In Pic : Galileo before the Holy Office, facing the Roman Inquisition.
Our beloved Marxist & liberal historians are at it again, with their usual jibes of Hinduism being illogical and scientifically fallible. Well, if there is one religion on the earth who historically hasn't tolerated scientific criticism, it is none other than the religion which is apparently the religion of "peace, tolerance & equality" i.e Christianity.
The foundations of Christianity itself discourages scientific reasoning - with their self-proclaimed monks and nuns severely punishing anyone who dares to disagree under heresy, blasphemy & would make them undergo severe punishments under the pathetic garb of "inquisition".
Alas, even the learned scholars weren't an exception.
This article tries to list down some brutal deaths of revered philosophers. scientists and mathematicians alike who were persecuted mercilessly by the Christian Churches. It may be a bit lengthy and cumbersome, but do read.
Galileo Galilei
Starting with the one of the most popular, profound & influential scientists of his time- Galileo Galilei. He advocated strongly for the Copernican model of the solar system, which stated that the Earth revolved around the Sun, which rejected the geocentric model propagated by the Church as well as sanctified by Christian scriptures. The fact that the holy Christian texts sanctify a geocentric system can give an idea of their understanding of the universe - which is pathetically ignorant. Still, the jealous archbishops of the Catholic Church could not tolerate criticism of Copernicus' Heliocentric theory; thus banning all works which validate heliocentrism.
In their innate conservatism, they saw the Copernican universe as threatening to the social order. To much of the Church's upper echelon, the science of the matter was beyond their understanding--and in many cases beyond their interest. They cared about administration and preserving the power of the papal superstate more than they did getting astronomical facts right. The fact that a Church-validated theory was proven wrong would create the innate nature for the populace to question the Church's authority. With this fear, they conducted inquisition after inquisition to quell notable works in astronomy which propagated heliocentrism.
The Italian astronomer and physicist Galileo Galilei was trialed and convicted in 1633 for publishing his evidence that supported the Copernican theory that the Earth revolves around the Sun. His research was instantly criticized by the Catholic Church for going against the established scripture that places Earth and not the Sun at the center of the universe. Galileo was found "vehemently suspect of heresy" for his heliocentric views and was required to "abjure, curse and detest" his opinions. He was sentenced to house arrest, where he remained for the rest of his life and his offending texts were banned. The amazing part is that Galileo was such a genius that he wrote a fantastic scientific book while being under Catholic arrest.
Hypatia of Alexandria
The tragic misfortune suffered by the wise Hypatia may as well be the most brutal instance of Christian hooligans murdering intelligent non-Christians. The incident dates back to the late 3rd Century CE, when Hypatia was an accomplished mathematician, philosopher & astronomer who was also an extremely popular & influential figure in the renown city of Alexandria.
Hypatia had established herself as a philosopher in what is now known as the Neoplatonic school, a belief system in which everything emanates from the One. (Her student Synesius would become a bishop in the Christian church and incorporate Neoplatonic principles into the doctrine of the Trinity.) Her public lectures were popular and drew crowds. “Donning [the robe of a scholar], the lady made appearances around the center of the city, expounding in public to those willing to listen on Plato or Aristotle,” wrote the philosopher Damascius. Among her numerous admirers was Orestes, who was the governor of Alexandria at that time.
Alexandria was a flourishing city of intellect and education, but Alexandria was plagued with religious and social tension between communities. Christianity was on the rise; it had been declared the official state religion of Alexandria.
Theophilus, the archbishop of Alexandria who destroyed the last city's magnanimous Library, was succeeded in 412 by his nephew, Cyril of Alexandria, who continued his uncle’s tradition of violence and hostilities toward other non-Christian faiths.
