Is God a logical contradiction?

[Belacqua]

That is a considerable exaggeration.  Even in parts of the Christian world that had to climb out of the deep hole left by the collapse of Roman Empire, it would be hard to argue they had not largely caught up and surpassed the ancient world by the beginning of the 18th century.   That would mean the western Christian world only spent of 70% of its history playing catch up.

But you forget during much of the time when the western Christians were playing catch, the majority of the world’s Christians and the center of gravity of the Christian world, was in fact in the east in the Byzantine world.   Byzantium wasn’t exactly playing catch up with the classical world.   It was playing out the long slow eclipse of the ancient world itself.
You forget the Byzantine world, which for most of the   It is arguable the Byzantine world represented the slow motion death of the late classical world rather than The degree to which Christianity is responsible for the deep hole from which Chris

I wonder what metric you're using here? I agree that 99% is extreme, but why 70%? Not 80% or 60%? Or 73.268%?

You're certainly correct though to mention Byzantium. Those guys get forgotten way too much. The group of theologians known as the Cappadocian Fathers, for example, strongly advocated in the 4th century that people should study the processes of the natural world, and specifically recommended human dissection. For them as for many Christians after, it was just assumed that to know the natural world would be to know God better -- his ways and methods. It would be interesting to know better why, with by far the most influential theologians advocating scientific research, the economy of the time didn't support it. 

The so-called "dark ages" in Western Europe didn't have the energy to do much research, but the revival of Greek philosophy caused theologians in the high Middle Ages to agree with the Cappadocians. God operates in nature in rational and knowable ways, and it is good to know these in order to know God. This helped to motivate Leonardo, among many others. 

Fortunately the theologians at Oxford in the 14th century started doing a combination of experimental and mathematical work to show that Aristotle's views of motion were wrong. Their work made Newton's later work possible, when he wasn't writing Bible commentary, or discussing revelation with John Locke. 

And of course the Franciscan friar Roger Bacon was instrumental in getting the whole scientific project up and running. 

It's a fascinating history.