Posted by Evanthia on April 15, 2002 at 01:07:59:
In Reply to: Christianity and Ancient Greek Culture a contradiction? posted by Panos on April 14, 2002 at 07:09:49:
One may say that ALL Europeans are inheritors of Ancient Greece, modern Greeks amongst them. You speak well of the German education system, that's nice, I think you must be referring to the what used to be the WEST German education system, it doesn't sound like you grew up in the old East Germany otherwise you wouldn't be singing the praises of your Germanic environment. It also sounds like you are holding that the German culture is superior to the Greek in keeping up with ancient ideals, one of which is democracy. Well, despite all of Greece's turbulent history since independance from Turks, it didn't enact genocide on any other peoples and didn't invade Poland or blitzkrieg most of Europe. In other words, scratch under the surface of any German and you will find a fanatic of the left or of the right. That's my experience of German culture. As for Orthodox Christianity doing more harm than good - the ancient Gods may be deemed to be gone (not too far if you care to look - there is a website I can post for you if you wish to communicate with fellow pantheists), again I ask that you refer to your history and see the huge role the Greek Orthodox church played in Greece's independance from the Turks in the early 19th century. Again I refer you to history (so much for your wonderful education), Emperor Constantine who moved the capitol of Rome to Constantinople - was a Roman!!! The culture from the mid 300's to 1453 could be called Greco-Roman. What is lost is lost, but Orthodoxy brought cohesion to the state and helped Greece stay in Greece. I'm no apologist for Christian orthodoxy, but please get your historical facts right before you complain.
PS As for the Arabic culture having translated the ancients and hence we have access to these marvellous sources, no one objected to that, but how can you equate the modern Turkish militarist state with the greater Ottoman empire in its cultural heyday? Today's militaristic barbarian would happily burn any Aristotelian text. For proof I refer you to looking at how the modern Turkish state has destroyed many churches AND ancient sites - The Turkish government late last year was still being condemned for its sale of Greco-Roman antiquities on the open market. You go to any Turkish town near an ancient Greek site and you can buy what ever you like. Do your research before you indulge in islamic haiography (pardon the pun, if you can see it that is....)