>Christian "Dark Ages"

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>Christian "Dark Ages". . He: "-( 35 KB, 254x300, scribed, jpg) several ass several as? : Irish monk Append childhood learning to read and write books and knowl

He: "-( 35 KB, 254x300, scribed, jpg)
several ass several as? :
Irish monk
Append childhood learning to read and write
books and knowledge. Ancient Greek authors (why is Plutarch m based?)
Append mast of my life copying books by hand
******** Vikings attack
away carrying all the books I can
new monastery. start all aver again
to trek all the wahta Rome to get copies of burned books.
Cheaten and robbed by bandits an the way. left fer dead
sick
Append months in a farmer' s cottage healing
an ship
attacked by mare Vikings (why do people today idolize these assholes?)
Append year as a slave
continue an to Rome
Append months petitioning the Pope to give me copies ofthe last books
Pstart back home
Allmost drowned in a storm an the way back
by bandits again
Allmost killed
time am saved by a local king. still I almost **** myself
basket monastery
Append the rest allive copying books m future generations will have the knowledge.
year later
in heaven
down to see what happening
writing
Oh if only the Church had never existed society would be so much more advanced because of how hard they worked to burn books and destroy knowledge/ Wes if there were no Christianity we' d be in
space age society by now, **** those guys-"
wmm

...

+629

Views:	27225
Favorited:	68
Submitted:	12/02/2015

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+162

#4 - lean (12/02/2015) [-]

The subject of the dark ages has been skewed quite a bit over the years what hasn't
The dark ages basically refers to the period after the fall of the roman empire. The schools of thought and philosophy dissolved with the unstability of the empire, and the writings and teachings of the classical latin fell apart. The speech of the common people became the standard, the vulgar latin. Subsequently, remaining rulers and scholars thought them sub par from the classical teachings, again primarily just because of the vernacular.

The only place to receive classical teachings became the church. Churches that held the remaining literature and necessary study materials were few and far between. It wasn't the church that darkened and restricted any scholarly achievements or anything, it was just hard for even the oligarchs and aristocrats to engage in study. Top that off with the lack of roman stability there were mass incursions and conquests from the slavs, vikings, saxons etc.

It is called the dark ages because there is very little in the way of historiographic texts and philosophies by which to study it. As a result, dark ages day to day life is rather unknown to us in modern times. A better term would be "little studied".

There are archaeologic dark ages, geologic dark ages etc. It just refers to a time period for which there is little to no evidence or remains which can be studied. It doesn't refer to an oppressive power darkening the intelligence of the world or whatever the fedora wearing MLP fandom believes. Religion was not seen as contrary to rational thought and reason until recently. In fact, the church taught Grammar, logic, and rhetoric, arithmetic, geometry, the theory of music, and astronomy. These were known as the liberal arts(artes liberales) (liberal arts taught in the dark ages, weird) and considered necessary for all free men to properly contribute to civic society, it just wasn't possible in the virtually constant state of warfare for roman europe.

Achievements of the dark ages:
Gothic architecture (yes all of it, engineering of cathedrals hit its peak here and revolutionized architectural design)
traditional motte and bailey castles w/ moat
astrolabe (a century without crusades and the arabs got bored fighting each other so they invented **** )
Monastaries and universities (basically temples devoted to recovering and retaining classical literature and sciences, funded by the church)
The heavy Plow (deep furrows, turn over clay, which was previously untillable except by hand)
Crop rotation (increased yield)
circumference of the earth first estimated (no they didn't believe it was flat, and most people didn't give a **** one way or another)
Trade laws that transcended city and state boundaries

-1

#39 to #4 - riggyrigs (12/03/2015) [-]

i'm pretty sure it was more about recovering lost knowledge after the fall of the roman empire. most of the achievements you've quoted were already something before jesus christ

-3

#46 to #4 - anon (12/03/2015) [-]

tl;dr stfu lol

#52 to #4 - PenguinsOfMars (12/03/2015) [-]

"arabs got bored of fighting eachother"

maybe someday again...

