by Sparky » Sat May 21, 2011 8:30 pm
Europe's disdain for religion is probably more rooted in the fact that for centuries, the various churches were instruments of state power and oppression. As land owners and tithe takers, they made their living off the toil of peasants in the fields. As guardians of the orthodoxy of their flavours of the faith, they where the Mutaween of their day, enforcing religious, behavioural and moral mores, as seen through the lens of their position as part of the establishment.