Atheist Wilson gives $22.5 million for Catholic fund

[voltaire]

1) It also has a third meaning - by "Byzantines" I was referring to the Eastern Roman Empire as a vessel which preserved literature, learning etc in the Dark Ages. I wasn't referring to any church. And I already knew that about the various Eastern Catholics

2) As to the point about Wilson, if that's all you were saying then I entirely agree



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[_DigitaLVampirE_]

1) It also has a third meaning - by "Byzantines" I was referring to the Eastern Roman Empire as a vessel which preserved literature, learning etc in the Dark Ages.

Another correction i would like to make: The term "Dark Ages," has fallen out of favor with those historians who appreciate the cultures that rose up in Europe after the western Roman Empire came to an end. Now new, less derogatory terms have arisen for the time period. Hope that helps.

[voltaire]

In the sense that it has no relevance to this discussion, who cares? Not me, and not any of the people reading this (and the people to whom that term was originally applied - who include my own ancestors - have all been dead for around 1.5 millennia, so they don't care either). Regardless of abstract historical discussion on the term, it is the one still used in popular culture to describe the historical period in Western Europe immediately following the fall of the Western Roman Empire. I'm sure nicer words could be used to describe it - which is all jolly nice. But totally irrelevant (as indeed was the churchy link previously) to the point under discussion.

The central fact here remains that you clearly misunderstood the point I was making in the first place, and no amount of pedantry will cover that up. The fact that you're now attempting to wax lyrical about the meaning of historical terms to describe a period of post-Roman history in Western Europe, in the middle of a thread (of your own creation) about a US philanthropist's donation to a Catholic school, is rather stark evidence of that.

There were no other "corrections" that I can recall, incidentally, but we'll let that one slide for the time being...



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[voltaire]

Anyway, this has all gone totally o/t, so I presume you're not particularly interested in discussing the subject which you originally raised. Unless anyone else has anything in particular to say about the subject?



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[_DigitaLVampirE_]

The fact people use ambigous terms to describe a particular Church (rite) is in fact a cause for concern and needs to be corrected. You used the term "Dark Ages" (which all too often is a derogatory term to describe the Catholic Church and its advances in a negative light) and i pointed that out to you. Somehow, that upsetted you (for whatever pride or reason). When in a forum, especially discussing about religious facts and history, it is important to use terms correctly, so as to not mislead others. There are already too many sites out there that cast Catholics, Muslims, Jews and other religions in a bad light.

There was no ulterior motives in this thread, other than report about the individual's generosity towards the Catholic school system. It was you who wanted to make a debate out of it (which was not intended to be). I created this thread, not you. I would have done the same if Mr Wilson donated his money to a Madrasah. This thread is about recognizing good works, and i doubt people in this forum are against good works.

[voltaire]

I don't know how to explain this any more simply than I already have - I wasn't even talking about the Catholic Church, still less attacking it. I repeat again, the use of the term "Dark Ages" was merely a colloquialism to refer to a particular historical period. Just as the use of the term "Byzantines" was as the commonly understood term for the Eastern Roman Empire. Most people don't perceive history through the filter of Catholicism or perceptions thereof, so I don't think that any of the meanings or attacks that you've inferred, would have been attributed by the average reader.

So we've now established you just put up the news to show what a nice guy this Wilson fellow is, and that atheists can do good works - well we agreed about this some time back. Great, good on him. But there was never any dispute about that in the first place.



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