#68 to #4 - zekonos ONLINE (12/03/2015) [-]

Did you research all of this stuff yourself? I'm just curious about how you gained all of this knowledge before I take it as fact.

I'm pretty confident that Eratosthenes estimated the Earth's circumference a few centuries before the dark ages though.

#69 to #68 - lean (12/03/2015) [-]

>>#12,
I got interested in history back in high school and have continued to pick up books and stuff the catch my interest. There are plenty of verifiable sources out there, nothing I said was an out and out lie, though some things such as castles and monasteries were improvements on previous designs. engineering and architecture made massive strides from 600-1200 AD, that is well documented, but the notes and journals and such basically don't exist, so all we have to study is the remaining buildings themselves. Ideas flourished in the dark ages, documentation not so much.

-21

#7 to #4 - bastianjolt (12/02/2015) [-]

It's sad that during those times the church held almost all knowledge but the expansion of new knowledge in many fields were limited due to religious reasons, but without the church it could have gone 2 ways, we'd either be centuries behind due to lost knowledge or we'd be centuries ahead since someone who didn't want to limit science due to religion became the ''vanguard'' of latin knowledge

+18

#8 to #7 - lean (12/02/2015) [-]

The only reason it landed in the church is every other scholarly domain was lost with the fall of Rome. Realistically it would have only gone one way- that of the library at Alexandria. The church had moral objections to certain areas of science, yes, but well before the collapse of Rome. The Hellenistic philosophers and scholars since nearly 300 AD were Catholic Christians.

#25 to #8 - rudeobuteo (12/02/2015) [-]

I think its said that the church would not have been born without Plato and wouldnt have survived without Socrates. dont quote me

#48 to #8 - toosexyforyou (12/03/2015) [-]

Kinda hard not to be a "Christian" in a point in time when people will behead you for speaking up against the church.

#66 to #48 - lean (12/03/2015) [-]

Yeah I know, but the fact remains the church wouldn't have made it without making some concessions towards assimilation, which is why a full 1/3 of the world today is Catholic. Convert or die for a few centuries does wonders for prosperity.

#43 to #8 - luminisenc ONLINE (12/03/2015) [-]

They weren't catholic, at that point Christianity, in Rome at least, was united as 'Chalcedonism'

#35 to #4 - MrFish (12/03/2015) [-]

Well I'll be damned if I didnt learn some things today. You got a source that I can use when I talk about it later. No offense but I don't want to quote some guy on funnyjunk

#65 to #35 - lean (12/03/2015) [-]

You can wiki the dark ages and there are miles of sources there. I have an interest in history and most of this is off the top of my head.

#51 to #4 - bemmo (12/03/2015) [-]

>MLP fandom
Woah wait what did we do?
Actually don't answer that, I know the sort of **** that can get pulled, better question, what did we do to get singled out over all the other fedora-wearing autists out there that don't watch MLP that do the same thing?
For the record I agree with essentially everything else you said, but apparently I'm a sucker for punishment so I'm nitpicking this and defending MLP on FJ.

#64 to #51 - lean (12/03/2015) [-]

I needed a whipping boy. Not all the MLP fandom wears fedoras, but the ones who do are severely in need of tard wranglers at all times.

#59 to #51 - Marker

(12/03/2015) [-]

He's got a point

-1

#61 to #51 - postalmate (12/03/2015) [-]

>what did we do

More than enough. I think we both know that...

#32 to #4 - anon (12/03/2015) [-]

hate to be that.... who am i kidding, im an asshole that loves correcting people

Crop rotation goes back to the romans, so more of a rediscovery and same goes for the circumference of the earth as the ancient greeks had discovered that.

I Saw no other problems in your comment.

#13 to #4 - TimUsher ONLINE (12/02/2015) [-]

I agree with most of your points. but they heavily restricted the field of medicine. They believed if you were sick God will save you. Therefore they didn't think anyone needed any kind of medicine to make them better. Since medicine was no longer "needed" it was no longer studied. We lost centuries in medical advancement.

