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[–]Alphix 4 insightful - 3 fun4 insightful - 2 fun5 insightful - 3 fun -  (8 children)

Except the West, where the greatest advances by far in all fields of human activity have occured, has all been built on Christian values... Coincidence? I think not. Having people who respect each other out of basic morality frees up the mind to achieve greater things.

[–]EternalSunset 9 insightful - 2 fun9 insightful - 1 fun10 insightful - 2 fun -  (7 children)

The ancient greeks were what you would call "pagans". They were significantly more scientifically advanced than Dark Ages Europe would be nearly a thousand years. They developed much of the basic algebra and geometry you learned at school (Thales, Pythagoras, Euclid, etc...), measured the width of the Earth (Eratosthenes) and it's distance to the Sun with extreme accuracy (Aristarchus of Samos), estimated the stars in the sky to be at least 2 light years away (Aristarchus of Samos), drew the first heliocentric model millennia before Copernicus (Aristarchus of Samos, again), invented Calculus thousands of years before Newton (Archimedes), founded the first university outside of India (Plato's Academy), and they even built mechanical computers capable of predicting the motion of planets and moons thousands of years in advance (Antikythera mechanism).

It took a millenium and a half for the Renaissance to come and western science to crawl back at where it was before Christianity ruined the Roman Empire. If not for classical pagan culture the west would probably still be a backwards shithole to this day. But go ahead, hang on to your jewish god.

[–]jet199 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (6 children)

One of the main reasons Christianity has superior outcomes to Islam is that it heavily borrowed from Greek philosophy.

[–]EternalSunset 5 insightful - 2 fun5 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 2 fun -  (5 children)

I agree that this is the case today, but there was a time when the muslims too borrowed much from the greeks; that time was known as the golden age of Islam, a period of rapid scientific and economic progress within the islamic world that lasted until the destruction of Baghdad by the Mongol Empire. In fact, much of what we still have preserved today of the ancient greek texts was recovered from arabic translations made by Avicenna.

[–]Vulptex 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (2 children)

I always wonder why, all the way up to the middle ages, they had literature going back tens of thousands of years...and then it all just vanished. Was there an effort to erase everything?

[–]EternalSunset 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

It's mostly from devastating wars and cultural shifts. Greek civilization never recovered from the diadochi wars and were eventually conquered by the romans. The romans decayed in power over the centuries due to their own wars of succession, corruption and innumerous barbarian invasions. Baghdad was thoroughly devastated by the mongols to such an extraordinary degree that one might say that in some ways it hasn't recovered from it to this day.

[–]Alphix 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

That's the official narrative, therefore it is wrong.

[–]Airbus320 1 insightful - 3 fun1 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 3 fun -  (1 child)

Jet199 is a disinformation spreading long nosed agent

[–]Vulptex 3 insightful - 3 fun3 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

Americans say u/Airbus320 is an Americans bot running spam agent.