With Cyril the head of the main religious body of the city and Orestes in charge of the civil government, a fight began over who controlled Alexandria. Orestes was a Christian, but he did not want to cede power to the church. The struggle for power reached its peak following a massacre of Christians by Jewish extremists, when Cyril led a crowd that expelled all Jews from the city and looted their homes and temples. Orestes protested to the Roman government in Constantinople. When Orestes refused Cyril’s attempts at reconciliation, Cyril’s monks tried unsuccessfully to assassinate him. Cyril was aware of Orestes' connections to Hypatia. He accused the innocent Hypatia of witchcraft, accused her of engaging in apparently Satanic practices,
And then, one day, it happened. A group of shameless Christian imbeciles under the leadership of a lector named Peter, raided the defenseless Hypatia, dragged her into the building of Kaisarion (a former pagan temple in Alexandria that had been converted into a Christian church), shamelessly stripped her naked and murdered her using roof tiles, gouged her eyeballs out, barbarically tore her body into pieces and dragged her broken limbs in public to Cinarion, where they set her severely disconfigured body parts on fire.
This is precisely how Christians treat scientists who do not conform to their pathetic ideals; the shameless way the innocent scholar Hypatia was murdered serves as an open testimony to the ridiculousness & barbarianism Christianity hides within. Alas, some foolish Western feminists are tarnishing Hypatia's legacy to fulfill their laughable aims; claiming she was "struggling against patriarchy" while in reality; she was struggling against the intolerance of Christianity. They are trying to portray this tragedy as "Man Vs Woman"; while in reality this is clearly an incident of "Christian Vs Pagan". Her death was due to her being Pagan; not because she was a woman. A male scholar would have suffered a similar fate, in fact it could have been much worse - Christians do not discriminate on whom to kill, after all.
Michael Servetus
Yet another instance of scientific intolerance by Christian supremacists is the case of Michael Servetus, a wonderful physician who is credited with the discovery of pulmonary circulation.
As Servetus was not a citizen of Geneva, and legally could at worst be banished, the government, in an attempt to find some plausible excuse to disregard this legal reality, had consulted Swiss Reformed cantons (Zürich, Bern, Basel, Schaffhausen).
They universally favored his condemnation and suppression of his doctrine, but without saying how that should be accomplished. Martin Luther, the famed "rational reformer of Christianity" & the supposed "Father of Protestantism" had ironically condemned his writing in strong terms. Servetus and Philip Melanchthon had strongly hostile views of each other. The party called the "Libertines", a party of "religious free thinkers" (who were generally opposed to anything and everything John Calvin supported), were in this case strongly in favor of the execution of Servetus at the stake (while Calvin urged that he be beheaded instead). The council that condemned Servetus was presided over by Ami Perrin (a Libertine) who ultimately on 24 October sentenced Servetus to death by burning for denying the Trinity and infant baptism.
On 27 October, Servetus was burnt alive—atop a pyre of his own books—at the Plateau of Champel at the edge of Geneva.
It is true that Calvin and his fellow pastors in Geneva were involved in the death of Servetus.However, it would be difficult to find any church leader in the 16th century who advocated a more gentle approach. Luther called for attacks on German peasants and wrote an angry tract against the Jews, called ‘On the Jews and their Lies'. Zwingli, the Reformer of Zurich, supported the execution by drowning of the Anabaptist leader, Felix Manz. Sir Thomas More, England's Catholic Lord Chancellor, presided over the execution of those he viewed as “heretics” in England during the reign of Henry the VIII.
It is clearly evident, by the above examples, that Servetus was not the lone victim of merciless Christian execution. Christianity, since its formation, has been a logic-averse cult, intolerant of even the slightest of skepticism or reasoning; severely lacking in empirical evidence as well as the excessive promotion of fallible ideals.
Giordano Bruno
Yet another victim of the Christian annihilation of scholars was Giordano Bruno, a prominent philosopher, cosmologer & mathematician. He is known for his cosmological theories, which conceptually extended the then-novel Copernican model. He proposed that the stars were distant suns surrounded by their own planets, and he raised the possibility that these planets might foster life of their own, a cosmological position known as cosmic pluralism. He also insisted that the universe is infinite and could have no "center".
