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Western Civilisation

Until the advent of materialism and 19th c. dogma, Western Civilisation was  superior to anything Islam had developed.  Islam has not aided in the development of the modern world; in fact civilisation has only been created in spite of Islam.  Proof of this resides in the 'modern' world and the unending political-economic and spiritual poverty of Muslim states and regions.  Squatting on richer civilisations is not 'progress'.  Islam is pagan, totalitarian, and irrational.   

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Saturday, September 22, 2012

Book Review: Michael Coren, 'Why Catholics are Right'.

Attacking Post Modern Shibboleths.

by Ferdinand III


 

Coren is a prolific British-Canadian journalist, writer and TV host. He converted to Catholicism as an adolescent – a rather brave endeavour in the post-modern anti-Christian world of Lesser Britain. Coren's book is probably a work that Catholics, some 80% of whom are secularist or 'light' in their faith, should read. Christian-haters could also benefit from this work, but it is unlikely that many of this group are even open to persuasion or rational discourse about the benefits and indeed civilisational values of Catholicism.


 

The book does a good job at debunking some common myths about the Catholic Church and defending its history and doctrine. Coren's work is however premised on the assumption that Christ is an incarnation of God or the divine power and that the Holy Trinity is self-evidently correct. The divinity of Christ exemplified through his resurrection, is the key event in Catholic theology:


 

The followers of Christ were in chaos when they saw their master crucified like a common criminal. It was the resurrection, an event He had promised, that thrust them into belief and, frequently, a martyr’s death. There is no explanation for the documented martyrdom of those who knew Jesus other than that they believed, without doubt, that He was the Messiah and that He had been raised from the dead because they were there. They were not few in number and they were not slow of wit.


 

While the above assumptions may or may not be valid, they are in the main surrounded by almost 2000 years of Church debates, arguments, and rationality as to why they are reasonably true, or why at least, one can use reason to support such ideals. Coren presents some important considerations about the Catholic church, a few of which are outlined below:


 

Free-will. Only the Catholic church among spiritual programs, has defended and extended the idea of free will:

God gives us free will because He is a loving God. If He had made it completely obvious that Christianity was true, He would have given us no freedom of choice and we would respond out of robotic self-interest. If He were almost impossible to find, He would be cruel, like some supreme vivisectionist watching us scurry around in a laboratory. No, He gives us just enough evidence if we make the effort to find Him.


 

Natural Law. Emanating from Stoicism, natural law rights is a key factor in human freedom:


 

...the Catholic Church believes in and teaches natural law and that humans were made, naturally, to complement each other as men and women. Our physical differences and sexual and biological capabilities are not mere accidents but God-given gifts. They are to be relished and enjoyed but not abused and twisted. It is not homophobic to courteously and gently explain the Catholic objection to same-sex relationships any more than it is a form of phobia to speak out against other behaviour considered sinful by Christianity.


 

A right to life, not to convenience and murder:


 

So the Catholic Church and faithful Catholics show a certain commitment, even an obsession, with the saving of innocent life. It is nothing at all to be ashamed of and something that, one day, will be seen as a mark of honour – just as the early opponents of slavery or “premature” opponents of the rise of fascism ...

and

One month after conception, the eyes, ears, and respiratory stem are developing. A week later, the heart can be felt beating, and the following week the baby can grip and bend its fingers. Eleven weeks after conception there is steady breathing and then the baby will be able to swallow the amniotic fluid. Around two weeks after this, around fourteen weeks from conception, the baby can taste, and between sixteen and twenty weeks the baby can hear, including hearing its mother’s heartbeats. At twenty-three weeks after conception, the baby is sleeping regularly, and six months after conception the baby’s sweat glands are functioning. The following month the baby kicks, stretches, performs somersaults. From this point on there is considerable weight gain and at around nine months the baby is born and, suddenly, has a right to life, liberty, education, and the right to free speech, health care, assembly, and whatever else.


