OK, am I over-reacting here...?

[onager]

Poking around the bookstore recently, I came across the new book by Charles Freeman - AD 381: Heretics, Pagans and the Dawn of the Monotheistic State.

"AD 381" refers to the year in which Emperor Theodosius I announced a new law requiring belief in the Trinity. The law led to decades of horrendous persecution of pagans and Off-Brand Xians.

I loved Freeman's earlier book, The Closing of the Western Mind, and have often quoted from it. Freeman begins by noting that the last Greek scientific observatory closed in the Fifth Century, and the next one didn't open until a thousand years later. Overall, that book was a stunning indictment of how Xianity oppressed human thought for centuries.

AD 381 seemed similar, and I happily added it to my stack of stuff to buy.

Then I made the mistake of reading the Foreword. I am SOFA KING tired of reading crap like this! I put the book back on the shelf and grumped off.

Which is why I think I over-reacted.

But let me know what you think. (In the first line, Freeman is talking about the response to Closing of the Western Mind):

One response, however, continued to bother me. It was the criticism that I had set out to oppose Christianity.

I am not particularly drawn to organised religion but I enjoy many religious activities, especially listening and talking to those who have read widely in spiritual literature, Christian or otherwise.

In fact, I believe that a spiritual dimension is part of any healthy mind. It is surely right to reflect on values that go beyond the purely material, and I find the somewhat frenzied denunciations of Richard Dawkins and his supporters simplistic.

Human beings have always organized themselves to participate in what can only be called 'religious' activities and to speculate on what may or may not lie beyond the material world.

They have gained great comfort from their shared involvement in these activities.

How Professor Dawkins imagines one can ringfence this aspect of human behaviour and somehow eliminate it is not clear. (One thing I notice about Dawkins' work is that he has no sense of the emotions that drive people to search for religious meaning.)

I'd like to know when Dawkins said that, but...nope, I'll shut up until I hear some other opinions. What is it, open season on Dawkins?

The Amazon reviews contain one of the greatest titles I've ever read, at least for history geeks:

Athanasius was the Rush Limbaugh of his Day.

:rofl:

http://www.amazon.com/AD-381-Charles-Freeman/dp/159020171X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1248232102&sr=1-1