The Closing of the Western Mind : The Rise of Faith and the Fall of Reason by Charles Freeman (HERE) is a fascinating book. Freeman describes how, in the time of the ancient Greeks, the first faltering steps were being taken to discovering what the cosmos was all about, and soon science and the growth of human knowledge began to expand at an exponential rate.

Then along came this strange off-shoot sect that appeared and began spreading out from the Middle East. They called themselves "Christians." Well, no problem. There were many such sects, some of which claimed that their central figure was a messiah, predicted by Judaic writings to come and lead the Jews out of bondage (at this time, bondage to the Roman Empire). But this was just one of many such sects.

Then, in 312 AD, the emperor Constantine converted to Christianity. Because there were a lot of Christians in Rome at the time, some historians suspect that Constantine's conversion was less a matter of faith and more a matter of political expedience (a phenomenon not unknown in our own times). In any case, Constantine declared, "Dogma is what I say it is!" And at this point in history, Christian dogma—or Constantine's version of it—took on the force of secular law. The Roman Empire became a theocracy.

In an attempt to give the faith some kind of philosophical credentials and raise it a bit from the realm of pure mysticism, the early bishops dipped into Greek philosophy. But they spurned Aristotle's contention that one learns about the cosmos by observing, asking questions, and using one's mind (the nucleus of the scientific method), in favor of Plato's dualistic view of the cosmos:   that there exists a realm in which all things are perfect, and what we see in this world are merely vague, distorted shadows from that other world; and that true knowledge comes from ignoring what you see (which may be deceptive or imperfect) and looking within. This translated into prayer, meditation, and hope for Divine Revelation as the basis for "true knowledge."

So, in Europe at least, science was locked in the closet and humankind sank into the era we now refer to as the Dark Ages. The human mind, with all its capability and potential, lived for the better (or worse) part of a thousand years in a foggy twilight of myth and mysticism in which life was ugly and short.

It was around the time that Aristotle's writings were rediscovered, and Thomas Aquinas tried to prove the existence of God by using Aristotelian logic, that the human mind peeked out of the closet and began to look around. Although Aquinas earned himself a sainthood by his efforts, he did fail. All of his arguments have big holes in them. But his efforts did foster a growing interest in Aristotle's methods. And the ultimate result of this? The Renaissance, with its sudden explosion of human knowledge and enrichment of culture. And out of this grew the Enlightenment, the Rights of Man, the rediscovery of democracy, the sudden advancement of science, and the modern age.

"But once again, the madmen come!"

There are powerful segments of both the Christian religion and the Muslim religion that would eliminate secular governments and democratic political systems and replace them with dogmatic theocracies. Along with this, they intend to subvert science, knowledge, and cultural diversity. They would return us to the Dark Ages.

I am far more apprehensive about religions fundamentalists, particularly the Christian fundamentalists in this country, than I am about any terrorists who may be out there. Terrorists may kill a few people. They may even kill a lot of people. But the theocratic religious fundamentalists would erase all human knowledge and advancement and condemn the human race to world-wide superstition and ignorance. Once again, life would become ugly. And short.

Don Firth