In which of these places would you rather live?

Question

1) About 500 years BEFORE Christ, in Athens during the Golden Age of Pericles.

2) About 500 years AFTER Christ, anywhere in the Western world.

Here's a clue: One of these was civilized, cultured, and intellectually stimulating. The other was degraded, barbaric, and miserable. Tell me, WHY is this so?

Answer 1

Before.

You already stated why.

Oh, I'll let Catherine Fahringer shed some light on it too:
"We would be 1,500 years ahead if it hadn't been for the church dragging science back by its coattails and burning our best minds at the stake."

Answer 2

It wasn't such a "Golden Age" if you were a slave or a woman.

I would much rather have lived in 6th century AD Ireland than 6th century BC Athens. In Ireland, under the Brehon laws, I would at least had the rights to property, divorce and marry who I chose. I could be educated. I would also have the right to walk outside my own house. Athenian women were not educated, it was virtually impossible for them to acquire a divorce, they could not attend the dinners and events that their husbands attended, their husbands could confine them to house arrest if they so desired, and they could not inherit property. Ireland, in the so-called "dark ages," experienced a cultural renaissance due to medieival monks who transcribed the ancient Roman and Greek writers, and travelled throughout Ireland spreading the knowledge.

The idea that early medieval Europe was "degraded, barbaric and miserable" is an old stereotype that has been effectively challenged by scholars and archeaologists for some time now. The idea that Athens was "civilized, cultured and intellectually stimulating" was true only for adult male Athenians, not for the rest of the poor slobs who supported them.

Answer 3

Ridiculous argument. The Roman Empire in the west collapsed because of an influx of barbarians from central Asia. I don't see what any of this has to do with Christianity.

Besides, life in Constantinople and the Eastern Mediterranean was still pretty good until the Muslims came along in the 600s.

Answer 4

I can see where you're getting at. The reason AFTER Christ was so degraded and barbaric was because most of the people before Him already had their religions made up and it was the law to follow them. When Jesus came along, the 'head-honchos' of the other religions were mad because they saw all the people following Christ instead of the religions demanded by law.

Answer 5

If you lived in Athens 500 years before Christ, chances are you were a slave.

Answer 6

I guess by civilized you mean that if I were an adolescent male I should accept being molested by older males? Everybody has their problems. I think it is more important who you are than where you are.

Answer 7

#2.