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How much did Religion set back Science and Technological progress?

  • 19-08-2012 08:29PM
    #1
    sxt
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,783 ✭✭✭


    How far did it set back the progress of mankind?

    If it wasn't for the burning of the great library of Alexandria( in which the single greatest recording of human knowledge from all the Sciences to Mathematics were destroyed) and all other acts of Religious dogmas reeling through the centuries... Where would we be today ?

    Would we have been tweeting and using smart phones to buy stuff 500 years ago ?


«13

Comments

  • #2
    aaronjumper
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 14,128 ✭✭✭✭aaronjumper


    The world would look like Star Wars.


  • #3
    Sunnyisland
    Closed Accounts Posts: 10,562 ✭✭✭✭Sunnyisland


    Cant do the michael jackson thing, but I getting the popcorn.


  • #4
    phasers
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 18,159 ✭✭✭✭phasers


    we'd have hoverboards but all our art would suck


  • #5
    jhegarty
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,132 ✭✭✭jhegarty


    Wasn't it Caesar who burned Alexandria ?

    It was just war afaik , not a religion thing.


  • #6
    Shenshen
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,453 ✭✭✭Shenshen


    sxt wrote: »
    How far did it set back the progress of mankind?

    If it wasn't for the burning of the great library of Alexandria( in which the single greatest recording of human knowledge from all the Sciences to Mathematics were destroyed) and all other acts of Religious dogmas reeling through the centuries... Where would we be today ?

    Would we have been tweeting and using smart phones to buy stuff 500 years ago ?

    I'm sorry, wasn't that particular library burned down by the Romans(Caesar himself, if I'm not mistaken)?


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  • #7
    b.harte
    Closed Accounts Posts: 524 ✭✭✭b.harte


    Not as much as we would be led to believe.:eek:
    Some modern scientists and commentators would have us believe that the church was a malign influence on progress, but the truth isn't so black and white.
    A lot of the earlier progress in Maths and technologies were promoted and funded by the church, especially as the major wealth in the world was controlled by the church or by rulers who supported / were supported by the church.
    It was really only in areas where scientific enquiry contradicted the teaching of the church that there was a conflict.
    The idea of heresy and blasphemy certainly did dampen the progress, but to be fair when science got to the point where it was a threat to the church it was already well established and was, as we can see, taking it's own place among other widely held beliefs.
    There is also the point that the earliest recording of scientific texts would have had to have been translated from older Persian/Arabic/Greek scripts to Latin and then into French and Germanic languages. The only people who had mastery over language and translation would have had to go through the church system at some point as this was the only western institute of learning for a long time.
    There is a book which is well worth a read goes into the whole story better than my rambling post:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God%27s_Philosophers


  • #8
    R0ot
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,473 ✭✭✭R0ot


    About three fifty.


  • #9
    Lando Griffin
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,952 ✭✭✭Lando Griffin


    Well considering the earth was created 6000 years ago I personally think we have done very very well. May god bless us all.


  • #10
    Biggins
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 34,567 ✭✭✭✭Biggins


    realies wrote: »
    ...I getting the popcorn.

    I got mine when I saw the thread title.
    Meet you in the pub afterwards! :D


  • #11
    staker
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,677 ✭✭✭staker


    Lando Griffin wrote: »
    Well considering the earth was created 6000 years ago I personally think we have done very very well. May god bless us all.

    Kill Him!!!!!


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  • #12
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 17,735 ✭✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    Honestly, we'd probably be in a worse environment given the role that they have played with education/literacy/teaching.


  • #13
    My name is URL
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 25,611 ✭✭✭✭My name is URL


    Not as much as science has set back religion :pac:


  • #14
    galwayrush
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,815 ✭✭✭✭galwayrush


    My name is URL wrote: »
    Not as much as science has set back religion :pac:

    The stepping stone post to introduce scientology..:D


  • #15
    ChunkyLover54
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 564 ✭✭✭ChunkyLover54


    sxt wrote: »
    Would we have been tweeting and using smart phones to buy stuff 500 years ago ?

    No....we wouldnt


  • #16
    philologos
    Closed Accounts Posts: 22,479 ✭✭✭✭philologos


    realies wrote: »
    Cant do the michael jackson thing, but I getting the popcorn.

    I would be getting the popcorn if the OP could explain what he means when he says "religion", and if the OP could actually explain more in depth what he means in respect to his argument :)

    Right now it looks like the lazy atheism = science misnomer which can be refuted rather easily.
    My name is URL wrote: »
    Not as much as science has set back religion

    It depends on what you mean by religion, but in terms of Christianity, it is growing faster than it ever has before on a global level.

    I honestly don't see this religion vs science debacle that people keep banging on about.


  • #17
    Miss Lockhart
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,639 ✭✭✭Miss Lockhart


    There must be a beacon to call philologos to these sort of threads!


  • #18
    Biggins
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 34,567 ✭✭✭✭Biggins


    Munch... munch...

    "Looks like we're getting warmed up now!"

    "Ouch!"

    *Ruddy popcorn is sticking in my teeth!"


  • #19
    aaronjumper
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 14,128 ✭✭✭✭aaronjumper


    Biggins wrote: »
    Munch... munch...

