What a simplistic and reductionist ad absurdum strawman argument you've constructed! Congratulations! Also, congratulations on twisting the Golden Rule into a c

What a simplistic and reductionist ad absurdum strawman argument you've constructed! Congratulations! Also, congratulations on twisting the Golden Rule into a colloquial and negative formulation! Innovative! If we obstinately persist in willfully misunderstanding how religion, obedience, and sacrifice operate, then we will always reach the same conclusions and be met with a cold shoulder from people who get it. As we discussed very recently in another thread, priests and priest-scientists were the original scholars and intellectuals, and they knew astronomy intimately well. The astronomers indeed worked out among themselves how the heavens operated. The reason that ordinary laypersons should not learn this was because it was (1) useless to them, (2) quite complex and error-prone without collaboration and a solid background, and (3) extraordinarily perilous to their own well-being, and to the social order, if they should acquire skills and notoriety with it -- "knowledge is power -- absolute power corrupts absolutely". It was treason to be a heretic or usurp the power of clerics. Galileo and his ilk weren't condemned for "trying to learn" it. Far from that. That's another red herring and canard that's perpetuated by scientism.