Renaissance - CathNews New Zealand https://cathnews.co.nz Catholic News New Zealand Wed, 29 Jun 2011 21:39:22 +0000 en-NZ hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.7.1 https://cathnews.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/cropped-cathnewsfavicon-32x32.jpg Renaissance - CathNews New Zealand https://cathnews.co.nz 32 32 70145804 Christianity put a stop to science. Huh! https://cathnews.co.nz/2011/07/01/christianity-put-a-stop-to-science-huh/ Thu, 30 Jun 2011 19:00:32 +0000 http://cathnews.co.nz/?p=6576

Christianity put a stop to science according to Victor Stenger. "Greece and Rome were well on the way to modern science when Christianity interrupted its development for a thousand years. It was no accident that the scientific revolution of the eighteenth century happened only after the revolts against Church authority in the Renaissance and Reformation opened Read more

Christianity put a stop to science. Huh!... Read more]]> Christianity put a stop to science according to Victor Stenger. "Greece and Rome were well on the way to modern science when Christianity interrupted its development for a thousand years. It was no accident that the scientific revolution of the eighteenth century happened only after the revolts against Church authority in the Renaissance and Reformation opened up new avenues of thought," he said

"Granted, the competition is tough and the candidates are legion. But I think that Victor Stenger—'Physicist, PhD, bestselling author'!—has thrown down the Gray Gauntlet of Lumpish Twaddle, and has done so in the span of just six paragraphs!" replies Carl E. Olson in Insight Scoop

"Never mind that the Romans didn't even figure out how to engineer a drafting chimney. Oh well; I'm sure they were only a few years from splitting the atom when the barbarians overwhelmed them. Which is not to make light of Roman and Greek achievements. By the way, didn't the Romans and Greeks believe in multiple gods? So how is it that Romans and Greeks were scientifically brilliant while being religious but Christians were/are decidedly anti-scientific because they are religious? Huh?"

Read Stenger's blog in the Huffington Post
Read Olsen's response

Victor Stenger is a particle physicist, outspoken atheist, and author, now active in philosophy and popular religious skepticism. As of June 2010, he has published nine books for general audiences on physics, quantum mechanics, cosmology, philosophy, religion, atheism, and pseudoscience, the latest of which is The New Atheism: Taking a Stand for Science and Reason.

Carl E. Olson is a Catholic, husband, father, author, editor, apologist, smart aleck, illustrator, designer, music collector, book lover, and lousy tennis player. He is editor of the online magazine IgnatiusInsight.com and moderator of the Ignatius Press web log, the Insight Scoop blog.

Image: Word on fire

Christianity put a stop to science. Huh!]]> 6576 The sexuality of Christ in renaissance art https://cathnews.co.nz/2011/05/17/the-sexuality-of-christ-in-renaissance-art/ Mon, 16 May 2011 19:00:22 +0000 http://cathnews.co.nz/?p=4293

The recent death of the Art historian Leo Steinberg has revived interest in his controversial book "The Sexuality of Christ in Renaissance Art and in Modern Oblivion." The book grew out of a question that had apparently occurred to no other modern scholar: Why is it that in so many Renaissance paintings of the Madonna and Child, Read more

The sexuality of Christ in renaissance art... Read more]]> The recent death of the Art historian Leo Steinberg has revived interest in his controversial book "The Sexuality of Christ in Renaissance Art and in Modern Oblivion." The book grew out of a question that had apparently occurred to no other modern scholar: Why is it that in so many Renaissance paintings of the Madonna and Child, the infant Jesus' genitals are actively displayed to viewers both within and without the picture?

The explanation, Mr. Steinberg argued, was to be found in Renaissance theology, wherein a major question concerned the humanity of the son of God. Here the possession of reproductive organs proved that Jesus, whatever his metaphysical status, was indeed fully human and subject to human suffering.

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