27 Aug 2009, 8:00 pm
27 Aug 2009, 8:10 pm
27 Aug 2009, 8:31 pm
27 Aug 2009, 10:28 pm
27 Aug 2009, 11:30 pm
27 Aug 2009, 11:57 pm
28 Aug 2009, 12:04 am
28 Aug 2009, 8:31 am
28 Aug 2009, 8:41 am
28 Aug 2009, 8:47 am
parts wrote:
Well
The only way for the "Christian Dark Age" not to have happened is that the Roman Empire actually survive and function. The Romans were among the most anti-intellectual nations that ever existed. Zero progress in mathematics and science happened in the Roman Empire. The Romans were the first to burn the library at Alexandria (later on the Muslims burned what the Romans did not burn). Had Rome survived there would have been virtually no scientific progress in the West.
With the collapse of the Roman empire an intellectual vacuum happened, filled in part, by the Greek scholars in Byzantium and later by Muslim and Jewish scholars. This lead to the re-emergence of Greek philosophy in Europe (something that most likely would not have happened if Rome remained intact). This in turn lead to the Renaissance and the rest, as is often said, is history.
The Christian Dark Age appeared to be a necessary step to the rebirth of Greek and Hellenic thought in Europe. Had Rome survived we would be little advanced beyond the Rome of the the Pax Romana.
ruveyn
28 Aug 2009, 10:07 am
ruveyn wrote:
parts wrote:
Well
The only way for the "Christian Dark Age" not to have happened is that the Roman Empire actually survive and function. The Romans were among the most anti-intellectual nations that ever existed. Zero progress in mathematics and science happened in the Roman Empire. The Romans were the first to burn the library at Alexandria (later on the Muslims burned what the Romans did not burn). Had Rome survived there would have been virtually no scientific progress in the West.
With the collapse of the Roman empire an intellectual vacuum happened, filled in part, by the Greek scholars in Byzantium and later by Muslim and Jewish scholars. This lead to the re-emergence of Greek philosophy in Europe (something that most likely would not have happened if Rome remained intact). This in turn lead to the Renaissance and the rest, as is often said, is history.
The Christian Dark Age appeared to be a necessary step to the rebirth of Greek and Hellenic thought in Europe. Had Rome survived we would be little advanced beyond the Rome of the the Pax Romana.
ruveyn
You nor anyone else can say what might have happened had Rome survived.
28 Aug 2009, 11:31 am
28 Aug 2009, 2:25 pm
28 Aug 2009, 2:32 pm
ruveyn wrote:
parts wrote:
Well
The only way for the "Christian Dark Age" not to have happened is that the Roman Empire actually survive and function. The Romans were among the most anti-intellectual nations that ever existed. Zero progress in mathematics and science happened in the Roman Empire. The Romans were the first to burn the library at Alexandria (later on the Muslims burned what the Romans did not burn). Had Rome survived there would have been virtually no scientific progress in the West.
With the collapse of the Roman empire an intellectual vacuum happened, filled in part, by the Greek scholars in Byzantium and later by Muslim and Jewish scholars. This lead to the re-emergence of Greek philosophy in Europe (something that most likely would not have happened if Rome remained intact). This in turn lead to the Renaissance and the rest, as is often said, is history.
The Christian Dark Age appeared to be a necessary step to the rebirth of Greek and Hellenic thought in Europe. Had Rome survived we would be little advanced beyond the Rome of the the Pax Romana.
ruveyn
The Romans built this:
People who lived there after the fall of the Roman Empire had no idea how the heck they built it. It turned out to be something rediscovered many hundred years later - concrete.
It was the Muslims who kept Greek and Hellenic thought alive, BTW, not the Christians.
28 Aug 2009, 2:33 pm
28 Aug 2009, 3:07 pm
