Ancient Greece and the Mediterranean was a powerhouse of ancient philosophy, science, mathematics and politics, and has heavily shaped the modern world to this day with it's huge number of scholars and their works - The names Euclid, Ptolemy, Pythagoras, , Democritus, Plato, Aristotle, Herodotus and Thucydides to name a few were incredible pioneers in these realms and laid the groundwork for much of what is modern science, history, politics and mathematics. The Romans carried on this legacy of scientific and mathematical scholarship within their own Republic for hundreds and hundreds of years, even through the emergence of the dictatorship of the Roman Empire and the Roman state's collapse. But this torch would be blotted out by a wave of fanaticism that spread like wildfire throughout the Empire. The fanaticism that ultimately toppled the Greco-Roman pantheon of gods and painted all of Europe, and later via colonialism, the entire world in it's golden gilding. That fanaticism was Christianity.

While the ancient Greeks were fairly comfortable with other faiths besides their own (they would often - as is what happened with Egypt - assume foreign gods as simply variations of their own gods), and the Romans, while brutal to faiths they did not approve of (turning Christians into human candlesticks was pretty bad), at the very least approached other faiths in a decently analytical sense, and appreciated the voluminous wealth of study from the distant past, taking care to preserve it.

Christian Rome, in the later years of constant economic and social decline, was not like this. It was an anti-intellectual theocratic dictator state. In the 4th Century AD, 700 years after Euclid published his book on the Elements of Geography, the most in-depth classical book on geography ever written in history, after Plato had mused about the constant pursuit for knowledge, wisdom and understanding of the natural world that the Greeks later became famous for, the Christian Lactantius wrote "What purpose does knowledge serve ... what blessing is there for me if I should know where the Nile rises, or whatever else under the heavens the 'scientists' rave about?" a sentence belittling curiosity and cheering on close-mindedness and ignorance. Later, in the 5th Century AD, the Saint Augustine, who was a proud Manichean before he coincidentally converted to Christianity just as a law was passed stating that all non-Christians would be executed, spoke of "the disease of curiosity which drives us to find the secrets of nature". These were signs of the times - intellectualism in the Mediterranean and Europe plummeted, whereas early scholars in the Islamic world, embracing the literature and studies of ancient Greek philosophers and scientists, broke with major tenets of the Quran and soared ahead of the West in the development of science, economy and trade, law, philosophy, maths and medicine, during a time known as the "Islamic Golden Age" (though many of the people who made it a golden age would be tried as apostates by most modern day Muslims). After the collapse of Rome, the German tribal invasions and the rise of the Islamic world, it would not be for another 600 years until the West would experience the Enlightenment (kickstarted by the retranslation of ancient Greek texts from Arabic into Latin within the Italian peninsula) and slowly outpace the Islamic world, which had heavily suffered from the Mamluk Rebellion and Turko-Mongol invasions, in many of these fields.

Anthony Gottlieb, an editor for the Economist, writes "The colossal ignorance of the Christian West in the second half of the first millenium. By the year 1000 [In Europe], all branches of science, and indeed all kinds of theoretical knowledge except theology, had pretty much disintegrated. Most classical literature was largely unknown. The best educated people knew strikingly less than many Greeks did 800 years earlier".

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I would say the cancer that destroyed everything and still does is religious fanaticism.

Christianity or religion
Christianity is never scared by scientific inventions

Religion brings and breeds fear

Exactly wat is happenin in Nigeria today....bein ignorant nd callin it faith

It is very important to note that Christianity is actually widely different from Roman Catholicism. Roman Catholicism(headed by the Papacy) rose to power in the 4th century A.D. with the edict of Milan in 313 A.D. For the most correct representation of Christianity and its nature, you have to consult the Bible(a Book which the Roman Catholic Church despises).

