How the West Won: The Neglected Story of the Triumph of Modernity by Rodney Stark

Neglected is the key word. According to Atheists and big-brains, 'science' just randomly mutated, like a new species, via the god of chance in the 17^th century. Catholic scientists like Newton, Kepler, or Galileo just appeared fully formed, educated, insightful and rational, by themselves, much as pond scum evolved into flat worms, than onto humans. It just 'happened' one day and that is 'science'......

Or somehow pace Weber, the 'Protesting revolution' conspired to generate by evolutionary magic, rational enquiry, superseding all the supposed cultural and religious barriers which prevented men from building say, blast furnaces, carracks, cogs, cathedrals, eye-glasses, telescopes, advanced mining equipment, the beauty industry, banks, mortgages, private property, guilds, communes, constitutions, parliaments, corporations, overseas trading firms.....you know the 'dark ages', as opposed to reality-tv, globaloneywarming and academic fraud paraded as truth.

Stark proves yet again that Christianity created the modern world only in Europe. It is a simple fact. Indisputable, based on science, real history and facts. The Christian world-view was the cultural basis for civilization. Germs, guns, steel, geography, or chance might have played their roles. But it is culture that is king. Only in Europe did people view progress as something to be measured and attained; only in Europe was the human viewed as an individual within a collective; only in Europe was free-will, freedom and self-determination preached and protected. Only in Europe do we find innovation and capitalism which benefited the mass, ensuring the end of slavery and oppression.

Stark:

“Christian commitment to rational theology paved the way for capitalism and ultimately economic and political freedom.

Christianity alone, however, embraced logic and reason as essential ingredients in pursuing religious truth. Indeed, “faith in reason” was a uniquely Christian development that would become the hallmark of Western civilization.”

All the great innovators, scientists, creators, magnates and warriors were Christian, most of them Catholic. Where are the shrines, the cathedrals, the art, and the majesty of the Atheist cult ?

Stark: “...most significant was the “invention” of capitalism. Contrary to perceived wisdom, capitalism was “not invented in a Venetian countinghouse, let alone a Protestant bank in Holland.” Rather, it evolved, beginning in the 9th century, thanks to Catholic monks working to improve the economic security of their monastic estates.”

This is also valid. Without capitalism there is no freedom and no modern world order. Capitalism needs laws, regulations, a culture of honesty and morality, and the protection of private property and contractual obligations.

Stark: “...scripture also lent credence to: property rights (thou shalt not steal), separation of church and state (“Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God things that are God’s”), and the limits of state power (the secularity of the state made it possible to examine and ultimately criticize the basis of worldly power). Capitalism began in Europe’s monastic estates and later flowered in Italian city-states such as Venice, Genoa, Florence and Milan.”

Christianity is the only philosophical framework which denotes and demands the separation of church and state; and which prioritizes private property and contracts.

Stark: “Augustine [late 4^th c.] argued, for instance, that economic activity was not inherently wicked and that, as with any vocation, it was up to the individual to live according to God’s teachings. Further, Augustine made a decisive argument: that the price of an object was not simply the function of a seller’s costs, but also included the buyer’s desire for the object being sold. This justified the idea that an object could be sold at a profit.”

Medieval European capitalism was directly responsible for the greatest rise in living standards in history, which occurred between 900 and 1300 AD. Without the dead weight of Roman, Islamic or some other Oriental despotism; fractured into many states and principalities, the competitive environment of the Medieval era produce an astonishing array of machinery and innovation.

Stark: “Watermills (along with windmills), however, became a ubiquitous feature in the Middle Ages, leading to dramatic improvements in production capacities and techniques. Indeed, the so-called Dark Ages gave rise to a whole host of innovative inventions including eyeglasses, chimneys and mechanical clocks. Interestingly, although several clocks had been built in China as early as the 12th century, it appears they were destroyed by Chinese elites opposed to mechanical contrivances. Similarly, public clocks were rejected by Islamic cultures on the grounds that they would secularize time.”

We can add buttons, banks, trousers, ice skates, ice cream, pasta, ocean going boats, gunpowder, blast furnaces, high grade steel, rails, optics, physics, heliocentricity, gravity, modern secular and ecumenical law, gothic cathedrals and a long list of creations in every sphere. Show me a similar list from Islam or China.