Hacker News Reader

Comment by ppf | Hacker News Reader

Are we now denying the centuries of state-sponsored religious oppression that thrived in Europe? Assuming you are in the US, you might want to remember why the first settlers attempted to start a new life.

As someone whose national history is full of religious oppression, persecution, and acts of horror perpetrated in the name of god, you are welcome to walk this path for yourself, but I will not be following you.

View on HN

I'm not sure if he is specifically denying these issues.

It is possible to read his comment as defending the church's involvement in research.

To clarify my own comment, I don't deny the church's involvement in the sciences. The assumption that I am promoting some kind of "trope" seems like a misreading of my own comment. Just part of commenting, these things can happen.

Copernicus (who Galileo cited) was a member of the clergy. However, he was reluctant to share his work on the heliocentric model for political reasons.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolaus_Copernicus#:~:text=to...

I think that the point being made is not that religion has facilitated negative outcomes, but that the trope of "church impede scientific process. church absolute bad" is an example of a biased retrospective view adopted as a common myth in the modern, western worldview. It is important for societies to hold myths as part of their common culture for purposes of cohesion, but we must also acknowledge that reality is more complex and these myths are often ahistorical.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com