Remember the "scholar" who claimed Jesus didn't exist? Here's his so-called "proof"! - Polidicks

[QUOTE=Swilly;42571928]The life expectancy of the peasant in the Middle Ages was actually higher than that of the average Roman Citizen. All that fanciful bullshit about a behind times is retarded, the only things we lost were the giant fucking wars that happened, they became a lot more small scale and very closed fighting between nobles.[/QUOTE] Not to mention a lot of technology actually improved during the Medieval period, albiet in the form of refinements to existing technology rather than new advancements.

[QUOTE=Samoht;42569890]Jesus killed my space colony. >:([/QUOTE]God hates mars

I think the strongest proof that he was a real figure was the extent that his story has lied about and twisted to make him fit the prophecy. They made up a whole Roman census and tons of other shit to get him to Bethlehem, etc. If he was a totally fake figure, the Biblical writers would not have went to such lengths.

[QUOTE=zombini;42571150]The Dark Ages isn't even a real term used by historians. They tend to cringe like fuck if you say it near them. The "Dark Ages" wasn't even dark, in the Christian world, we had nice advancements like quality steel, plate armor, crossbows, castles, modern metallurgy, the discovery of the American continents, etc. It wasn't a dark age, it was actually better than Roman times. Slavery didn't exist, there was serfdom, but you weren't completely stripped of your humanity like a slave would.[/QUOTE] the dark ages can be considered somewhat dark when you take into account the wars and migrations involved in the great migration period, and during the viking invasions where vikings were pillaging monasteries and burning some of the last remaining records of roman culture/history. even then, though, monasteries still continued to preserve and advance roman learning. after the great migration period settled down death through warfare was less likely than in roman times. famines were less common, slavery was abolished(although serfdom took its place). hell, the late middle ages and renaissance can be considered more "dark" in many ways. the black death killed a giant portion of europe, the church began to actually try and suppress some scientific progress that could be considered harmful to the church(especially since papal power was starting to decline), very large kingdoms like spain, france, england, and the hre had more regular conflict. europeans committed genocide against native americans, etc. like you think of the middle ages as being dark and brutal, and the renaissance as being enlightened and wonderful, but for the average peasant the reverse was way more accurate.

Reading through those comments is incredibly psychologically revealing. It's well known that humans are natural liars, as well as the fact that our mind will attempt to find validity in lies we know to be lies on a more subconscious level. This is basically serfdom that was bred into our DNA, and is well evidenced by the loony comments on that article. And mind you I'm agnostic, and not trying to influence other peoples beliefs, but this shows Atwill is completely 100% right on one thing, that religion can be very damaging and dangerous to the psyche of the average person, the idea that some people teach this to their kids as 100% factual truth just sickens me. They never come to the realization they are teaching their kids to be complacent, serf-like sheep. Or maybe, they do, and that is what they are convinced they want on some level.

For the average peasant, life was the same for over a thousand years. In Russia, most peasant farmer's lives were the same up until the revolution and even after.

The dumbfuck is just trying to drum up sales for his book, that's all. And it's probably working because this is the second thread SH has made on him in a week or something.

[QUOTE=Thom12255;42568955]Historians overwhelming believe Jesus Christ was a real person who existed, the only people that seem to doubt this are atheists who don't give a shit about Historians at all and get most of their history knowledge from scientists. This causes bullshit such as this. [img]http://pictures.mastermarf.com/blog/2009/090330-dark-ages.jpg[/img][/QUOTE] I wasn't aware scientific advance was measured in units :v: Not to mention it's not very accurate either. To argue with the above posts, the medival times did show a repression of scientific progress, although the cause of it isn't just one specific thing like religion.

[QUOTE=zombini;42571150]The Dark Ages isn't even a real term used by historians. They tend to cringe like fuck if you say it near them. The "Dark Ages" wasn't even dark, in the Christian world, we had nice advancements like quality steel, plate armor, crossbows, castles, modern metallurgy, the discovery of the American continents, etc. It wasn't a dark age, it was actually better than Roman times. Slavery didn't exist, there was serfdom, but you weren't completely stripped of your humanity like a slave would.[/QUOTE]Uh, fun fact, we didn't exceed the rights of slaves and workers laid out by the Romans until the 1900's. You could be heavily fined in Roman times, actually imprisoned, if you had shitty working conditions for your [i]slaves.[/i] Why? Rome needed the food, ores, wood, and other commodities in industries dominated by slave labor. Can't have that gravy train being fucked up by slave revolts and having to dispose of all of those pesky dead bodies. (domestic slaves were still fucked, though, sometimes literally) Oh, and medical science didn't really get picked back up until the mid 1700's so there's that. Though, your average citizen wasn't going to see the best healthcare Roman society had to offer, that was for the legions. Anyway, what else am I forgetting? Oh, yeah, advances in engineering and architecture, that didn't pick back up until the Renaissance. Hell, the only thing technological growth managed to stay constant in Western Europe was military-oriented. Meanwhile, in other parts of the world unfucked by the Western Roman Empire's total collapse things continued normally. Most of the Renaissance period was simply rediscovering shit that had been neglected, lost, or out-right abandoned in Western Europe.