OT Is there a missing zero?

[ARW]

are 2000 years behind the times and not 200 years behind the times

[The Natural Philosopher]

Oh..no not more than 1700 years surely?

[tim.....]

You might think that but I suspect that people from the 18th century would disagree

tim

[ARW]

It's a free country. They are allowed their say on such matters.

[Nightjar]

Less than that, as the Roman Church only really took on a separate identity from the Orthodox Church around the ninth century.

Colin Bignell

[Tim Streater]

Those Orthodox countries have the right idea: one church per country, run independently of the others. The problems the Catholics have all stem from it being a monolithic institution.

[geoff]

In message , Tim Streater writes

No - the problem is the belief in a non-existent deity

[polygonum]

How many churches (effectively, countries according to your suggestion) in pre-unification (Risorgimento) Italy? Or pre-unification Germany?

And precisely how do you get the churches to pop in and out of existence in step, even approximately, with the countries?

There might be even more difficult situations when countries split - Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, USSR to put forward a few recent ones.

Macdonian Catholic Church anyone? Is that formerly part of Yugoslavia or the one that is not-quite-cemented to the rest of Greece?

[RickS]

He was probably ruing the fact that it's been about 200 years since religion had full control of the masses.

People are slowly getting a clue.

[geoff]

However, there's an uncomfortable rise in fundamentalism, both Xtian and Islamic

We seem to be slipping out of an age of enlightenment

[R D S]

Has there been a rise? I couldn't possibly say one way or the other. I would have imagined that there have been religious mentalists of one form or another since Adam was a lad.

There is a massive Muslim contingent in the area I live and over the years I see them becoming generally more westernised.

[Bob Eager]

Climatism seems to be the worst....

[geoff]

I'm talking worldwide

America seems to be slipping back into the dark ages, and afghanistan and iraq and Israel before that are giving Islamic fundamentalism a boost worldwide

I can't even buy beer in my local supermarket in Indonesia now because they are scared of repercussions

[geoff]

All part of the herd mentality of the lost and lonely

[The Natural Philosopher]

That's an interesting thought.

For sure people onlyy listen to what they want to hear.

[Andrew Gabriel]

I think it's worse than that. Seemingly increasing numbers of people without the ability to think for themselves, because they don't have even the most basic knowledge and education to search out and understand issues, latch onto something at random for which "herd mentality" seems to be a very fitting description.