Is this really true?

8 thoughts on “Is this really true?”

1. This guy’s an idiot :p Or rather, probably just someone trying to get attention. I do agree with him that Paul had a huge impact on western civ, but not for the better. IMO, the only way one can hold this position is if one is completely ignorant of Greek and Roman thought prior to Christianity. The idea that Paul was responsible for the Enlightenment is just asinine. The Enlightenment was brought about by the rediscovery of pre-Christian literature. And most of the good aspects of Christian thought have little to do with Paul himself and much more simply to do with general Jewish thought, in terms of care for the poor and downtrodden, etc.

   Actually the book I’m working on now is a follow-up to my current book, and the working title is Christianity’s 2,000 Year War on Science, Reason and Happiness.

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2. A large part of that was the close to a millennium when Christianity was the only game in town when you wanted to learn how to conduct your life. The Pauline letters had a huge influence.

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3. Carrier has an interesting post about Christianity not inventing charity and philanthropy. See: https://www.richardcarrier.info/archives/12453

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4. Pingback: Paul on the side of State Terror |

5. • If Holland claims the rise of Christianity correlates to the erosion of slavery, then he needs to demonstrate causation.

   Scheidel, Walter, The Comparative Economics of Slavery in the Greco-Roman World. Princeton/Stanford Working Papers in Classics Paper No. 110504. SSRN:1096417

   Abstract: A comparative perspective improves our understanding of the critical determinants of the large-scale use of slave labor in different sectors of historical economies, including classical Greece and the Italian heartland of the Roman empire. This paper argues that the success of chattel slavery was a function of the specific configuration of several critical variables: the character of certain kinds of economic activity, the incentive system, the normative value system of a society, and the nature of commitments required of the free population. High real wages and low slave prices precipitated the expansion of slavery in classical Greece and Republican Rome, while later periods of Roman history may have witnessed either a high-equilibrium level of slavery or its gradual erosion in the context of lower wages and higher prices.

   Scheidel, Walter (2010). “Slavery in the Roman Economy”. SSRN Electronic Journal. doi:10.2139/ssrn.1663556

   Abstract: This paper discusses the location of slavery in the Roman economy. It deals with the size and distribution of the slave population and the economics of slave labor and offers a chronological sketch of the development of Roman slavery.

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6. My knowledge of history, while better than the average layman’s, isn’t even close to what I would need to formulate a cogent rebuttal, but my gut feeling is: No way in hell.

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7. Why did not Holland say that he is ethically Jewish, rather than Christian?

   Does not Holland think that Paul/Saul was Jewish?

   Holland has received some attention for his TV presentation on Islam. While I appreciate his take on Islam, I wonder if somehow there is an identity crisis that study (of Islam) has sowed in Holland?

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8. Pingback: Well, I Sure Got That Wrong |

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