Yes, it is, as different parts of the world progressed at different rates. After Greece, Islam carried the intellectual torch from the Greeks, and then they entered their own dark age around ~1100 if memory serves me correctly. However, the conclusion is correct. If the Romans, Greeks, Islam, or the Christians had never entered a dark age, we would be massive technologically advanced.
Christian monks were th ones that were trying to save the knowledge of the Ancient Greece and Rome, which (Rome) were plundered by barbarians. Without them, we'd never found many of the Greek literature, and art. Plus, the Rome was falling into decadence somewhere near that time, which actualy brought it to it's end.
It called the Christian Dark Ages for a reason:
• The Church fought against and censored Copernicus' work.
• The Church executed Giordano Bruno for his work.
• Galileo Galilei was tried by the inquisition and was sentenced to lifetime house arrest.
.
Do you want me to keep going?
How many tens of thousands of scientifically inquisitive people were murdered by the church for simply being curious?
Nope, It was happening during Rennaissance, Baroque, and Contrreformacy (Copernicus published his work near the end of Middle Ages, and The Dark Ages were V and X centuries). The dark ages had nothing to do with that.
Right. I'm not saying these things didn't happen. I just wanted to hear from b.b.corpse about their interpretation of the graph. The graph suggests that Christians, which is the only religion noted, destroyed growth. If you look at the period before The Dark Ages I think you would agree that there was a good bit of evidence other than Christianity that the Romans were screwed for lots of reasons.
Please don't confuse faith with religion. Religion has been hijacked for most of it's existence and manipulated for all kinds of nefarious purposes, including all of the periods listed above. I can link evidence after a quick google search. *Quick hit: Tithes and other offerings have been used for personal gain, but they have also been used for supporting the community. This includes the scientific community. Not every narrative can be easily understood through a graph.
As a person of faith I, like b.b.c., have a problem with how religion is used.
That the church has consistently been the most fertile site of scientific advancement through most of human history, and that the whole science *versus* religion thing is a bullshit misnomer fed by both sides through a glorious misunderstanding about the real aims of either. And I'm an atheist, I just believe in educating ourselves - and like you said, sometimes that means taking on complexities far beyond these oversimplified, pointedly biased internet infographics.
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· 8 years ago
Most of the time those persecuted for scientific discoveries were arrested by the people, not the church. The people didn't believe them because their ideas were so unbelievable or they didn't have sufficient proof at that time. The guy who came up with one of the first theories on genetics was a monk.
Really you can't blame a religion for the dark ages, any of them. The problem, was those jerkwads that were only interested in power and decided that the best way to control the masses was through enforced ignorance. It's not like this was a new concept even back then and it is still used wholeheartedly by those in power whenever they can get away with it.
Most people misuse the name of the dark ages. It's the period that was right after the fall of the Roman Empire, which was caused by the barbarian raids and Roman decadency. Both of those things weren't connected with Christianity. Most people are using it as the name of the period right before Reformacy, started in XVI by Luther.
• The Church fought against and censored Copernicus' work.
• The Church executed Giordano Bruno for his work.
• Galileo Galilei was tried by the inquisition and was sentenced to lifetime house arrest.
.
Do you want me to keep going?
How many tens of thousands of scientifically inquisitive people were murdered by the church for simply being curious?
Please don't confuse faith with religion. Religion has been hijacked for most of it's existence and manipulated for all kinds of nefarious purposes, including all of the periods listed above. I can link evidence after a quick google search. *Quick hit: Tithes and other offerings have been used for personal gain, but they have also been used for supporting the community. This includes the scientific community. Not every narrative can be easily understood through a graph.
As a person of faith I, like b.b.c., have a problem with how religion is used.
.
Yep, nothing wrong with personal beliefs, right?