Our bruin friend at Saint Corbinian’s Bear has compiled a list of the worlds thinnest books:
- Muslim Contributions to Western Civilization
- Pope Francis’ Guide to Actual Church Teachings
- Archbishop Blase Cupich’s Qualifications as Telepathic Psychologist
- Church Growth Since Vatican 2
- Hillary Clinton’s Guide to Computer Security
- The Rescue Mission in the Benghazi Attack
- Reasons Why We Should Invade Syria and Aid Terrorists
- Ways Barack Obama is Superior to Vladimir Putin
- Other Religions Cardinal Koch Has Not Sucked Up To
- Elements Within the Church George Soros has not Put a Tentacle Into
 Just a few others:
11. Christian Jihadists
12. Republicans I have known and Admired by Mark Shea
13. Silence is the Golden Virtue by Pope Francis
14.  The Trump Guide to Humility
15. Fan Letters of Self-
#16. The Catholic Politicians guide and clear conscience; beating insomnia.
#17. The Catholic Politicians guide and pro-choice affirmations.
#18. Catholic Politicians I have met while praying the Rosary in front of Planned Parenthood.
With regard to #1, that NASA outreach is going to pay dividends any day now.
“16. Hillary’s Lifetime Achievements.”
What about the “Famous Jewish Sports Legends”? 😉
Shouldn’t that be #1?
Oh, there are plenty of them. One of my favorites is Barney Ross:
https://the-american-catholic.com/2009/10/26/padre-of-guadalcanal/
Oh c’mon Don, I thought you’d get the reference:
Nope I did not. The last time I watched Airplane had to be at least three decades in the past!
Nate.
I was stationed in Drambuie a couple decades ago. Hell-of-a battle. Lost Johnny Red and Black in a nightmarish hand to hand combat.
Damn.
Christian Contributions to Science
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In the same sense (at least I hope) that the Bear is using Muslim.
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Also, Heart of Darkness is a thin book too.
Christian Contributions to Modern Science would have been a better title for the point I wanted to make.
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Let me put it this way, if the title had been Muslim Contributions to Contemporary Culture, I’d agree whole-heartedly.
Ernst, Provide some details re: Muslim contributions to Western Civilization. FYI – huge plies of corpses and looted/razed cities don’t count.
Avicenna and Averroes (Aristotle, Aristotelianism); algebra and the astrolabe (astronomy)
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to alliterate three.
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I’m not disputing that it’s a thin book, but thin isn’t a synonym for either insubstantial or inconsequential.
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And nobody specified that the contribution had to be original.
I think I can make a case for the United States Marine Corps and gunboat diplomacy as Muslim contributions (accidental) to Western Civilization.
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But I’d only want to bring it before the bar of internet fat chewers and notion nodders.
notion noodlers.
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The noddlers are part of the chin strokers and thumb suckers guild.
“Avicenna and Averroes”
Both of whom, as Aquinas pointed out, were wrong.
“Aristotle, Aristotelianism”
A Greek pagan who was likely preserved by Eastern Christian monks who then informed the Muslims of his thinking.
Ernst-nope that is not where their thumbs are.
I don’t know about that first one. I read a book on the history of Islam earlier this year that suggested all of those advancements we Christians like to claim in truth came from the Islamic world.
The Arabs served as a conduit for the knowledge of antiquity preserved in Greek monasteries in areas they conquered and to a lesser extent that of the ancient Persians.
A good look at the rise and fall of secular learning in the Arabic world:
http://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/why-the-arabic-world-turned-away-from-science
Islam as a religion is not necessarily anti-science. Where things went wrong was their acceptance of the theory of occasionalism. It goes like this: science relies on the observation of causes and effects. But you can’t say that anything has a cause other than God. If you say that the sun lights the earth, then you’re denying God’s omnipotence. You can only say that the sun rises by God’s will, then the earth happens to get brighter, also by God’s will. You definitely can’t predict that tomorrow the sun will rise or the earth will experience day time, because that would be claiming that God is limited. You can only note that the occasion that the sun came up is the same one as the sky got bright.
Christianity resolved this puzzle by describing the natural and the supernatural. Aquinas embraced observation as a means of identifying truth. Islam went the other direction at about the same time – not coincidentally, at the end of the “Golden Age” of Islam.
I said that Islam is not necessarily anti-science, but it’s prone to it. By not understanding the Incarnation and the Cross, or even the first Covenant, all the questions that a thoughtful person might ask about God’s absolute power and absolute goodness never get fully considered. They describe God as all-loving, but never have the experience of Job or that of St. Theresa of Avila. They default to God’s omnipotence. God may have 100 names, but he’s only got one dimension.
@Pinky
I like it.
Good post.
@ Philip – #18 — Too bad, what a photo op
@guest.
Thin…thin book.
Extremely thin.