En udbredt forestilling om Vestens middelalder som specielt grusom, primitiv og formørket cykler uantastet omkring i hovederne på millioner af mennesker. I denne myte har katolicismen en central placering som overskurken. Overfladiske og ukyndige polemikere fremfører atter og atter, at pavekirken holdt befolkningen i et ideologisk jerngreb, der blokerede for forskning og forandringer. Dette tindrende vås bygger på løgn og misforståelse.
Tim O'Neill skriver om emnet
The Dark Age Myth: An Atheist Reviews “God’s Philosophers”
(2013)
One of the occupational hazards of being an atheist and secular humanist who hangs around on discussion boards is to encounter a staggering level of historical illiteracy. I like to console myself that many of the people on such boards have come to their atheism via the study of science and so, even if they are quite learned in things like geology and biology, usually have a grasp of history stunted at about high school level. I generally do this because the alternative is to admit that the average person's grasp of history and how history is studied is so utterly feeble as to be totally depressing.
The myth goes that the Greeks and Romans were wise and rational types who loved science and were on the brink of doing all kinds of marvelous things (inventing full-scale steam engines is one example that is usually, rather fancifully, invoked) until Christianity came along. Christianity then banned all learning and rational thought and ushered in the Dark Ages. Then an iron-fisted theocracy, backed by a Gestapo-style Inquisition, prevented any science or questioning inquiry from happening until Leonardo da Vinci invented intelligence and the wondrous Renaissance saved us all from Medieval darkness.
Læs mere:
http://www.strangenotions.com/gods-philosophers/
Desuden kan Hannams "debunking" anbefales:
http://www.strangenotions.com/debunking-the-mythical-conflict/
