rocketpig said:
Kasz216 said:
rocketpig said:
whatever said:
It not even that scientific progress was slowed or stopped during medieval times. Its that we went backwards hundreds of years. The Greeks and Romans were far more advanced civilizations than anything up until the Renaissance. We lost alot of knowledge during this time period. Religion played a central role in this process. |
My point exactly. It's not a coincidence that during the period when religion held more sway over people than any other time in the past 2,500 years, scientific progress didn't only stop but it actually went in reverse for several hundred years. |
I disagree. It's not like religion just suddenly took over and everyone got stupid. The fall of the Roman Empire is what I attribute to both religion taking more control and scientific progress collapsing.
The splitting up of city states did far far more damage to scientific progress and well everything. This occured well before religion was a driving force and actually at the time reliegion was less of a driving force then it had been under the old roman empire. Including economy which in turn effect science since back then a lot of science was just conducted by people who liked to research with out there being much monetary ties. Not to mention things like libraries and academys cost a pretty penny and a strong infostructure. That and the fact that even before hand things were slipping out of hand in some fields. For example the medical communty. After Galen it seems roman medical science hit a brick wall as everyone took him as the definitive soruce and that nothing more could be figured out... and his knowledge kept lost. To be fair though, I do believe Christians did abolish what surgery survived i believe. However they still supported the teachings of Galen. (What survived) Not sure I can blame people though Galen was a freakin genius though as he was a brain surgeon and eye surgeon... and also had the basics of germ theory down. Or at least understood the point of sterlization before anyone else. Man was waaaay ahead of his time. The historical evidence seems to show though that it was the breakup of the infastructure that promoted scienftific achievements is what lead to the dark ages and not the rise of religion. |
Obviously the fall of the Roman Empire had a huge impact on the scientific community. That alone really put the community in a bind as states were split, scientists didn't communicate, and vast libraries were lost forever. It's hard to progress much in that situation. But the key is that the Dark Ages lasted for a long time yet very little advancement in science was made, even after the feudal monarchies established and the regions were somewhat stabilized. IMO, it's not a coincidence that during that period of scientific limbo, religion grew in its place and later actually constrained the scientific community as it tried to re-emerge. It is a shame that so much of Galen's work was lost. From what I know of his work, the shit he did was amazing. |
However, the first attempts to bring back science were by Holy Roman Empire through the Catholic Church. Until the Holy Roman Empire broke up.
During that time religion was activly trying to promote and bring back science.
