History: "Dark Ages" is a bad term to label the era of 476-1000AD.

[Jumpin]

snakenobi said:

radishhead said:
I always thought the Dark Ages referred to the way that the people had no knowledge of science and the Church had complete control over the lives of the people

and you are right.

After Roman Empire collapse the chuch really established its authority.

 

Before Chritianity Europe had pagan religions which had way more wisdom than abhrahamic religions

You mean pagan wisdom like trial by axe? How about burning live victims in the Brazen Bull? Or digging through pigs entrails to read someone's fortune? Or maybe executing children to appease the winds? Or sacrificing sheep to bring rain?

Anyway, the reason the Catholic Church established itself as the main power in Rome was because Justinian destroyed the Ostrogothic Kingdom and then pulled out of the region when it was discovered to be too expensive to maintain; leaving civilization devastated and the economy destroyed. The Christian Church was responsible for bringing school and education back to Italy, England, Germany, and France after Justinian's invasion. Many Pagan leaders were illiterate and didn't see the use of education - and we're actually counter productive; and those that were helpful in civilization building, (Like Frankish King Clovis, the Merovingians, and the later Carolingians), we're those that converted to Christianity.

So it is a little bizarre saying the Church was less wise than the pagans, when in reality they were responsible for educations survival and growth leading up to and through the early modern era. The wisest aspects of ancient religion also was much closer to Christianity than the pagan religions... Afterall, the first Christians were Hellenized Jews, who merged Jewish ideas with philosophies of the wisest classical Greeks. Christianity is as much a successor religion to the classical philosophical and spirtual mystery cults as it is to Judaism.