XPost: alt.books.cs-lewis   
   From: toomuchspam@spammer.org   
      
   Bree wrote:   
      
   >>Then we have to look at where that fear came from, what sustained it   
   >>for 200 years and what made it go away.   
   >   
   > Good points. But have you verified just what did start, sustain, and   
   > end it?   
      
   No. But I presume a combination of contagious hysteria and some sort of   
   economic or social motive, plus the constant human need for scapegoats.   
      
   >>> Since we do not believe in witches it is easy for us to say   
   >>> they were wrong and persecuted innocent people, they did, but they   
   >>> did not know that was what they were doing.   
   >>   
   >>The same argument can be applied to Nazis and Jews, Stalinists and   
   >>kulaks etc, but doesn't look so good there.   
   >   
   > In closer memory, McCarthy's 'card carrying Communist' hunt of the   
   > mid-20th century.   
      
   We're going to be seeing, if we haven't already, something similar happen   
   with Muslims. (Not that I want to defend Islam where it needs   
   criticizing, as it does in many places.) Then again, paranoia about Islam   
   now, as about communism then, isn't so misplaced: some Muslims DO want to   
   get us, as communists certainly did back then.   
      
   > Of course other systems have done as bad or worse, eg Russian   
   > Communism, Madame la Guillotine.... So either catch a system that   
   > really produces better results than Ch has (which is possible) -- or   
   > count it a logical point against Ch being true: 'If your system were   
   > really run by God, He wouldn't let it mess up so badly; so it probably   
   > isn't run by God. (And if there is a God, He doesn't protect His   
   > trademark, so we have no idea who is really speaking for Him and who   
   > isn't.)'   
   >   
   > On the whole, in Western European history, I'd say the good influences   
   > in Ch overweigh the bad ones; certainly compared to the mix of   
   > good/bad in Communism or the French Revolution types. Just not up to   
   > what is claimed. (And perhaps not comparing so well to some viable,   
   > traditional systems outside Europe.)   
      
   I think a lot of good has been overseen by Christianity, but I don't know   
   whether it has been necessary for that good or that good would have   
   arrived anyway or more quickly under another system. Certainly   
   Christianity is preferable to Nazism or communism, but that's partly   
   because it wants to keep the status quo.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)