Re: Catholics in Space!

----- Original Message -----
From: Stilt Man <stiltman@teleport.com>
To: <gzg-l@csua.berkeley.edu>
Sent: Monday, December 24, 2001 1:56 PM
Subject: Re: Catholics in Space!

> Well, let's put it this way... the Mongol Empire under the Khans got a
lot
> of refugees seeking asylum from the Catholic Church during the Middle
> Ages... because under the Mongols, nobody cared what god you
worshipped as
> long as you bent knee to the Khans.
>
> Meanwhile, the Lutherans were hardly permitted to go quietly away from
Rome,
> and Elizabeth I had a very real struggle just to stay alive long
enough to
> take the throne after Bloody Mary's purges (which were heartily
supported
by
> the Pope), much less survive as a Protestant Queen.  It was not until
the
> Spanish Armada was defeated that England became safely Protestant.
>
> Under the Catholic Church, even an idea so simple as stating that the
earth
> was not the center of the universe was a heresy punishable by death.
> Copernicus did not dare publish his book theorizing that the earth
orbitted
> around the sun until he was on his deathbed.	Galileo underwent quite
a
bit
> of pressure from the Church to repudiate his theories under threat of
being
> burned at the stake.	It's only been in the last ten years that the
Church
> has finally conceded that Galileo's theories were right.
>
> The Catholic Church of the Middle Ages has easily as much blood on its
hands
> as any religious institution of the last millenium.  The Turks (when
they
> converted to Islam rather fanatically and were motivated to forge the
> Ottoman Empire in blood) and the Aztecs (with a rather brutal and
> sacrificial spiritual belief set in general) give them a run for their
> money, but the Catholic Church has been far from a peaceful
organization.
>