    Looks like we're getting warmed up now!

    Oi share them out you greedy sod! :pac:


  • #20
    Biggins
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 34,567 ✭✭✭✭Biggins


    aaronjumper wrote: »
    Oi share them out you greedy sod! :pac:

    Git ya own ya cheap heathen! :p


  • #21
    bnt
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 13,206 ✭✭✭✭bnt


    Even within particular religions, things change. In the first few centuries after Islam was invented, they were quite progressive about scientific research. The word "algebra" is Arabic, as are the names of many of the stars in the sky - thanks to Islamic scholars. Had they kept that open, enlightened attitude, who knows where we'd be?

    I don't know exactly what happened in detail, but the Islamic countries came under attack from both sides. If it wasn't Crusaders from the West, it was Genghis Khan and his generals from the East. The "siege mentality" took hold, the rulers clamped down on anything not strictly Islamic - and there (barring a few exceptions) they've stayed for more than 800 years.

    You are the type of what the age is searching for, and what it is afraid it has found. I am so glad that you have never done anything, never carved a statue, or painted a picture, or produced anything outside of yourself! Life has been your art. You have set yourself to music. Your days are your sonnets.

    ―Oscar Wilde predicting Social Media, in The Picture of Dorian Gray



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  • #22
    BUBBLE WRAP
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,186 ✭✭✭BUBBLE WRAP


    realies wrote: »
    Cant do the michael jackson thing, but I getting the popcorn.

    This?....

    mjpopcornbitchplsjpg.gif


  • #23
    philologos
    Closed Accounts Posts: 22,479 ✭✭✭✭philologos


    Miss Lockhart wrote: »
    There must be a beacon to call philologos to these sort of threads!

    The beacon is really simple - it's when people post ignorant things about what I and many other people believe. I suspect the same would be true if I posted a thread which claimed something untrue about atheists / atheism.


  • #24
    gurramok
    Closed Accounts Posts: 13,992 ✭✭✭✭gurramok


    We can't have science, it educates the population to think by themselves instead of being religiously indoctrinated to believe in crazy stuff. ;)


  • #25
    Miss Lockhart
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,639 ✭✭✭Miss Lockhart


    I just mean you seem to arrive in any religion or atheism related thread within the first page. It's uncanny!


  • #26
    Capt'n Midnight
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 96,880 Mod ✭✭✭✭Capt'n Midnight


    http://i.imgur.com/dlMjZ.jpg :p


  • #27
    D1stant
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,806 ✭✭✭D1stant


    sxt wrote: »
    Would we have been tweeting and using smart phones to buy stuff 500 years ago ?

    Strange examples of 'progress'. Not electricity, cars, planes, tv, internet....


  • #28
    PK2008
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,219 ✭✭✭PK2008


    sxt wrote: »
    How far did it set back the progress of mankind?

    If it wasn't for the burning of the great library of Alexandria( in which the single greatest recording of human knowledge from all the Sciences to Mathematics were destroyed) and all other acts of Religious dogmas reeling through the centuries... Where would we be today ?

    Would we have been tweeting and using smart phones to buy stuff 500 years ago ?

    Not much Id say, in fact some would argue that the Protestant work ethic was the basis of the industrial revolution.


  • #29
    Capt'n Midnight
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 96,880 Mod ✭✭✭✭Capt'n Midnight


    sxt wrote: »
    How far did it set back the progress of mankind?

    If it wasn't for the burning of the great library of Alexandria( in which the single greatest recording of human knowledge from all the Sciences to Mathematics were destroyed)
    Lots of other burnings too


    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_destroyed_libraries - the records of a civilisation lost in one night. Only 3 Mayan books survived the July 12, 1562 burning by Fray Diego de Landa,

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_book_burning_incidents Following the advice of minister Li Si, Emperor Qin Shi Huang ordered the burning of all philosophy books and history books from states other than Qin — beginning in 213 BCE. This was followed by the live burial of a large number of intellectuals who did not comply with the state dogma.

    ...
    According to the Madrid Codex, the fourth tlatoani Itzcoatl (ruling from 1427 (or 1428) to 1440) ordered the burning of all historical codices because it was "not wise that all the people should know the paintings".[45] Among other purposes, this allowed the Aztec state to develop a state-sanctioned history and mythos that venerated the Aztec god Huitzilopochtli.



    also

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_the_Irish_Saved_Civilization
    The Untold Story of Ireland's Heroic Role from the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe is a non-fiction historical book written by Thomas Cahill.

    Cahill argues a case for the Irish people's critical role in preserving Western Civilization from utter destruction by the Huns and the Germanic tribes




    http://i.imgur.com/KJjYd.jpg


  • #30
    EoghanIRL
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,080 ✭✭✭EoghanIRL


    ChunkyLover54 wrote: »
    sxt wrote: »
    Would we have been tweeting and using smart phones to buy stuff 500 years ago ?

    No....we wouldnt
    Agreed.


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  • #31
    Gummy Panda
    Closed Accounts Posts: 20,919 ✭✭✭✭Gummy Panda


    aaronjumper wrote: »
    The world would look like Star Wars.

    No!!!

    I hate ewoks


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