Would you say there is some truth to this notion regarding Christianity?

[Father Heathen]

I found this image macro a while back:

...and I think it raises an interesting point. discuss.

 

[BucephalusBB]

Even if it is, the line will still go up, only later.. It is not like humanity has not enough time to reach a certain goal or so..

 

[Father Heathen]

Even if it is, the line will still go up, only later.. It is not like humanity has not enough time to reach a certain goal or so..

For the living it does.

 

[BucephalusBB]

For the living it does.

Why, we all want to live in a better future. If we would be living in a better future we would still want to live in an even better future..

 

[Scott C.]

I found this image macro a while back: ...and I think it raises an interesting point. discuss.

Consider the graph starting with the Renaissance, a time of Christian re-awakening. Then, consider the graph starting in 1820, when the gospel of Jesus Christ was restored to the earth. It's remarkable how knowledge from heaven, both spiritual and scientific, have flooded the earth since the beginning of the Restoration of the Gospel.

 

[tumbleweed41]

Interesting, although it only reflects the western world, I would like to see one on the eastern world, and what cause and effects their were there.

 

[Beaudreaux]

Consider the graph starting with the Renaissance, a time of Christian re-awakening. Then, consider the graph starting in 1820, when the gospel of Jesus Christ was restored to the earth. It's remarkable how knowledge from heaven, both spiritual and scientific, have flooded the earth since the beginning of the Restoration of the Gospel.

How do you imagine the restoration of the Gospel helped propel the advance of science? What was the mechanism?

 

[herushura]

The Sumerian and babylonians were very advanced in civilisation, exhaled in math and science, astromeny that is much greater then egypt, and dont forget the Mayans.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

How do you imagine the restoration of the Gospel helped propel the advance of science? What was the mechanism?

I don't know, but soon after, in 1861, the bicycle was also invented. I think this is the final piece of proof anyone needs.

 

[Storm]

To the OP, I'm a far cry from being a historian, but I think the fall of Rome had more to do with the Dark Ages than the spread of Christianity did.

 

[Father Heathen]

The Sumerian and babylonians were very advanced in civilisation, exhaled in math and science, astromeny that is much greater then egypt, and dont forget the Mayans.

I'm sure Islam made advancement and progress grind to a halt in that part of the world, and it was the Spanish Catholic Conquistadors who wiped out the Mayans.

 

[Father Heathen]

Consider the graph starting with the Renaissance, a time of Christian re-awakening.

But things never should've gone to sleep to begin with. And all the progress and advancements are the result of moving away from and abandoning rigid fundamentalism and strict orthodoxy.

Then, consider the graph starting in 1820, when the gospel of Jesus Christ was restored to the earth. It's remarkable how knowledge from heaven, both spiritual and scientific, have flooded the earth since the beginning of the Restoration of the Gospel.

Oh, brother. Are you honestly trying to claim that Mormonism is responsible for electricity, automobiles, aircraft, vaccines, organ transplants, splitting the atom, computers, space exploration, mapping the genome, etc?

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

I found this image macro a while back:

...and I think it raises an interesting point. discuss.

I think it's rather Euro-centric. Scientific growth and discovery didn't stop through the Dark Ages... it just moved. The Muslim world really did help to safeguard scientific knowledge throughout this period, and as the Dark Ages ended, this knowledge permeated back into Europe through the interaction between Christian and Muslim cultures.

Fun fact: one such bit of knowledge was a treatise by the Persian astronomer Al-Farghani, which commented on other previous astronomers and geographers, and described a fair bit of his own work. This was translated to Latin (at which time his name was Romanized to "Alfraganus") and eventually found its way into the hands of Christopher Columbus. He rather naively assumed that a mile was a mile was a mile, and his confusion between the Arabian mile (about 2 km) that Al-Farghani used to report his findings and the Spanish mile (about 1 km) with which Columbus was familiar was a large part of his mistaken notion that he would have been able to sail straight from Europe to Asia without dying of dehydration and starvation halfway across when his food and fresh water ran out.

 

[Caladan]

I'm sure Islam made advancement and progress grind to a halt in that part of the world, and it was the Spanish Catholic Conquistadors who wiped out the Mayans.

Islam brought dramatic reforms in Arabia. and it is through the Iberian Peninsula that was governed by Arab Muslims that Europe could regain the Greco-Roman sciences and culture. European monks and scholars flocked to Al Andalus to enjoy the advanced culture and indulge themselves in the precious texts that were preserved there.

as for the OP. I believe it has already been noted, that Rome was already in decline, regardless of Christianity.
I think there is a beautiful phenomena, of monasteries and monks preserving secular culture in the forms of texts, that humanity has reclaimed through the labor of these tasteful people.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

It's remarkable how knowledge from heaven, both spiritual and scientific, have flooded the earth since the beginning of the Restoration of the Gospel.

I think that if there's a causal link, it goes the other way: the Industrial Revolution did two things (among others):

- it caused dramatic social upheaval in which many aspects of society, culture and the institutions that made it up could no longer be thought to be permanent. It forced people to tackle large questions about the moral basis of society, the role and status of the people in it, and how the world should be in general.

- it created huge amounts of wealth... albeit not for everyone. Many segments of society that previously were worried mainly with mere subsistence suddenly found themselves with the resources to actively contemplate and pursue concerns other than simple survival in a meaningful way. It created a new, large group of people who, while not aristocrats or tycoons, had disposable income and as a group had the power to shape society.

The end result is that this period suddenly gave a large portion of the population the power to effect change without being led by the aristocracy, and created an environment that demanded social change in response to the technological changes of the time.

I think that the religious change was one aspect of this social change. These sorts of factors were key in the explosion of new religious movements that came out of the United States during this period, like LDS Church, the Seventh-Day Adventists, the Jehova's Witnesses, the Revivalist movement, Christian Science, and (arguably, since it was kinda on the tail end of the period) Pentecostalism. I don't think it's a coincidence that these new religious ideas were emerging at the same time as new political and economic ideas.

 

[tomspug]

Enlighten me, because I really don't know much about the Dark Ages. What did the Christian church do to suppress scientific progress? I thought the Dark Ages was a feudal time period...

 

[Storm]

Actually, my understanding is that the Church played a vital role in preserving what little science and philosophy was left in Europe after the fall of Rome.

 

[Scott C.]

How do you imagine the restoration of the Gospel helped propel the advance of science? What was the mechanism?

I believe that when the Gospel was restored, God began to open the heavens and to reveal knowledge. He called prophets and revealed truth through revelation. God also opened the minds of men and women to make scientific inquiry and to make great discoveries and inventions. Mankind is better off with scientific discovery and God gave this to the world as a blessing. Part of the reason, but not all, for the advancement of communication and transportation was to facilitate spreading the restored gospel throughout the world.

 

[tomspug]

I believe that when the Gospel was restored, God began to open the heavens and to reveal knowledge. He called prophets and revealed truth through revelation. God also opened the minds of men and women to make scientific inquiry and to make great discoveries and inventions. Mankind is better off with scientific discovery and God gave this to the world as a blessing. Part of the reason, but not all, for the advancement of communication and transportation was to facilitate spreading the restored gospel throughout the world.

It also allowed for the advancement of communication and transportation that was to facilitate the spreading of pornography throughout the world, as well as drugs, human trafficking, weapons, etc.

The world didn't become a better place after the Industrial Revolution. If just got more universal.

 

[Mister Emu]

Actually, my understanding is that the Church played a vital role in preserving what little science and philosophy was left in Europe after the fall of Rome.

Indeed... mine as well...