In a PM conversation with Jack, he said this:

Wait, what? Did he just say


Last time I checked my 10th grade history book, I don't remember it listing Christianity as a catalyst of industrialism. But, of course, I am an open-minded person, and I may have forgotten some world history since I was in 10th grade. So I ask you all this: What do you think is the cause of the Industrial Revolution?

I think there were many factors that caused the Industrial Revolution to occur.

In eighteenth-century England, these factors included:
1. Cheap labor (and lots of it, too)
2. Mechanization (e.g. Spinning Jenny, steam engine)
3. Specialization encouraged via fewer domestic trade barriers (e.g. less taxes on toll roads)
4. Good transportation system (England has many natural waterways and harbors)
5. Mobility in English society (businessmen were not stifled by the government)
6. Abundance of fossil fuels (especially coal)

In Gilded Age America, factors 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and pro-capitalist and pro-industrialist programs were implemented by the American Congress, leading to rapid industrialization.

Not every Christian country industrialized in the eighteenth century. Furthermore, non-Christian China almost had an Industrial Revolution of their own before the Mongols invaded. They were producing more iron per year during the Song dynasty than the British were producing every year during the early part of the nineteenth century.

I'm sure some businessmen operated under the Protestant work ethic, especially in Massachusetts. But I think the main motivation was profit.

No, actually Christianity was. Early Christianity rationalized using the environment and earth and all of its resources for human development. That isn't true anymore. There's a growing Environmental Stewardship movement in the Christian church - the Wikipedia article called "Green Christianity" doesn't really do it justice.

What caused it? Well looky here:

1. Science
Mechanization was only possible due to developments in engineering. Electricity and steam power were developed. This lead to better and faster transportation, among other things.

2. Monetary Free Enterprise
Thanks to the philosophies of John Locke and Adam Smith, capitalism is in full swing. And why not? It is a definite improvement over the previous system. People were no longer restricted to classes per say, and the "American Dream" of becoming filthy rich became possible. Businesses look to seize as much profit as possible. What better way than mechanization and industry? It is far more efficient economically to produce everything in a single place. The invention of the assembly line accelerated this.

The English Civil War, between Protestants and Catholics, was what destroyed feudalism in England. After Protestantism destroyed the king's tyranny (at least temporarily) people were free to be, well, free. Merchants began making big bucks, and people began making scientific progress. Under the Catholics this could never have happened.

It would be better to reference a book about the subject instead of asking us. In case you're asking of our opinion, then my opinion is that I don't think it's a subject of our opinion.

I can safely say that all of the said above are fundamentally meaningless. Simple text-book knowledge is a seriously distorted view of History. To actually believe that this and this and this cause that is a seriously fallacious way of thinking. For all we know, the variables could still be out of our comprehension.

The Reformation had an effect on attitudes towards enterprise and encouraged a more plutocratic outlook conducive to industrial progress. I believe the effect of Reformation-like developments in religion have also been studied in Islam, and shown to have led to considerable growth of capital and business in Turkey.

As one of the main results of Reformation was to unhitch religion from archaic and oppressive religious institutions and encourage freer scope for individual interpretation, it helped create a new class system.

I'm disturbed by the amount of topics that result from PMs from Jack. Did you even ask him if you can make topic quoting his private messages to you?

Nope ;o I don't mind too much, because I realize when people ask me in PMs about religion/SD/LD topics that it'll probably leak out so I try keep it all goods ;o

If anything the Industrial evolution could of happened earlier if it had not been Christ condemning science.

Or it may have happened later due to the lack of the rigid social structure the church provided to mankind, allowing for the benefits of certain things like the division of labor. Or maybe a butterfly landed on the wrong twig one day which led to an avalanche that killed the smartest man ever to live. Useless unfounded speculation.

Here I was thinking it was because some guy started playing with cogs and moving parts and started to figure out how to reduce force needed and increase the production result.

Shit

Erm. Where does Christ condemn science?

If he specifically asked me not to post his words in the public forums I would not post his words. I suppose I could have just said that I read somewhere on the Internet that someone claimed that "Christianity was the driving force behind the Industrial Revolution".

Just Catholics in the Middle Ages. Then in the Renaissance, but only if it didn't interfere with trade profits. Catholics didn't seem to mind astrolabes and caravels, but they DID mind heliocentrism.