[ExI] The Catholic Impact (was Re: Origin of ethics and morals)

[Kelly Anderson]

2011/12/12 Giovanni Santostasi <gsantostasi at gmail.com>:
> Kelly,
> One of the most catholic place in the world is Italy.
> But would you consider such a place anti-intellectual? It was the birthplace
> of Renaissance,
> Leonardo, Galileo....

The economic forces of the church (i.e. money flowed more towards the
Vatican than away from it) probably had as much to do with that than
anything else. A lot of intellectuals from all around Europe flocked
to Italy during that period, which led to a very rich environment for
the non clerical intellectuals to flourish as well. It is certainly
more complex than a simple genetic component. And you would have to
admit that Leonardo would have been an outlier in any population,
including today's. He is the only known person believed to be a genius
in all seven types of intelligence... a truly brilliant person... whom
I respect even more than Einstein.

Aside from that, Poland, Portugal and parts of South America (though
for a shorter time) are probably as much if not more Catholic than
Italy for the purposes of this conversation. It would have to do with
the rate of entering into religious orders... I don't have good
numbers for that.

-Kelly