Part 1
Aristotelian Dogmatism.
Aristotle developed an pro-human philosophy that was oriented around
people thinking for themselves based on what they observe. And, he systematized
logic. During his lifetime, he made claims that would be "proven false" today,
such as that the Earth was the center of the Universe and that heavy bodies fall
faster than light ones. When Aristotle's philosophy became popular during the
Renaissance, the Church made specific things that Aristotle said, dogma, in
order to look like they supported logic and at the same time, hold power. The
Church said that the idea that Earth was the center of the universe was true
because Aristotle was wise and he said so. This supported the Church's
established view about a heaven/hell structure that's used to control people
through intimidation.
Aristotelian thinking is not only incompatible with taking any statement as
dogma, but is based on thinking independently, and adjusting your view of the
truth to fit the changing context of knowledge and perspective. Scientists of
the Renaissance such as Galileo and Bacon, who used Aristotle's thinking method,
saw Aristotle as their enemy because he was automatically associated with the
Church. This move by the Church of associating something rational with something
irrational slowed down progress, since the Church held its credibility and power
over the people, and scientists at the time were impeded by not incorporating
parts of Aristotle's philosophy.
2) Calvinism
During the Renaissance, people got fed up with the Roman Catholic Church for
various reasons, like people having to pay the priests money to be forgiven for
their sins. Martin Luther led a revolution by claiming that it not how well you
serve those corrupt priests, but how well you serve God. He started
Protestantism, which was based on personal faith, not obeying priests. The
people became freer than they were before, not having the psychological and
financial burden of paying lip service to those priests, which allowed people to
devote more time to secular tasks such as working to raise their economic
condition. (Protestant countries are always richer than Catholic countries.)
But, still, people had a longing for a structure that the Roman Catholic Church
had always provided.
John Calvin provided that structure when he organized the Protestant
movement into a community. Calvin claimed that *faith*, which was all that was
important, was demonstrated by a certain code of conduct in daily life. How
well one performs one's daily functions, which he claimed consisted of having a
family, working hard, going to Church, and abstaining from bodily pleasure, is
what determines salvation. And, only a chosen few can achieve salvation. This
chosen few is known as the "elect". (Note that the work aspect of the Calvinist
lifestyle, is sometimes known as the "Protestant work ethic".)
One of the Calvinistic groups which lived by this strict, rigid code was the
Puritans who came to America, settling in New England in the 17th century. Many
other immigrant groups came to America over the next 3 centuries to build the
world's freest and richest country by bringing on the industrial revolution.
Associations have been made between hard working industrious Puritans on one
hand, and the wealth generating creativity of the industrial revolution on the
other. (Like Aristotle and the Church)
This association between Protestant work ethic and the industrial revolution
where innovations improve quality of life, is often explained this way by
dishonest academic professors: "Calvinists think that to reach salvation they
must succeed economically. That way, they can prove that they are the elect.
This "neurosis" of feeling like you have to prove something in order to be
saved, creates the capitalistic greedy society we live in, as people enter the
"rat race" and trample each other to get to the top".
What's going on is that individual achievement (creating and producing)
which is a rational activity needed for self-esteem is being associated with
working as a "duty for god". This association, if widespread, does 2 things: 1)
Creates a sense of aimlessness, since having goals seems meaningless, and even
neurotic, since "your just trying to prove something". 2) Makes justification to
not achieve, or covertly steal from the achievers. Basically, an envy-ridden
society is the result.
End of Part 1