this post was submitted on 09 Jul 2025
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Science Memes

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[–] Gladaed@feddit.org 16 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

The dark ages weren't dark. Humanity didn't just stop for 1000 years, you know?

[–] Natanox@discuss.tchncs.de 19 points 13 hours ago (4 children)

Western history classes gracefully ignore things like the chinese empires, the golden ages in the arabic world (which oh so happened to be to be during the "dark ages" of Europe and saw science flourish there) and anything that happened on the american continent prior to colonialization (not like we know too much about it given the colonizers' rampages and targeted cultural destruction). Let alone African history, Indian, South-East Asia, Australia…

Same of course with religions. But watching that Martin Luther movie three times was definitely important I guess, cause it "changed the whole (!) world". I fucking hate all of this bullshit.

Sorry for the rant.

[–] bob_lemon@feddit.org 7 points 11 hours ago

Even within Europe, there was significant scientific progress during said dark ages. It's extremely obvious by just looking at a 9th century building to those from the 14th century (especially churches). The latter require profund knowledge of mathematics/civil engineering. We went from tiny windows in 2m thick brick walls to vast, airy Gothic cathedrals (although those did take a couple of centuries to actually finish).

Although to be fair, that knowledge did largely come to Europe from the scholars of the Arabic world.

[–] BudgetBandit@sh.itjust.works 2 points 11 hours ago

Only thing I, as a European, know about MLK is that "I have a dream" speech and that he has something to do with rights for black people in America. My memory stops there.

Funny enough, in Catholic religion class I learned more interesting things about history than in history class itself. My teacher made sure we knew about other religions, how all of them are connected, how they developed, what some did while others went crusading, etc. Best teacher I’ve ever had.

[–] Saleh@feddit.org 1 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

To add to it. A lot of the European antique that the West loves to pride itself in, such as the work of Roman and Greek philosophers and scientists were only preserved by the Muslims in the Middle East and subsequently rediscovered from Arabic and Persian works. So a lot of European culture and history was preserved by outsiders as the white barbarians couldn't hack it. Unlike the imperial museums in the UK, France, Germany or other countries, that preservation was achieved largely without pillaging.

[–] breecher@sh.itjust.works 4 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago) (1 children)

The amount of ancient Hellenistic texts rediscovered from Arab and Persian texts is neglible, compared to the texts which were preserved in other ways.

Your rant about museums is completely unrelated to that particular subject as well.

[–] Saleh@feddit.org 1 points 7 hours ago

Your rant about museums is completely unrelated to that particular subject as well.

Sure, let's ask the Greek what they think about the parts of the Acropolis that are stashed away in London. They will surely find it unrelated.

[–] Gladaed@feddit.org 1 points 12 hours ago

Dark ages didn't happen is the issue with your point. There were many new technologies developed and progress being made.