#18 to #13 - lean (12/02/2015) [-]

On the plus side, the church now supports and runs more hospitals than any other single organization on the planet. The mix of medical science and spiritual healing in the dark ages was a setback, but it's not as though they forbade doctors to help. The concepts of "bad humors" and leeching for diseases weren't new, but new ideas were a long time coming. The university of montpelier in the 11th century became the center for medical advancement with favor from the church. The gathering of many doctors led to the conclusion that the medieval methods used were not particularly effective, and medicine was further studied on a results based program. Not to mention the autopsies.

#20 to #18 - TimUsher ONLINE (12/02/2015) [-]

It could of been a lot worse. They weren't any advances, which is unfortunate, but at least there wan't any regression in medical science. It is also nice since so many churches support hospitals now. They don't even push their religious agenda. They are there for support for those who need it.

#37 to #13 - anon (12/03/2015) [-]

But it wouldn't have really advanced without later technology, right? As in things like the rudimentary microscope, and later tools such as scalpels and things (just throwing it out there, not 100% sure how correct I am).

#40 to #37 - TimUsher ONLINE (12/03/2015) [-]

Well since there was no reason to advance the field technologies that came from that field would not be invented. There is no need to invent a microscope to look at human cells if there is no point in looking at said cells.

#24 to #13 - rudeobuteo (12/02/2015) [-]

Galen, an ancient Greek medicine practitioner held the foundation of medicine for over 1000 years. His writings were universally referred to based on the fact that no one knew anything better, then it just became customary. The understanding of disease was so primitive compared to today that yes, people did generally believe some superstitious **** , but that is no fault of religion or the church. Just the default mode of humanity which is impoverished and ignorant.

#11 to #4 - anon (12/02/2015) [-]

>circumference of the earth first estimated
Was actually way before then, back to the Greeks.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eratosthenes#Measurement_of_the_Earth.27s_circumference

#12 to #11 - lean (12/02/2015) [-]

True enough. I didn't really get in depth, but an unknown middle ages scholar calculated similar results to ptolemy's projection, which was a mistaken adjustment upon Eratosthenes' original calculation. This led to the creation of maps showing Columbus that india was only a few thousand miles east of the European coast. They were off by several thousand miles on the true circumference. Suprisingly accurate, considering. Regardless it shows that the math was not lost in the "dark ages".

#29 to #12 - hewatches (12/03/2015) [-]

The math wasn't lost, but barely anybody knew anything about it

-25

#31 - anon (12/03/2015) [-]

christians trying to justify their religion. lol.

+31

#33 to #31 - conisnon (12/03/2015) [-]

anons acting like faggots. lol

#53 to #33 - catburglarpenis (12/03/2015) [-]

Lol? Lol.

+31

#1 - schnizel (12/02/2015) [-]

Sacking Constantinople wasn't fun.

#3 to #1 - kosicandavid (12/02/2015) [-]

I really doubt that.... How can you not enjoy this?

#6 to #3 - mephiblis ONLINE (12/02/2015) [-]

Dirty ****** muslim, Constantinopole will be united with Christendom once more!

#38 to #6 - riggyrigs (12/03/2015) [-]

crusaders were the first ones to sack constantinople tho

#42 to #38 - thegrimgenius ONLINE (12/03/2015) [-]

To be fair, they were rogue and excommunicated.

And the Muslims attacked before the Fourth a lot.

#63 to #6 - kosicandavid (12/03/2015) [-]

I am from Europe.....

#5 to #3 - schnizel (12/02/2015) [-]

That's just wrong dude.

#2 to #1 - anon (12/02/2015) [-]

Yes it was, sacking is always fun!

+19

#30 - RandomMRTroll (12/03/2015) [-]

sometimes i wander what the world would be like today if the bandits didn't raid the library of alexandria

#50 to #30 - angelusprimus (12/03/2015) [-]

Which time? Thing burned every time a conqueror took Alexandria.

#34 to #30 - thelastamerican (12/03/2015) [-]

When you get into the region of "destroyed the library at Alexandria" I think you have to call it an army.

