>"Even Martin Luther..." I think this is a good point to bring up. Consider the centuries upon centuries when the intellectual aspects of Western Civ spent mos

>"Even Martin Luther..." I think this is a good point to bring up. Consider the centuries upon centuries when the intellectual aspects of Western Civ spent most of their time thinking and arguing about things today we would find rather pointless (eg was Jesus begotten by the father or not). Not only that, the result of these (pointless) arguments drove political activity. Nowadays we say "go think or argue all you want about that type of stuff, but no particular sect should be supported by our government." I hope the same will be achieved for other intellectual pursuits at some point. You seem to be arguing for the opposite.