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Authorities say Hobby Lobby's Gilgamesh tablet is stolen, must go back to Iraq

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Re: Authorities say Hobby Lobby's Gilgamesh tablet is stolen, must go back to Iraq

#261

Post by dang »

Red_Tarsius wrote: post #209
deathgrips wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What a tragedy. Most westerners don't realize that when Europeans were living in mud huts and emptying their chamber pots into the streets, the Muslim world had plumbing, water filtration, surgery, advanced mathematics, and many more amazing scientific advances which quickly spread throughout Muslim countries due to the cultural exchange at Mecca. I wonder what the world could have been like if the Mongols had never…

Islam actually slows down scientific progress. The golden age is nothing more than Muslims taking credit for the swan song of conquered cultures. If anything, Islamic culture might be the second worst thing that happened to the middle east after the Mongol invasion. There are many hypotheses as to why Muslim-majority countries produce a disproportionately small share of world scientific output even today. The followi…

No religious flamewar on HN, please.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: Authorities say Hobby Lobby's Gilgamesh tablet is stolen, must go back to Iraq

#262

Post by luckydata »

daseiner1 wrote: post #256
michaelscott wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not that close

actually not close at all, if dude is really trying to be Mr. Ancient Rome, well, he’s likelier descended from the “savages” that sacked her than the ancient patricians who led her in glory

why "likelier"? We had invasions and racial mixing like everywhere else in the mediterranean, but that was happening during roman times too.

I'm actually more of a cisalpine gaul than a roman myself, but the beauty of the empire was that it was multi cultural and multi racial.

Said that, Italians absolutely look like romans, this is a small example:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdUPYm06gVc

Our language is also the closest to the type of Latin romans spoke during the empire (which itself evolved).

I do not understand why it's even controversial, you're making a dumb point.

Re: Authorities say Hobby Lobby's Gilgamesh tablet is stolen, must go back to Iraq

#264

Post by selimthegrim »

davidw wrote: post #40
selimthegrim wrote: post #34

This sounds like the beginning of a horror movie you'd find on Lifetime or Hallmark, but where the ancient Mesopotamian evil accepts Christ and sits down for tea and cakes with the children like in Narnia.

"Ned Flanders comes into possession of an ancient evil stone tablet and makes Homer do his bidding"

Or maybe JHU, given their financial exigency of late?

http://washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/heavily-in-debt-ne...

Re: Authorities say Hobby Lobby's Gilgamesh tablet is stolen, must go back to Iraq

#265

Post by IkmoIkmo »

User23 wrote: post #119
IkmoIkmo wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My understanding is quite different... north africa flourished for hundreds of years after the Arab conquest, particularly during the time of Andalusia which lasted almost 700 years. Even after, North Africa held quite some power from its pirating entities. It was very much a hub, controlling important sea routes. It wasn't until European colonialism that it really turned into a backwater and lost all prominence. At…

> It was very much a hub, controlling important sea routes. That’s an interesting way of saying they were pirates and slavers who raided Europe and abducted slaves for centuries.

Ah, like the sentence right before that which stated they were pirates? You think I referred to north africa holding power from its pirating entities as some kind of Disney movie piracy? Anyone who has any sense of piracy in a historical context knows they thieve, pillage, kill, rape, enslave. Besides, you say it as if the north african states uniquely employed slavery, this was a time of a giant slave trade by European countries in Africa, Asia and South America, if I'd have said the colonial Netherlands controlled important trade routes and trade hubs, would you have added the snarky comment as well?

Re: Authorities say Hobby Lobby's Gilgamesh tablet is stolen, must go back to Iraq

#266

Post by thefounder »

daseiner1 wrote: post #257
thefounder wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> the Muslim world had plumbing, water filtration, surgery, advanced mathematics, and many more amazing scientific advance I wonder, why did they get stuck into the past still being ruled either by a monarch or some religious leader?

resource curse, and all of its knock-on effects: ripe targets for resource extraction by foreign governments or multinationals (e.g. the offshoots of Standard Oil), said foreign entities will then support governments that abet their wealth extraction, which are typically governments whose mandate is not based on the will of the people even idealistically. said governments will return a portion of resource revenue to…

What about Iran?

Re: Authorities say Hobby Lobby's Gilgamesh tablet is stolen, must go back to Iraq

#267

Post by dang »

brigandish wrote: post #157
nemo wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Acknowledging that virtually every major civilization's Golden Age was accompanied by expansionist military imperialism and was destructive as well as creative is a fine position to take, but were you to take that position honestly then you wouldn't be singling out only one specific civilization to spit venom at. That's why you really are making a racist argument, even if your biases blind you to your racism. edit: "…

An utterly specious response. 1. I'm not singling out anything but the subject . If you want a different response to compare it with, pick a different subject. 2. It's not venomous, and even if it were, it's irrelevant to everything here (quite the feat). You're supposed to show prejudice, venom with reason and/or evidence is not prejudice. 3. Since a) my point was not about a race and b) the subject is not a race, t…

Please stop doing flamewars on HN. You've done it repeatedly, unfortunately, and it's not what this site is for.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: Authorities say Hobby Lobby's Gilgamesh tablet is stolen, must go back to Iraq

#268

Post by dang »

nemo wrote: post #149
brigandish wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If that "Golden Age" includes the destruction of Nalanda[1], then forgive me if I agree with the person you're replying to, it was an incredibly destructive empire that aggressively expanded and destroyed anything that deemed heretic. As such, it's not exceptional in either sense. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nalanda#Decline_and_destructio... Edit - As I can't reply to stuff like this (it deserved to die) but in…

Acknowledging that virtually every major civilization's Golden Age was accompanied by expansionist military imperialism and was destructive as well as creative is a fine position to take, but were you to take that position honestly then you wouldn't be singling out only one specific civilization to spit venom at. That's why you really are making a racist argument, even if your biases blind you to your racism. edit: "…

Please stop using HN for religious or racial or ideological flamewars. It's not what this site is for.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: Authorities say Hobby Lobby's Gilgamesh tablet is stolen, must go back to Iraq

#269

Post by dang »

foobar_ wrote: post #113
deathgrips wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What a tragedy. Most westerners don't realize that when Europeans were living in mud huts and emptying their chamber pots into the streets, the Muslim world had plumbing, water filtration, surgery, advanced mathematics, and many more amazing scientific advances which quickly spread throughout Muslim countries due to the cultural exchange at Mecca. I wonder what the world could have been like if the Mongols had never…

That is a barbaric lie. It's akin to Christians taking credit for the Greco-Roman civilisation. Completely backwards. Persia / Babylon / Sumer was one of the first advanced civilisations. Arabs have contributed nothing to civilisation in terms of anything and are pretty much like the mongols for their role in history.

We've asked you repeatedly not to post flamebait to HN. If you keep doing it we will ban you.

Religious and racial flamewar is particularly unwelcome here.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

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