+30

#27 - lamarsmithgot (12/02/2015) [-]

> be peasant
> wife and children die of pox
> god dammit not again
> use the lord's name in vain
> mfw

+10

#28 - hewatches (12/03/2015) [-]

Shouldn't they be complaining about how awful the fall of the Roman Empire was, not the existence of Christianity?

#14 - comicironic ONLINE (12/02/2015) [-]

They did burn down the library of Alexandria.
In addition, many of our Greek texts survive through Arabic translations.
But many, many, many more were lost in that burning building, and much more besides.
What survives of the Greeks, particularly in theatre - which I consider the greatest tragedy, for the Greeks did a good play - is but a fraction of what they ever produced, and we can only guess that we got the best slice simply because it's what endured the most, but we'll never know.

#19 to #14 - superbluesixtynick ONLINE (12/02/2015) [-]

Sorry, the Library of Alexandria is thought to have been destroyed by the Roman's via Caesar's fire, and possibly destroyed later by the Muslim caliphate. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_of_Alexandria#Destruction

#22 to #19 - comicironic ONLINE (12/02/2015) [-]

I was referring to the most famous burning, which is the one in 389-391 AD, when a Christian mob torched it.
This is what is typically meant when people talk about the burning of the Great Library.

It is possible that parts of the library itself and the contents were protected in 48 AD, particularly since no clear records exist of what was destroyed, and the Muslim story is poorly recorded and generally considered to be false simply because no remnant of the library is believed to have survived to the point of the invasion.

#23 to #22 - anon (12/02/2015) [-]

That wasn't even the Library of Alexandria itself. It was a temple that housed a portion of the collection of the Library of Alexandria proper. We don't even know how much of the collection was there, and most sources only mention the relgious stuff that was destroyed.

-1

#21 to #19 - fuzzyballs (12/02/2015) [-]

by the Roman is?

#10 - biscuitsunited (12/02/2015) [-]

>Plutarch
>Based
Pick one

#16 to #10 - scivir [OP](12/02/2015) [-]

Next thing you tell me you're a basic bitch who loves Socrates

#67 to #16 - biscuitsunited (12/03/2015) [-]

The day that prick was executed was a good day

#36 to #16 - conisnon (12/03/2015) [-]

At least he's not a Homerfag

#9 - jonnyfrosty ONLINE (12/02/2015) [-]

www.strangenotions.com/gods-philosophers/

Further information

#26 - Haruhi (12/02/2015) [-]

Oh I thought this was a CK2 post.

#44 - gamblingriverman (12/03/2015) [-]

**gamblingriverman used "*roll picture*"**
**gamblingriverman rolled image**I like these

#56 - republicofserbia (12/03/2015) [-]

#57 to #56 - garymuthafuknoak (12/03/2015) [-]

what does the best Zelda game have anything to do with this

#62 to #57 - ventusvsroxas (12/03/2015) [-]

I think he only meant to take a picture of himself, the poster just happened to be on the wall

#58 to #57 - republicofserbia (12/03/2015) [-]

This isn't a picture of me. This is a picture of a fedora idiot who is being made fun of. Ask him why he took a picture of himself with the poster.

#55 - failtolawl (12/03/2015) [-]

I think people get confused because during the "dark ages" because the Muslims were having their "golden age" of incredible advances in science and math. People assume the opposite of golden is dark, which is fair...

#49 - peezle (12/03/2015) [-]

My World Civ teacher refuses to call it the Dark Ages. She calls it "The Dimmer Times."

#54 to #49 - Milvath (12/03/2015) [-]

bitch doesn't know **** about being a serf

-2

#47 - anon (12/03/2015) [-]

God is full of **** and can go **** himself. gg no re

#45 - smellypantsmcgee has deleted their comment [-]

#41 - anon (12/03/2015) [-]

**anonymous used "*roll picture*"**
**anonymous rolled image** hatred

#17 - anon (12/02/2015) [-]

they copied religious texts mostly that didn't hold valuable knowledge and this isn't about burning books just simply the lifestyle and ideas which is not just religion but culture speak against islam you get beheaded, speak against christianity you get a fedora