(January 22, 2013 at 10:38 am)Confused Ape Wrote: The article explains why it was originaly called the Dark Ages and is now called Early Medieval. The 19th Century scholars had a biased world view so this period of history was presented as Europe being overrun by uncouth, unwashed savages. Disease has always been a part of human history because there were other periods with devastating diseases - the Black Death was in the 14th Century. Bubonic Plague turned up every so often. Then there was the 1918 flu pandemic.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1918_flu_pandemic
Quote:The 1918 flu pandemic (January 1918 – December 1920)[1] was an unusually deadly influenza pandemic which infected 500 million[2] people across the world, including remote Pacific islands and the Arctic, and killed 50-100 million people of them—1 to 3 percent of the world's population[3] at the time—making it one of the deadliest natural disasters in human history
If Dark Age is defined by disease, death and wars you could say that the whole of human history has been one long Dark Age.
The Roman faction of Christianity chose to interpret things that way. As they were the dominant faction, other Christian groups with different interpretations were eradicated. The Cathars are, perhaps, the most well known example of Christians with a different interpretation being wiped out. Millions of Christians these days don't pray to saints or the Virgin Mary.
Christianity is a term covering many thousands of different viewpoints. This is why I wish Christians would say things like "I'm a Southern Baptist" or "I'm a Roman Catholic" rather than just presenting themselves as Christians.
Islam isn't just one viewpoint either.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Muslims_by_sect
I was surprised to find there are so many. The way you refered to Sunni Muslims in Post 42 of this topic leads me to suspect that you're a Shi'a Muslim but it would be helpful if you could confirm this. I could then google Shi'a Muslims.
Millions of Muslims believe that Islam is a religion of peace while others interpret things to mean that suicide bombing is OK. There are arguments about the real status of women in Islam. (I read a fascinating discussion on separate areas for women in mosques in the Beliefnet forum. Some women were insisting they liked it that way and didn't want men and women together. A man insisted that this custom wasn't true Islam.)
When I get time I'll google that and see if I can find an unbiased article on the subject.
Almost impossible isn't the same thing as completely impossible, though. Not that a possibility is concrete proof, of course, which is why I'd like to find an unbiased opinion. Even though I'm an atheist I'm still interested in things like the quran and Nag Hammadi texts as historical documents.
Dark ages talk :
I think that all the talk about "dark age" europe being "not so dark" is caused by something I have already seen.
Europe took its science foundations from the arab books (i.e during the crusades), stories say that knights used to go back with hundreds of books, many of them contributed largely on the European evolution.
The same tone is repeated by many arabs today, who claim that the dark ages in the arab peninsula were "full of life".
When I tracked back why they're saying that, it was mere arrogance. They just don't want to admit that their ancestors were really bug eating savages, who barry little girls because "it's a shame to have a baby girl instead of a baby boy".
Then, I would like to add : countries like china & japan didn't witness such darkness ; even there wars were more organized & less devastating (for thousands of years).
I still hold to my view, I wasn't convinced by the other opinion . Wars & sickness increased in the dark ages, in a very strong way.
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My Islamic pov talk :
I was a sunni, born & raised in a sunni family. I struggled for years, my teenage years included anger & grudge against god.
Then I knew that the sunni way contradicts with science, in it's core foundation. Sometimes stuff turn into plain fairy tails, including a donkey with ears spreading for like 50 meters.
Right now, I have no certain path, I don't follow any faction. I consider them all "brothers & sisters, with different intake on the issues at hand".
I have big problems also with the shia, there faith is more messed up, including a messiah (a muslim one) who went inside a basement in iraq and stayed there for a 1000 years, then he would appear by the end of times. If you didn't believe in this, shia would consider you an infidel .
I follow the Quran, literally. I think it's obvious, and whoever can't understand it should take an arabic course.
Consider me ( a guy who only takes info from the Quran as a first source ; and consider the other sources "lame & incomplete".