Christianity has never been, is not, and will never be in enmity with science and reason. Nor have true Christians throughout the ages ever been opposed to science and learning. God, in fact, commissioned science when commanded man to "subdue" the earth(Gen. 1:28). Luke the Gospel writer was a Physician(Col. 4:14).

While I might not gainsay the fact that the RCC persecuted scientists and destroyed much science literature, Bompiani, in his "A Short History of the Italian Waldenses" records that the Waldensians, a group of Christians who existed throughout the Dark Ages, embraced science, and were very much learned in the "Science of the Scriptures."

DoctorAlien:
It is very important to note that Christianity is actually widely different from Roman Catholicism. Roman Catholicism(headed by the Papacy) rose to power in the 4th century A.D. with the edict of Milan in 313 A.D. For the most correct representation of Christianity and its nature, you have to consult the Bible(a Book which the Roman Catholic Church despises).

Christianity has never been, is not, and will never be in enmity with science and reason. Nor have true Christians throughout the ages ever been opposed to science and learning. God, in fact, commissioned science when commanded man to "subdue" the earth(Gen. 1:28). Luke the Gospel writer was a Physician(Col. 4:14).

While I might not gainsay the fact that the RCC persecuted scientists and destroyed much science literature, Bompiani, in his "A Short History of the Italian Waldenses" records that the Waldensians, a group of Christians who existed throughout the Dark Ages, embraced science, and were very much learned in the "Science of the Scriptures."

No True Scotsman.
Surprise us with something new naa.

CatfishBilly:

No True Scotsman.
Surprise us with something new naa.

An intelligent person would have compared the records of the character of the Catholic church throughout the Dark Ages with the basic tenets of Christianity as laid out in the Bible, before accusing me of committing the No True Scotsman fallacy.

DoctorAlien:
It is very important to note that Christianity is actually widely different from Roman Catholicism. Roman Catholicism(headed by the Papacy) rose to power in the 4th century A.D. with the edict of Milan in 313 A.D. For the most correct representation of Christianity and its nature, you have to consult the Bible(a Book which the Roman Catholic Church despises).

Christianity has never been, is not, and will never be in enmity with science and reason. Nor have true Christians throughout the ages ever been opposed to science and learning. God, in fact, commissioned science when commanded man to "subdue" the earth(Gen. 1:28). Luke the Gospel writer was a Physician(Col. 4:14).

While I might not gainsay the fact that the RCC persecuted scientists and destroyed much science literature, Bompiani, in his "A Short History of the Italian Waldenses" records that the Waldensians, a group of Christians who existed throughout the Dark Ages, embraced science, and were very much learned in the "Science of the Scriptures."

I agree with the bolded

CatfishBilly:

No True Scotsman.
Surprise us with something new naa.

That is what's called Ad hoc and post hoc

It basically involves defining something in a way that it is insulated from criticism then throw that definition in the trash when convenient

e.g "Christianity" on one hand makes the highest number of billionaires in the world and our apologists would grab unto that and use it to buttress a point

BUT when similar data collecting method shows Christians form the highest population of prison inmates in the world it becomes a problem, so the apologist is now left to define "Christian" in a way that excludes the inmates BUT it also becomes a problem as the new definition aka "Like Christ" but those Billionaires might've gotten their wealth by fleecing, paralegal and extralegal means but those are ignored

Like I've always asked people who pull the definitive form of Christianity, How can you KNOW someone else is a Christian?

Cry me a river

,

hopefulLandlord:



Like I've always asked people who pull the definative form of Christianity, How can you KNOW a else is a Christian?

The word Christian was first gotten when the apostles went to antioch and they were seen to be doing what Jesus was doing, Acts11:26

Its unfortunate that during the dark ages, it was persecutions and killing of Christians, until there arose a reminant, these reminants formed catholic and somehow, since, the remnants who survived were in power as the controlling government, the gospel was commercialised and heresies swept in, and thats why there is a lot of differences in Christianity.

You know who's a Christian by their obedience to whats taught and commanded in the bible