"From this old conception of the universe as a sort of house... flowed important theological ideas into heathen, Jewish, and Christian mythologies. Common to them all are legends regarding attempts of mortals to invade the upper apartment from the lower. ... Ascensions to heaven and descents from it, "translations," "assumptions," "annunciations," mortals "caught up" into it and returning, angels flying between it and the earth, thunderbolts hurled down from it, mighty winds issuing from its corners, voices speaking from the upper floor to men on the lower, temporary openings of the floor of heaven to reveal the blessedness of the good, "signs and wonders" hung out from it to warn the wicked, interventions of every kind—from the heathen gods coming down on every sort of errand, and Jehovah coming down to walk in Eden in the cool of the day, to St. Mark swooping down into the market-place of Venice to break the shackles of a slave—all these are but features in a vast evolution of myths arising largely from this geographical germ."
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https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A_History_of_the_Warfare_of_Science_with_Theology_in_Christendom
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A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom
A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom was written 1896 by Andrew Dickson White, and was the culmination of over thirty years of research and publication on the conflict thesis. His research was stimulated by difficulties in assisting Ezra Cornell in the establishment of Cornell University to be free from official religious affiliation. The following quotes are from the 1922 edition of Volume 1 and the 1920 edition of Volume 2. The "warfare" characterization has been di
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