Lord knows the Christians wouldn't want us to go to the "heavens"
The Dark Ages caused a huge lag in scientific and technological progress, of an order of centuries.
[QUOTE=econometrics;36533720]The Dark Ages caused a huge lag in scientific and technological progress, of an order of centuries.[/QUOTE]
Actually, the Dark Ages as a concept was largely made up around the Renaissance, in order to emphasize the effect of the Renaissance, and the benevolence of those that funded artists and scientists. A PR move, pretty much. The middle ages did not consist of diseased peasants banging rocks and sticks together and the church burning everyone with new ideas. In fact, the middle ages had quite the culture as well, it was just largely intertwined with religious teachings and values, e.g. it was wildly different from today's humanist culture. The cultural and scientific regression was caused by the collapse of the Roman Empire, and for most of Europe, it was monasteries and the church that preserved the books, knowledge and classical culture that remained. Sure, by the late middle ages, the catholic church has become more of a political entity than a religion, and abused its power, but blaming religion as a whole for a perceived throwback of human culture is just shortsighted. I mean, you are basically saying that the european 'dark ages' prevented the entirety of mankind from making discoveries. (before you say "no, religion stopped science everywhere", Islam regions had quite the scientific life in the middle ages, mostly in mathematics.)
[QUOTE=econometrics;36534054]"basically saying that the european 'dark ages' prevented the entirety of mankind from making discoveries"
Never said so. You've used a fallacy of ambiguity and a straw man.
I said that it lagged scientific and technological progress enormously.[/QUOTE]
As said, the lag was caused by the decline and collapse of the Roman Empire, and would have happened without the presence of Christianity, as well. In fact, without Christianity to 'unite' Europe in a cultural/ideological sense, the recovery may have even lasted longer. Historically, the Dark Ages lasted from the 5th to the 10th century, followed by the cultural advance of the High Middle Ages which finally bloomed into the Renaissance, although historians prefer not to use the term 'dark ages', as it is somewhat biased and judgmental. In that period of the 5th to 10th century, and as said before, it was the church that actively preserved what remained of classical culture, along with the latin language, which was then used as the universal language of science (heck, it is still used to this day), religion, diplomacy and other fancy things for quite some centuries afterwards. The classical civilization was not destroyed by christianity, it collapsed under its own weight and, dare I say, depravity (seriously, read up on the shit Roman emperors did, and blew the empire's money on. Depravity is the only fitting word.). It is undeniable that in the 16th-17th century, scientific progress was actively impeded by the church, as well as the existing scientific hierarchy, which accepted horribly inaccurate scientific theories/texts from the classical era as absolute truth, and was not willing to give up on them. That was a brief era on a historical scale, however.
Video innacurate
no atheism included
would not watch again
0/10
I'm fairly sure that its because of bad spending choices in government and another enough education on the matter
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