Was the enlightenment really that bad?

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I hear a lot of Catholics talk negatively about the enlightenment because it lead to the church losing most of its power! But it seems like the enlightenment just addressed a lot of the bad things the church was doing throughout history. I guess my question is why is the enlightenment viewed so negatively by Catholics?
 
I mean the inquisition was pretty bad. The church also was causing a lot of oppression and persecution of free thinkers.
 
“For instance literally murdering a guy for just wanting to give English readers a Bible that can be read in their language.”
 
Jragzz123 said:
I mean the inquisition was pretty bad. The church also was causing a lot of oppression and persecution of free thinkers.
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Before people start getting into the Inquisition, just to be clear, because of the Inquisition, these nuns deserved to die?
GodIsOneAlone said:
“For instance literally murdering a guy for just wanting to give English readers a Bible that can be read in their language.”
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A gross oversimplification of the Tyndale and his Bible to the point of error.

" It is a fact usually ignored by Protestant historians that many English versions of the Scriptures existed before Wycliff, and these were authorized and perfectly legal (see Where We Got the Bible by Henry Graham, chapter 11, “Vernacular Scriptures Before Wycliff”). Also legal would be any future authorized translations. And certainly reading these translations was not only legal but also encouraged."
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So on this thread we have two commonly used attacks against the Church generally grounded in misunderstanding.
 
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They also stopped the development of science as well as oppressing minority groups like Jews.
 
Obviously killing nuns isn’t good but the French Revolution isn’t the wholeness of the enlightenment. Also don’t forget Roman Catholicism sacking of Constantinople.
 
I would argue that sacking of Constantinople is just as evil
 
Jragzz123 said:
Roman Catholicism sacking of Constantinople.
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Excommunicated troops acting against orders is Roman Catholicism, but the French Revolution isn’t representative of the Enlightenment?

www.catholic.com

The Real Story of the Fourth Crusade

810 years ago this week, on April 13, 1204, an unthinkable act occurred: Christian armies sacked Constantinople, in what became known as the Fourth Crusade. The...
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Despite the establishment of the Dominicans and their houses near Sonborne and other universities across Europe, despite all the contributions of the Church throughout history for science (the Big Bang, cells in biology, etc.), the Church halted science because it censured Galileo for using Scripture to support his then unsupported claims?


So where are you hearing all of this from? So far your only defense of the Enlightenment has been “Well the Catholics were bad”. The fact it took you a couple posts just to call the martyrdom of Catholic nuns bad makes me concerned.
 
I’m talking about all the doctors and scientists who were burned as witches for like several hundred years.
 
Jragzz123 said:
I’m talking about all the doctors and scientists who were burned as witches for like several hundred years.
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“One of the questions I tackled in the booklet was “Did the Church burn witches during the Middle Ages?” The short answer is no. The Church, as an institution, did not authorize the execution of witches. Individual Catholics did, however, at various times take part in the execution of witches, along with Protestants who also took part in witch hunts.”
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You seem to have more things to say against the Church for things she never condoned than you do against those parading the cause of the Enlightenment and their very deliberate slaughter of Catholics.
 
Try reading far less biased sources, my fellow “Catholic”

For example, look into the reformers oppression, torture and slaughter of Anabaptists, for one. The English slaughter of hundreds of Catholics during the penal times. Stuff like that.

Once you have you head straight about that, c’mon back and we’ll talk.
 
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The main problem is enlightenment makes humanity confined to this world alone. The enlightened man would cure whatever ailed society by using human reason alone, and human power. It denies the afterlife and any supernatural end for humanity.
 
I read once that people used to commit blasphemy just to wind up in the hands of the Inquisition because they were more afraid of the local government.
 
IMO the enlightenment was inevitable-an aspect of humanity’s growing pains. And I believe we’re moving on now-to even greater enlightenment informed by God’s revelation, His light. I see this in the words of many of our Church leaders, for one.

And this is not to say that darkness and ignorance do not also continue to march forward and broaden themselves. I just think that the Church is beginning to understand and gain the ability to spread the knowledge of God and the experience of His love as never before, even in the midst of her own struggles right now.
 
This is true. There are documented cases of criminals blaspheming so that they would be transferred to the Inquisition…which was considered much more merciful than the secular courts of the time.
 
Wasn’t the enlightenment a revolt against those bad governments as well as the church. That’s why many countries moved towards democracy and republics.
 
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