 

Science and invention. The Catholic church built modern Europe, through the countless inventions of the middle-ages. The church funded all manner of innovation in science, math, medicine, agriculture and even the art and science of war. Coren gives one example out of thousands:


 

.....nineteenth century, the Jesuits in particular, according to Jonathan Wright in his seminal book on the order, “had contributed to the development of pendulum clocks, pantographs, barometers, reflecting telescopes and microscopes, to scientific fields as various as magnetism, optics and electricity. They observed, in some cases before anyone else, the colored bands on Jupiter’s surface, the Andromeda nebula and Saturn’s rings. They theorized about the circulation of the blood (independently of Harvey), the theoretical possibility of flight, the way the moon effected the tides, and the wave-like nature of light. Star maps of the southern hemisphere, symbolic logic, flood-control measures on the Po and Adige rivers, introducing plus and minus signs into Italian mathematics – all were typical Jesuit achievements


 

and


 

Galileo also attacked the Jesuits and their astronomers, who had gone to great lengths to write and speak in his defence. Galileo was not some innocent, impotent victim standing up for truth and being persecuted by ignorant and violent people but an activist intent on conflict who repeatedly rejected offers of compromise. Galileo eventually publicly recanted his views and ostensibly rejected heliocentrism but not, as is popularly assumed, because he was tortured. It is astounding how many people, including those who claim some knowledge of history, science, and the Church, make this claim as though it were absolute truth. Galileo was not tortured and was not even treated particularly badly.


 

The Church was the driving force in the development of the vulgate languages:

Catholic Church also had the Bible translated into vernacular languages, and the claim that it was Protestants rather than Catholics who first translated the Bible into English, French, and Spanish is just plain wrong. The Catholic Church sponsored and oversaw translations but refused to allow people to mistranslate scripture for their own political and religious ends. It was error and not access that the Church feared. If the Bible is the word of God, as Christians believe, it is essential to maintain it as the correct word of God and not allow it to become the word of a particular activist with a particular agenda.


 

Coren also tackles the Inquisition, the Crusades, and Church corruption – all 'sins' of Catholics which forever mar Christendom, or so we are told. The Inquisition killed about 3.000 people over 250 years, or about 3 months of daughters who are slaughtered in the modern world. Yet one rarely hears any criticism of the Moslem daughter-slaughter, named for some execrable reason a 'honour killing'. The Inquisition was a suppression of heresy and the establishment of social concord, as much as it was an instrument of power used by state and secular governments. Most of those killed were done so by the state.


 

As for the Crusades and other 'crimes' committed by Catholics-in toto, Coren does a good job of dispensing with those. 'Crusading' fell into disrepute thanks mostly to Protestant writers and the Enlightenment 'thinkers' who at times were decidedly ignorant and unenlightened. Walter Scott, Gibbon, Voltaire and others for instance. In reality the Crusades in part saved European civilization and were a necessary push back against 400 years of Moslem savagery, rape, destruction, raiding, slaving and territorial occupation. This says nothing of the 30.000 churches burnt to the ground or converted to mosques by that erstwhile peaceful theology of the cult of Muhammad. Without the Catholic church and its defence of civilization, Europe would long ago have been Islamic and the modern world never would have developed.


 

As we will see, the Crusades was never imperialism as we know it in any modern form; the region had been strongly Christian long before it was conquered by Islamic cavalry; Christendom was provoked over and over again by vehement and highly aggressive Muslim expansion; the Crusades were barely acknowledged in the Islamic world until the late nineteenth century because the Muslims thought them largely irrelevant; cruelty did occur but was nowhere near as common or extreme as usually suggested; and Islam was rarely as tolerant and pluralistic as its apologists both within and outside its religion and culture now claim.


 

Islam has never been pluralist. Jews and Christians are simply Dhimmis, or second class slaves, who should be of some use to their Moslem masters. The utility of the Dhimmi is the essential point, not 'tolerating' the Dhimmis religion.


 

This is a very good read about the Church, its importance in the development of the civilized world, and why its beliefs are central to a society which embraces life, change, free-will, reason and faith through good works. Without the Catholic church the entire Western welfare state would collapse. Without the Catholic church tens of millions of the world's poor, the leprous, the outcast and the marginalized would simply die, or starve to death. We don't see Moslem missionaries in Africa building hospitals, schools and churches do we?


 


Article Comments:

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7/30/2023:  Simon Webb: ‘The Forgotten Slave Trade; The White European Slaves of Islam’

7/5/2023:  Scanderbeg: A History of George Castriota and the Albanian Resistance to Islamic Expansion

6/29/2023:  Defenders of the West. Raymond Ibrahim. Another must-read.

6/21/2023:  A must read book, Raymond Ibrahim’s ‘Sword and Scimitar’.

5/29/2023:  Judith Herrin, ‘Byzantium. The Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire’.

