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Lumifer comments on Stupid Questions May 2015 - Less Wrong Discussion

10 Post author: Gondolinian 01 May 2015 05:28PM

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Comment author: drethelin 04 May 2015 01:57:03AM 3 points [-]

The Catholic priesthood is more likely an offshoot of other existing priesthoods from Hellenic traditions and Judaism, some of which were celibate and others of which decidedly not, eg Rabbis are expected to be fruitful and multiply just as much as all Jews.

Comment author: advancedatheist 04 May 2015 03:22:05AM *  0 points [-]

The Jews faced different demographic challenges than Catholics, so that might account for the difference.

I wondered about the sexual reject idea after reading that Thomas Aquinas' father decided that his pudgy little boy didn't look fit for breeding, so he sent Thomas to a monastery at the age of five, while the father encouraged Thomas's better-looking brothers to marry and perpetuate the family.

Comment author: drethelin 04 May 2015 04:21:29AM 3 points [-]

I haven't read the history but I would be bet that story is apocryphal. Tons of people at age 5 or even at age 11 look completely different than they do as adults and I'm sure people a thousand years ago knew that just as well as we know about Neville Longbottom

Comment author: hairyfigment 14 May 2015 05:20:28PM 0 points [-]

From a simple Google search:

Thomas had eight siblings, and was the youngest child.

While the rest of the family's sons pursued military careers,[12] the family intended for Thomas to follow his uncle into the abbacy;[13] this would have been a normal career path for a younger son of southern Italian nobility.[14]

And biography.com asserts,

Before St. Thomas Aquinas was born, a holy hermit shared a prediction with his mother, foretelling that her son would enter the Order of Friars Preachers, become a great learner and achieve unequaled sanctity.

You're trying to make this about him as an individual, when in fact it seems like a combination of family needs and inheritance customs/law that even a hermit could predict in advance.

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