Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Garrick McElroy on March 11, 2010 at 10:46pm

I think he's talking about the Dark Ages. 1000 years of no scientific discovery.

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Permalink Reply by Skraeling on March 13, 2010 at 1:24pm

Wiki- "The next major step in integral calculus came in the 11th century, when Ibn al-Haytham (known as Alhacen in Europe), an Iraqi mathematician working in Egypt, devised what is now known as "Alhazen's problem", which leads to an equation of the fourth degree, in his Book of Optics. "

Note that this was outside the catholic church's influence. I think I am right in saying that most of the scientific advances in the dark ages took place in the middle east rather than Europe.

So, interestingly, one religion allowed scientific advancement while another stifled it.

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Permalink Reply by Jim DePaulo on March 16, 2010 at 6:06pm

But equally interesting is the Xtian and Atheist (despite the Xtians) centered world is now at the cutting edge and the Islamic world is at the bottom.

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Permalink Reply by Tom Thompson on March 9, 2010 at 12:13pm

I suggest seeing a movie called Agora (2009) which is about Hypatia, a 3rd century philosopher, and the destruction of the library of Alexandria.

The destruction of that library, by the Christians, resulted in arguably the largest loss of knowledge in human history. It took more than 1000 years for scientists to rediscover things known at that time, proving your point.

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Permalink Reply by damian on March 9, 2010 at 12:57pm

thanks for movie tip; i just added that to my Netflix list.

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Permalink Reply by Skraeling on March 13, 2010 at 1:38pm

When I first heard about that, many years ago, I was stunned at how people could be so insane as to do that. And when I get reminded of it, as now, there are no words for how I feel.. a sense of loss, almost like the death of a friend.

And you say it has taken 1000 years to re-discover - but what HAVEN'T we re-discovered? What has been lost, possibly for ever?

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Permalink Reply by Jim DePaulo on March 16, 2010 at 5:57pm

Another cultural atrocity was what the Spanish priests did to the codices of the Mayans and the Aztecs (Triple Alliance) - bonfire for Jeebus. A thousand years of the history of Meso-America ....Poof !

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Permalink Reply by Skraeling on March 16, 2010 at 10:48pm

Thankfully at least one priest had a change of heart and managed to help retain some small pieces of information. Just enough to hint at what was lost, which probably makes it feel even worse.

But when you read details of some of the incidents, you see that the conquistadors were nothing short of mindless thugs.

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Permalink Reply by Jim DePaulo on March 17, 2010 at 9:35am

the conquistadors were nothing short of mindless thugs.
That's being pretty harsh on mindless thugs. The conquistadors were the Backwater (Xe) of their day with the morality of a lizard..

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Permalink Reply by faith the atheist on March 9, 2010 at 1:38pm

we would be way ahead in science.We would have bases on Mars and the Moon.We would have cured most illnesses.We wouldn't have had 9/11.We would have less wars.We wouldn't have had the Salem witch trials.Christians and Muslims wouldn't kill each other.No "faith based healing".We could agree and work together.No race issues.We would have a much better world.

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Permalink Reply by Riaz Ahmed Shah on March 9, 2010 at 11:55pm

i think humanity would have compensated for the fact that religion is no longer a dividing force in the world. Our tribal and racial allegiances would have got stronger , to the point that it would have taken over the way religion has demarcated society into out-groups and in-groups like we see today. So wars would still be there and so would pretty much most our troubles and problems. My only hope is that the advancement of science would have led us out of all this.

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Permalink Reply by Faerie on March 11, 2010 at 9:33pm

I can't imagine a world in which the concept of religion never occurred to be much different from our own. After all, at the worst of times religions was simply twisted into a sword for the convenience of another agenda like Clovis the I's conquest. Religion is only one of the many factors by which mankind can segregate and impede itself with. I just don't trust people. I think a good portion of the population wouldn't pause to dominate others and only reflect once their conquest had been completed. And then, how many would honestly regret their actions over their victories? Though this just my pessimistic viewpoint since I don't have strong faith in humanity. I also find selfishness to be root of all what I define as evil and almost everyone is selfish.

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