5/26/2023:  Review: 'Byzantium and the Crusades', by Johnathan Harris.

5/18/2023:  Johathan Harris, The Lost World of Byzantium

5/13/2023:  History of the Byzantine Empire, Sir Charles Oman, 272 pages, 2018

11/7/2022:  Christopher Dawson 'Religion and the rise of Western culture'

8/26/2022:  Power and Persuasion in Late Antiquity. By Peter Brown

4/14/2022:  Henri Pirenne, 'A History of Europe: From the Invasions to the XVI Century'

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11/28/2021:  Peter Hammond: Slavery, Terrorism and Islam. Exposing the moon cult and Jihad

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10/4/2021:  Henri Pirenne: Mohammed and Charlemagne

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8/9/2021:  The Catholic Enlightenment, Ulrich L. Lehner. Nicholas Bergier, defender of the Church.

8/8/2021:  The New World Order, by A. Ralph Epperson

7/15/2021:  The Catholic Enlightenment, Ulrich L. Lehner. From the 16th century to Pope Francis.

7/9/2021:  The Catholic Enlightenment, by Ulrich L. Lehner

3/29/2021:  The Clock and the Camshaft, J. W. Farrell

3/20/2021:  Bearing False Witness, by Rodney Stark, #2.

3/17/2021:  Bearing False Witness, by Rodney Stark, #1.

2/5/2021:  ‘Slavery, Terrorism and Islam’ by Peter Hammond

1/27/2021:  Emmet Scott 'The Impact of Islam' and the mythical Golden Age of Muhammadan Spain

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1/20/2021:  The Impact of Islam, by Emmet Scott (part one)

11/20/2020:  The Light Ages: A Medieval Journey of Discovery, by Seb Falk. Science and sphericity.

11/11/2020:  The Light Ages: A Medieval Journey of Discovery, by Seb Falk

10/16/2020:  The Age of Plunder, by W. G. Hoskins

10/11/2020:  Michael Wood's 'In Search of The Dark Ages'. Plenty of light, the basis of civilisation

9/8/2020:  The Glory of the Crusades, Steve Weidenkopf (2014)

8/5/2020:  C.S. Lewis and 'The Abolition of Man' by Steve Turley

12/18/2019:  The Palestinian Delusion: The Catastrophic History of the Middle East Peace Process, Robert Spencer

12/11/2019:  Islam: Religion of Peace?: The Violation of Natural Rights and Western Cover-Up, Fr. Portella

11/25/2019:  2030: Your Children's Future in Islamic Britain, by David Vincent

4/28/2016:  History of the Catholic Church from the Renaissance to the French Revolution - James MacCaffrey

2/24/2016:  Morris Bishop, 'The Middle Ages'

11/6/2015:  “Medieval Lives” by Alan Ereira, Terry Jones and the 'other side' of the Monkish orders

11/6/2015:  Medieval Lives by Alan Ereira, Terry Jones

8/18/2015:  Dr. Robert Morey, 'Islam Unveiled' – The Real Desert Storm

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11/28/2014:  The poorly named Enlightenment - James Hitchcock, History of the Catholic Church

11/27/2014:  Michael Coren's 'Hatred: Islam's war against Christianity' Read it.

11/20/2014:  "The Catholic Church and Science" by Benjamin Wiker

11/14/2014:  Michael Coren: 'Hatred; Islam's war on Christianity'. Stating the obvious.

11/11/2014:  Collins and Christian-Catholic Culture in the West

11/4/2014:  The Birth of the West: Rome, Germany, France, the Creation of Europe in the 10th Century P. Collins

7/25/2014:  James Hitchcock, The History of the Catholic Church

7/19/2014:  William Muir, 1868, 'Life of Mahomet' - the madness revealed

6/30/2014:  Garwood: 'Flat Earth' - a belief only held by atheists and evolutionists

5/1/2014:  How the West Won: The Neglected Story of the Triumph of Modernity by Rodney Stark

4/23/2014:  The Victory of Reason: How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism, + Western Success - Rodney Stark

3/31/2014:  John Freely: 'Before Galileo', Kuhn and the real history of real science.

