Another new member

[Darwinian]

Wow, so you believe it was the likes of Aristotle & Plato who invented and continued the concept of polytheism?

I don't recall ever making that statement, nor implying it.

If not, I'm struggling to understand the connection. Sure, you can lump all the Greeks into one pot if you prefer, just as long as you don't mind me lumping you along with the religious fanatics too, eh? Much of Greek society was indeed very primitive, even though they did have their brilliant philosopher/mathematicians who were arguably well ahead of their time. Its the same today, some people are clever, but the majority leave much to be desired.

I wasn't me who lumped all Greeks together as 'primitive'. I would say however that if, as you suggest, that Greek society was basically primitive with just a few genius's who were ahead of their time then this culture would not have had the profound impact on today's civilisations as it obviously has. Generally, Greek society was very civilised, even by today's standards, although I will concede there were many unsavoury aspects.

It can be argued that monotheism is what dragged western pagan barbarism into what has since become known as western civilisation.

Spoken like a true conqueror who views any way of life that is radically different from his own as barbaric. I think most so called civilisations and ideologies throughout history can claim their fair share of barbarism.

Furthermore, had it not been for monotheism - the dark ages could well have laster far longer than it did - bearing in mind the only written records which survive from the period (in western Europe) are from the "monotheists".

It could also be argued that if it wasn't for monotheism, or the Catholic Church, that the so called dark ages may never have occurred in the first place.

It was the church that carried us through it in the end, at least in western Europe.

It was the Church that caused centuries of oppression and stagnation.

Monotheism had nothing to do with the collapse of the Roman empire, the collapse often attributed to the defeat at Adrianople (ironically in the Eastern Roman empire, but caused the west to fall) which was the result of Roman arrogance and reluctance to keep pace with the evolving warfare of the period, not to mention the constant infighting among the Roman ruling class and so on - nothing to do with monotheism. If I'm mistaken, I'll be quite happy to stand corrected.

No argument there, but it was the fledgling new monotheistic religion(s) that leapt in to infect the Empires wounds and mutate it into the monstrous affront to free thought and progress that persists even to this day.

We have become the civilisation that we are today not because of but despite the rise of monotheism.