 1957, Christianity, Democracy, and Technology, by Zoltan Sztankay (New York: Philosophical Library). It was written as a response to Communism but it is the author's premise that I find wholly deplorable: "Since Christianity is the basis of democracy, and since technology depends on democracy, the two latter never could have developed without Christianity..." I found three reviews of the book, and while these argued that the Soviet Union demonstrates the falsity of the claim that technology is dependent upon democracy, none of the reviewers take the author to task for the absurd claim that Christianity is the basis of democracy. This is a blatant untruth and it is often repeated by today's Evangelicals and Fundamentalists. It is a basic platform of the so-called Religious Right and the lie is being repeated to a new generation of Christians even as I sit here arguing against it. The facts are, nothing at all supports this thesis. Certainly our democracy is not Greek democracy (if ours is democracy at all) but the Greeks were not Christians, but Pagans, or Hellenes as they prefer to be called. The Jews, who provide the basis for Christianity, were by no means democratic in their political outlook. They were ruled by kings first, and then by a high priesthood acting (supposedly) on behalf of their god, YHWH. But this was a theocracy and not a democracy. Nor did Christians embrace democracy throughout any of their history. Indeed, even today many of them look to a re-establishment of a theocracy. The "divine right" of kings was upheld by the Church from the fall of the Roman Empire to the Enlightenment. Even people living in the supposedly horrible and autocratic Roman Empire had more access to democracy on a local level than Christians living in the Middle Ages. It's time to put an end to such absurd claims. They must be buried by the weight of evidence against them. And that evidence is out there. We must demand that Christians making these claims provide evidence for them. Of course, they cannot. There is none available. The evidence destroys their claim and demonstrates beyond fear of contestation that democracy is a Pagan invention, the Paganism is more friendly to science and technology, and that technology relies neither on democracy or Christianity.Hrafnkellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15299724038112766262noreply@blogger.com