3/25/2014:  John Freely: 'Before Galileo', Diophantus to Bradwardine, review 2

3/15/2014:  Book Review: John Freely and 'Before Galileo'

2/19/2014:  Christianity, Islam and Atheism by William Kilpatrick (2)

2/18/2014:  Christianity, Islam and Atheism by William Kilpatrick

6/28/2013:  Raymond Ibrahim 'Crucified Again: Exposing Islam's New War on Christians'

4/24/2013:  Evangelical Catholicism: Deep Reform in the 21st-Century Church by George Weigel

4/21/2013:  Robert Spencer: 'Moslem Persecution of Christians'

4/13/2013:  Book Review: Islam: Evil in the name of God

3/31/2013:  The Triumph of the Risen. The Truth of Christianity.

1/12/2013:  Book Review 2: God and Reason In the Middle Ages, by Edward Grant

1/7/2013:  Book Review 1: God and Reason In the Middle Ages, by Edward Grant

1/3/2013:  The Early Middle Ages 400-1000, Editor Rosamund McKitterick, Short Oxford History of Europe

12/17/2012:  Heresy: Ten Lies They Spread About Christianity, by Michael Coren

12/10/2012:  Medieval Technology and Social Change, Lynn White Jr., Oxford Press, 1968

11/29/2012:  Book Review: Preachers of Hate: Islam and the War on America, Kenneth Timmerman

11/28/2012:  Book Review: Islamophobia, by Robert Spencer.

11/25/2012:  Part 2: The Gies' - Cathedral, Forge and Waterwheel, Review

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11/13/2012:  Book: The cult of the Moon God, by Brian Wilson

10/31/2012:  Review 2: Islam Dismantled, Sujit Das, Ali Sina

10/29/2012:  Book Review 1: Islam Dismantled by Sujit Das, Ali Sina

9/22/2012:  Book Review: Michael Coren, 'Why Catholics are Right'.

9/3/2012:  Book Review, Why the West is Best, by Ibn Warraq, Part Two

8/29/2012:  Book Review, Why the West is Best, by Ibn Warraq, Part One

6/12/2012:  Book Review: Poitiers AD 732, Charles Martel turns the Islamic tide. David Nicolle.

6/6/2012:  Review 2: Diane Moczar, Islam at the Gates, How Christendom defeated the Ottoman Turks

5/31/2012:  Review 1: Diane Moczar, Islam at the Gates, How Christendom defeated the Ottoman Turks

5/26/2012:  The Early Middle Ages 400-1000, Editor Rosamund McKitterick, Short Oxford History of Europe

4/13/2012:  Review, Emmet Scott: 'Mohammed and Charlemagne'

4/10/2012:  Henri Pirenne, 'Mohammed and Charlemagne' – Part 2

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1/22/2012:  Book Review: Defenders of the Faith, by James Reston Jr.

1/11/2012:  Book Review: Norman Berdichevsky, 'The Left is not always Right'

12/10/2011:  Book Review, Nigel Cliff's 'Holy War' – good but flawed.

11/7/2011:  'How Civilizations Die', D. P. Goldman, 2011, 270 pgs.

10/21/2011:  'Religion and the Rise of Western Culture' – Christopher Dawson [Kindle Edition]

9/29/2011:  Book Review: Bynum's 'Allah is Dead'

9/16/2011:  Middle Age Dynamism

8/13/2011:  Malise Ruthven, 'Islam in the World' and the Kabaa-Hajj paganism.

8/12/2011:  EJ Brill and the Ka'ba

8/11/2011:  F.E. Peters and the pagan origins of the Kabaa Shrine

7/14/2011:  Benjamin Walker, Foundations of Islam: The Making of a World Faith 

4/12/2011:  Martin Gilbert: 'In Ishmael's House: A History of Jews in Muslim Lands', part 3.

4/6/2011:  Martin Gilbert: 'In Ishmael's House: A History of Jews in Muslim Lands', part 2.

4/3/2011:  Review part 1: Martin Gilbert 'In Ishmael's House'. A History of Jews living in Muslim lands.

3/31/2011:  Book Review: Susan Bauer, 'The History of the Medieval World'

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3/22/2011:  Book Review: Will Israel survive? By Dr. Mitchell Bard, expert on Israel's political-economy.

3/20/2011:  Book Review ‘The Great War for Civilization', by Robert Fisk

3/18/2011:  Book Review: Bruce Bawer's “Surrender: Appeasing Islam, Sacrificing Freedom”, Doubleday, May 2009.

3/15/2011:  Book Review: World War IV and Beyond, by Richard Hobbs.

