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Originally Posted by WT Sharpe
There is much to commend that point of view, however I would add my own belief that anyone who lives in Western Civilization who has never read the Hebrew Bible as well cannot consider himself to be adequately educated. It wasn't just New Testament teachings that helped to mold Western civilization. In addition, I think the influence of pre-Christian Greek and Roman thought has not been given it's due in the schools. Before Christianity shaped modern Western thought, Greek and Roman philosophy and political models shaped Christianity and the Church. There have been other peripheral influences over the centuries, but I think these are the main ones to understand if we are to consider ourselves as having a functional education in Western culture.
As for teaching about Islam, I think it's important as well if for no better reason than it is the belief system of a large portion of the world's population (as well as many here in the United States), and in our ever-shrinking globe we need to learn how to deal amiably with other cultures.
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I have come late into this topic so I apologize if the thread isclosed or if this has been discussed, but I still can't help but point out that Islam has also had an influence on Western civilization and science. Wikipedia has an
entry on that. Re: Greek and Roman thought:
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Main article: Arab transmission of the Classics to the West
Following the fall of the Roman Empire and the dawn of the Middle Ages, many texts from Classical Antiquity had been lost to the Europeans. In the Middle East however, many of these Greek texts (such as Aristotle) were translated from Greek into Syriac during the 6th and 7th centuries by Nestorian, Melkites or Jacobite monks living in Palestine, or by Greek exiles from Athens or Edessa who visited Islamic Universities. Many of these texts however were then kept, translated, and developed upon by the Islamic world, especially in centers of learning such as Baghdad, where a “House of Wisdom”, with thousands of manuscripts existed as soon as 832. These texts were translated again into European languages during the Middle Ages.[1] Eastern Christians played an important role in exploiting this knowledge, especially through the Christian Aristotelician School of Baghdad in the 11th and 12th centuries.
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Also,
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The method of algorism for performing arithmetic with Indian-Arabic numerals was developed by al-Khwarizmi (hence the word “Algorithm”) in the 9th century, and introduced in Europe by Leonardo Fibonacci (1170–1250).[8] A translation of the Algebra by al-Kharizmi is known as early as 1145, by a certain Robert of Chester. Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen, 980-1037) compiled treaties on optical sciences, which were used as references by Newton and Descartes.
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What have the Romans ever done for us, I wonder?