What religion can do to a culture

Religion has had a socially regressive effect on humanity. The  Egyptian, Greek and Roman cultures increased human knowledge and conditions for the common man. The Coliseum. the Greeks invented a planetary clock that could track the planets in the heavens and the Egyptians built the largest structures on earth until the 20th century.

Then the Roman Empire collapsed and the Roman catholic clerics took over and little happened for a thousand years during the Dark Ages.

The Dark Ages ended with the beginning of Enlightenment.You can credit Charlemagne who united all of western Europe under his rule and the Muslim invasion of Spain also provided some culture shock to the Europeans because Islamic culture was centures ahead of European when the Moors invaded Spain in 711.

Unfortunately, the Muslim culture also fell into a Dark Ages as the Europeans were coming out of their's.

Could an Islamic Dark Ages infect the world? 

Luke Muehlhauser suggests another Dark Ages could follow if Islamic fundamentalism takes root in the world.

Many months ago, Rightardia noticed an article that pointed out that many Nobel laureates have had Jewish heritage while few laureates had an Islamic one. Muslims, indeed, have not been recipients of many Nobel prizes.

Can we blame Islam or the Arab culture that predominates in Islam for this? Perhaps.

Islam is certainly a more a rationale religion when compared to Christianity. However, the Europeans threw off the shackles of religion centuries ago. Some Islamic countries like Yemen, Somalia and Afghanistan have cultures that are more medieval than modern and are seeped in religion.

source: http://commonsenseatheism.com/?p=1662

http://bznotes.wordpress.com/2006/10/13/muslim-nobel-prize-winners/

by Luke Muehlhauser on April 29, 2009 in General Atheism

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