3/11/2011:  Alan Dershowitz's: 'The Case for Israel.'

3/5/2011:  Leaving Islam, by Ibn Warraq

2/18/2011:  Review part 2: D. S. Margoliouth, 'The Early Development of Mohammedanism', 1913.

2/12/2011:  Review: D. S. Margoliouth, 'The Early Development of Mohammedanism', 1913.

12/21/2010:  Robert R. Reilly, 'The Closing of the Muslim Mind'. The Communal Fascism of Islam.

12/19/2010:  Robert R. Reilly, 'The Closing of the Muslim Mind'.

10/22/2010:  Rodney Stark, 'For the Glory of God'

10/20/2010:  Andrew McCarthy, 'The Grand Jihad, How Islam and the Left Sabotage America'.

10/18/2010:  Book Review: 'The Dhimmi. Jews and Christians under Islam.' Bat Ye'or.

10/8/2010:  Jamie Glazov: 'United in Hate'. Indeed they are. The Leftards and Muslims that is.

8/31/2010:  'The Stealth Jihad: How Radical Islam is Subverting America without Guns or Bombs', Robert Spencer

8/9/2010:  Amil Imani: Iranian and former-Muslim writes about the pagan savagery that is Islam.

7/15/2010:  Book Review: Baran's 'The Other Muslims: Moderate and Secular'. A fantasy novel.

6/29/2010:  Serge Trifkovic: 'The Sword of the Prophet'. Jihad, Jihad and endless Jihad.

6/28/2010:  Serge Trifkovic: 'The Sword of the Prophet'. The Madness of Muhammad.

6/5/2010:  Review, 'Medieval Civilization 400-1500' by Jacques Le Goff.

5/31/2010:  Fregosi and Islam's endless Jihad.

5/27/2010:  Book Review, 'The Civilization of the Middle Ages', by Norman Cantor, 1993.

5/21/2010:  Book Review: 'Islam's Black Slaves', by Ronald Segal, 2001.

5/9/2010:  Book Review: 'Race and Slavery in the Middle East.' by Bernard Lewis, 1990.

5/6/2010:  Book Review: 'Slavery in the Arab World', by Murray Gordon, 1987.

5/5/2010:  Book Review: R. C Davis; 'Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters', 2004 edition.

5/1/2010:  Book review: The Complete Infidel's Guide to the Koran, by Robert Spencer.

4/28/2010:  Book Review; Thomas Cahill, 'Mysteries of the Middle Ages', 317 pages.

4/9/2010:  Book Review: 'The Islamic Anti-Christ', Joel Richardson, 2009, WND Books.

3/26/2010:  Book Review: Wafa Sultan, 'A God Who Hates'. 2009, 244 pages.

3/19/2010:  Book Review: Brigitte Gabriel, “They Must be Stopped”. 2009. 240 pages.

3/1/2010:  Book Review; M. A. Khan “Islamic Jihad: A Legacy of Forced Conversion, Imperialism and Slavery”

2/22/2010:  Book Review: 'Defeating Political Islam' by Moorthy Muthuswamy

2/13/2010:  'Holy Warriors' – the Arab devastation of the Mediterranean

2/10/2010:  Henri Pirenne and why the 'Dark Ages' occurred.

2/20/2009:  Book Review: 'The Great Arab Conquests', by Hugh Kennedy.

1/22/2009:  Book Review - 'Chasing a Mirage' by Tarek Fatah. [2008, Wiley and Son, 410 pages.]

6/15/2008:  Book Review: 'Islamic Imperialism – A History.' By Efraim Karsh.

1/7/2008:  Book Review: Ed Husain, 'The Islamist'

11/22/2007:  Book Review: 'The War of Ideas: Jihadism against Democracy', by Walid Phares

10/16/2007:  Robert Spencer's superb book: 'Religion of Peace: Why Christianity is and Islam isn't'

9/21/2007:  Book Review: 'Infidel' by Ayaan Hirsi Ali- a Somalian-Dutch Muslim Apostate

5/2/2007:  Book Review: Islam The Arab Imperialism, By Anwar Shaikh

4/9/2007:  Book Review: ‘Religion of Peace? Islam’s War Against the World’, by G.M. Davis

2/12/2007:  Book review – ‘The Truth about Mohammad’, by Robert Spencer

2/11/2007:  Book review of 'Because they hate' by Brigitte Gabriel