You said:
What fundamentally distinguishes White/European Western culture/ civilization from other civilizations is the notion of RATIONALISM in the various spheres of life, though especiallyly in religion, and ESPECIALLY in the practice of the CHRISTIAN RELIGION.
What I said was that if one is looking for a sole, fundamental ,distinguishing attribute of Western culture/civilization, then many historians would argue that if such a single attribute were for argument's sake ,hypothesised to exist, it would most probably manifest itself in the way that for the majority of its history, Western culture has characteristically been progressively developed by the blending or infusion of rationalism ( the use of thought/cognition/intellect in the form of logical, inductive, deductive abductive and other forms of reasoning) with the core tenets and values of the Christian faith (or Christian religious culture).
In what sense is the core tenet, a belief in a metaphysical God, rational?
But at the same time we have figures like Bernard of Clairvaux and sundry mystics who argued the opposite. Francisco de Vitoria argued some ideas which we are in sympathy with now, but they were in opposition to mainstream thinking of the time. You cannot cherry-pick certain elements and declare they are the 'culture' and ignore the rest. The culture is everything.This was exemplified in the writings of the scholastic philosopher/theologian Thomas Aquinas in the middle age. Saint Thomas, through his work synthesized the rationalism of classical Aristotelian philosophy and science with the principles of Christianity in a brilliantly articulated theory of theological reasoning. In fact, Francisco de Vitoria, a disciple of St Thomas, is recognised by United Nations as the father of international law and by historians of economics and democracy as a leading light for the West's democracy and rapid economic development.
What you mean is 'If you read your history selectively...'Briefly,If you read your history carefully, you will discover that the Catholic Church has pretty much always been at the centre of - and massively influenced -the progressive development of the values, ideas, science, laws and institutions which constitute Western culture/civilization. I can't do this for you.
That is doubtful; it is extremely doubtful if the Christianity they pay lip-service to has much in common with historic Christianity.As to Christianity in the contemporary West, the overwhelming majority of the citizens of the US, the UK, Australia, Canada, Western Europe still identity as Christian. I agree with you that many of 1.2 billion such persons who identify as Christians in advanced Western societies today are in fact "merely" nominal Christian, in the sense that they lack true, personalChristian faith ( i.e. faith in the divinely revealed supernatural knowledge of Biblical scripture), nonetheless, they still give their intellectual assent to the core precepts of Christian morality and other Christian doctrines and are often regular participants in liturgical rites and worship services who are actively involved , also,in the broader spiritual/social life and also the charitable/pastoral work of their local Christian community.
Also, if you are linking Catholic Christianity with rationalism, philosophy, science, democracy and all that, then it would be the case that the more Christian they are the more successful they would be in those fields. The reverse seems to be the case. If anything, traditional Catholicism tends to be associated with less prosperous, more repressive societies. (But note that I do not claim cause and effect, I simply point out that there is not the correlation you claim).
As I recall, God did not make separate races. There is no basis in science for the concept either. Even if by 'race' you mean simply 'white-ish skin tone, the genes that go with skin pigmentation do not code for either religion or philosophical ability.I will deal with the racial aspects of Western culture/civilization in more detail a separate post, but, in the interim I can confirm that, yes, you are correct to say Western culture/civilization is primarily a creation of the (caucasian) White /European race.
So if the marker for 'Western culture/civilization' is Christianity/rationalism, would a racist qualify as a member?