Michael Servetus

[robtex]

Michael Servetus was executed by John Calvin on Oct 27 1553. Servetus (1511-1553) studied math and medicine in Paris where he met John Calvin. He also took an interest in religion. He and Calvin cooresponded/ debated via letters for some years and he wrote some books. His most famous is called "On errors of the trinity." which was published in 1531. His writings were contrdictory to the theories of the Christian churches of those days. He was arrested in 1553 for his writings and escaped to Geneva. He was arrested again in Geneva that same year by the protestant church for hersay. He spent some months in jail and than went to trial. He was found guilty of writings that contradicted theories of the church and on Oct 27th 1553 he was burned alive at the stake by John Calvin and his church for his writings. While his body was burning his manuels were fed into the fire to make it grow.

Since his death he has to some, become a symbol for religious tolerance. Below are links to two societies and various UU pages dedicated to him hundreds of years after his death. In the Unitarian religion he has been adopted and presented as one who promoted relgious tolerance and was killed by religious intolerance. I wanted to wait before posting the question to attach to someones name who died because of the intolerance of his days. I would contend that religious tolerance, as opposed to proof of who is right or wrong, would be amoung the greatest achievements of mankind in this decade. In the spirt of religious tolerance I would like to share stories of tolerance and intolerance and how it has affected the world and I would like to ask what is an acceptable level of religous tolerance and at what level in religious intolerance unacceptable?

As a footnote I learned the above info from reading info on the first link persented and further info on various Unitarian websites three of which are listed below.


http://www.servetus.org/

http://www.miguelservet.org/servetus/web.php

http://www.miguelservet.org/servetus/trial.htm

http://www.bible.org/page.asp?page_id=215

http://www.uua.org/uuhs/duub/articles/michaelservetus.html

http://www.msuu.org/

http://www.uufairhaven.org/Ser2004Feb15.htm

http://www.nwcuuc.org/michaelservetus.html

 

[mis-t-highs]

robtex
good post, do you think however, that because of religious intolerance, that humanity could have been a lot more advanced now.

 

[robtex]

robtex
good post, do you think however, that because of religious intolerance, that humanity could have been a lot more advanced now.

Thank you mis-thighs. I do and here is why. I consider secular humanism although, not a religion to be a type of spirtuality. I was at my Unitarian church this weekend and my minister qouted Abe Lincoln who said, "When I do good I feel good. When I do bad I feel bad and that is my religion." Lincoln never actually reveled his religion but it is the spirtuality I interpret many of my athiests friends of having. I think that the manifestion of this spirtulity is the result we call secular humanism. The secular sciences are a part of secular humanism and is certainly influenced by it. Medical technolgy and advancements have mankinds and natures best interest at heart. Religious intolerance has been an everpresent hurdle for the advancement of the secular sciences with the latest in the United States being Bushes impairment of stem cell research.

Wars have been started over religion or used relgion as a tool and some of them have been so destructive that they have retarded the progression of humanity. WW2 is the most flagrant example. So much damage was done from that war that inevitable three things happened afterwards

1) countries damaged had to invest money in repair that could have been used for advances
2) medical time was spent healing people injured by the war instead of on medical advances--the opportunity cost that would have been avaliable to the sciences was gone due to the war.
3) anomisty left over from war creates emotional fuel for the next war.

With that being said man is prodominatlly religious and relgion offers good as well as bad. Good in terms of commnunity projects wellness projects and overall guidance through mutual exploration. If any long term goal could have a dramatic impact on mankind in this century I would contend that if relgious tolerance is one such cause.

I have a very dear shite (muslim) friend whom I use to work with. We would spend hours talking about things sometimes as simple as the making of hot tea. One day I asked him how he coped with differences in his religious belief and those of whom he associated with. He said, Robert, what you believe is not who you are. It is just what you believe. What you do and how you live is who you are.

 

[Muhlenberg]

Many UUs tend to overlook the intolerance of statists.