What if is always a two edged sword.
The Middle Ages suffered from the power vacuum left by the Roman Empire resulting in a decline education and technological advancement. The question is how much of that decline was due to the fall of Rome and the resulting chaos and how much of it was due to Catholicism and Islam. Both religions preserved the skill of writing as did Judaism. But all three religions discouraged inquiry, not to mention creating a non-economic reason to fight one another.
Frankly, I think that in the absence of Christianity, all Europe would have become Islamic, which might have kept us in the Middle Ages much longer. So perhaps better with Christianity and worse with monotheism generally.
If there was just paganism following Rome's fall, we might have gotten the Renaissance hundreds of years earlier, or the lack of common ground might have delayed a couple hundred years. You got me.
The Middle Ages suffered from the power vacuum left by the Roman Empire resulting in a decline education and technological advancement. The question is how much of that decline was due to the fall of Rome and the resulting chaos and how much of it was due to Catholicism and Islam. Both religions preserved the skill of writing as did Judaism. But all three religions discouraged inquiry, not to mention creating a non-economic reason to fight one another.
Frankly, I think that in the absence of Christianity, all Europe would have become Islamic, which might have kept us in the Middle Ages much longer. So perhaps better with Christianity and worse with monotheism generally.
If there was just paganism following Rome's fall, we might have gotten the Renaissance hundreds of years earlier, or the lack of common ground might have delayed a couple hundred years. You got me.
If there is a god, I want to believe that there is a god. If there is not a god, I want to believe that there is no god.
