Did Christianity destroy Greek and Roman civilization?

[Imaginos]

Did Christianity destroy Greek and Roman civilization and create the Dark Ages?

http://www.jesusneverexisted.com/dark-age.htm

I personally think it did.
In the Roman Empire prior Christianity there was a general freedom of religion and ideas.

That all changed after the Roman Empire became Christian, as Christians resolved to force Christianity on everyone.

Civilization or at least Europe went backwards as the intolerance of Christianity destroyed the architecure, the literature and much of the knowledge of Ancient Rome and Greece.

[Rkrause]

Thats a whole new topic....Why do people follow insane people?

Good question.. Hitler was the 'voice of authority'.. and people were scared. If people talked against the government, they just 'disappeared' .. I think Stalin was a similar situation.. I don't know enough about Pol Pot. .. but I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case.

I think they offer quick answers for complex problems. Look at Jim Jones, Charles Manson and I can't think of the Waco Texas guys name. They all offered hope to someone who was hopeless.

[Goat]

Thats a whole new topic....Why do people follow insane people?

Good question.. Hitler was the 'voice of authority'.. and people were scared. If people talked against the government, they just 'disappeared' .. I think Stalin was a similar situation.. I don't know enough about Pol Pot. .. but I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case.

I think they offer quick answers for complex problems. Look at Jim Jones, Charles Manson and I can't think of the Waco Texas guys name. They all offered hope to someone who was hopeless.

That too. It seems to me that it is a HUMAN quality.. not a quality that can be pointed to caused by religion.

[Rkrause]

Thats a whole new topic....Why do people follow insane people?

Good question.. Hitler was the 'voice of authority'.. and people were scared. If people talked against the government, they just 'disappeared' .. I think Stalin was a similar situation.. I don't know enough about Pol Pot. .. but I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case.

I think they offer quick answers for complex problems. Look at Jim Jones, Charles Manson and I can't think of the Waco Texas guys name. They all offered hope to someone who was hopeless.

That too. It seems to me that it is a HUMAN quality.. not a quality that can be pointed to caused by religion.

To put this into the context of this thread it seems that the leaders of Rome when Roman empire faded away were similiar. They knew they had over expanded but instead of going back to a disiplined society they decided to party and ignore their problems with the germans and the people believed them.

[McCulloch]

Early Christians stood in opposition to infanticide, degradation of women, gladiatorial combats, slavery, etc.

See post 7.

Here is a good article on how Christianity ended a number of Roman depravities:

http://www.mtio.com/articles/bissar53.htm

Dr. ML King agreed with me:

"There was a time when the church was very powerful–in the time when the early Christians rejoiced at being deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed. In those days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society. Whenever the early Christians entered a town, the people in power became disturbed and immediately sought to convict the Christians for being "disturbers of the peace" and "outside agitators." But the Christians pressed on, in the conviction that they were "a colony of heaven," called to obey God rather than man. Small in number, they were big in commitment. They were too God intoxicated to be "astronomically intimidated." By their effort and example they brought an end to such ancient evils as infanticide and gladiatorial contests."

From "Letter from a Birmingham Jail"

Dr. King was not a historian but a theologian. His statements about early Christianity may or may not be true, but they have not the weight that a similar statement would have from an historian. Even so, this covers infanticide and gladiatorial contests. The degradation of women and slavery have not yet been addressed.

This is from an article by Christopher Price, "Pagans, Christianity, and Infanticide":
[...]

I won't argue too much about infanticide. I'd be willing to grant that the early Christians prohibited it.

Now, how about slavery. Jesus at no time condemned slavery. Paul, while he makes mention of slavery, does not seek to end it, nor does he instruct Christian slaveholders to manumit their slaves. Christian slaves were to obey meekly, even a cruel master. Christianity in the Middle Ages, did not oppose slavery. Slavery was well established during the Crusades and practiced by Christian Europe. Does East of Eden want us to believe that during the intermediate period, the Christians found their opposition to slavery and then subsequently lost it?