Starting in 1593, Bruno was tried for heresy by the Roman Inquisition on charges of denial of several "core Catholic doctrines", including eternal damnation, the Trinity, the divinity of Christ, the virginity of Mary, and transubstantiation. Bruno's pantheism was not taken lightly by the church, nor was his teaching of the transmigration of the soul (reincarnation). Bruno gave a very interesting response upon being sentenced to death - he made a threatening gesture towards his judges and to have replied: Maiori forsan cum timore sententiam in me fertis quam ego accipiam ("Perhaps you pronounce this sentence against me with greater fear than I receive it") The Inquisition found him guilty, and Giordano Bruno was burned alive at the stake in Rome's Campo de' Fiori in 1600, as a martyr of "scientific rationality".
It is interesting to note that the ideas Bruno proposed - cosmic plurality (existence of multiple worlds), reincarnation/ transmigration of the soul, heliocentrism, the vastness of the universe are well founded principles of Hindu philosophy. This clearly demonstrated the advancement of the Indian school of philosophy, which is totally opposite to what the occultist Abrahamic religions promote. This points to an inherent theological opposition to everything which does not correlate with Abrahamic principles.
Gerolamo Cardano
Yet another scholar who was the victim of ruthless Christian hegemony was Gerolamo Cardano, who was an Italian polymath, whose interests and proficiencies ranged through those of mathematician, physician, biologist, physicist, chemist, astrologer, astronomer, philosopher, writer, and gambler.
He was one of the most influential mathematicians of the Renaissance, and was one of the key figures in the foundation of probability and the earliest introducer of the binomial coefficients and the popular binomial theorem in the Western world. He wrote more than 200 works on a wide array of scientific topics mentioned above
.
Cardano partially invented and described several mechanical devices including the combination lock, the gimbal consisting of three concentric rings allowing a supported compass or gyroscope to rotate freely, and the Cardan shaft with universal joints, which allows the transmission of rotary motion at various angles and is used in vehicles to this day. He made significant contributions to hypocycloids, published in De proportionibus, in 1570. The generating circles of these hypocycloids were later named Cardano circles or cardanic circles and were used for the construction of the first high-speed printing presses.
He is also very well known for his achievements in algebra. In his 1545 book Ars Magna, he made the first systematic use of negative numbers in Europe, published with attribution the solutions of other mathematicians for the cubic and quartic equations, and acknowledged the existence of imaginary numbers.
Cardano was arrested by the Inquisition in 1570 after an accusation of heresy by the Inquisitor of Como, who targeted Cardano's De rerum varietate (1557). Cardano was forced to spend several months in prison and lost his professorship in Bologna. He moved to Rome, where he received a lifetime annuity from Pope Gregory XIII (after first having been rejected by Pope Pius V) and finished his autobiography. Fortunately, he wasn't executed; but the very fact that they imprisoned him for months shows the "tolerance" Christians boast of. They're historically one of the most intolerant religions in the world; perhaps surpassed only by Islam - a fellow Abrahamic religion with similar principles.
As an afterthought, I may not agree entirely ideologically speaking with any of the above personalities mentioned above; in fact I have my own fair set of issues with the ideals of liberalism; equality and rationalism. But outright massacring those who dare question your impossibly irrational principles & then having the sheer audacity to proclaim yourself as a "peaceful, loving & tolerant" religion is utter hypocrisy, which definitely needs to be called out.
Christian missionaries have stooped to a new low, constantly criticizing "demonic" Hindu "rituals"& "superstitions"; reducing this beautiful culture into nothing but apparently a rubble of casteism.
That is the level of underhandedness they can stoop too. They themselves have blood on their hands; by massacring innocents in the name of Christ; yet have the audacity to lecture other people about "morality", "peace", "fraternity", "tolerance" and other utopian-egalitarian ideals.
The truth about the "peaceful nature" of the Christian religion needs to be spread to the innocent masses being brainwashed by missionaries receiving thousands of dollars in monetary aid. Do spread this article via Social Media, if you found this informative.
Dhanyavaad!
Comments