If it wasn't for atheists and free thinkers, would we still be in the dark ages?

Answer 1

Potentially, yes. LOok at the rise of culture and education, art and music in the period immediately following the Black Death years. As much as half the population - and more in some areas- has been killed off, leaving bounty for the rest and heralding in a time of enjoyment of life.

All cultural aspects took great leaps and bounds during the renaissance - printed books, medical adances, agricultural advances, arcitectural - everything.

The forerunners? Free thinkers like Da Vinci, Botticelli, van Eyck, Machiavelli, the Medicis, Luther- all created changes in their world - and ours

Answer 2

We are still in the dark ages, atheists and free thinkers are just beginning to scratch the surface.

Answer 3

Well the Dark Ages refers to a period before most Europeans converted to christianity. Even during the Rennasiance, athiesm was fairly unheard of. It wasnt until the Enlightenment that some people became open to the idea of athiesm.
Some answerers dont seem to realize, that the rennasiance saw the rise of Humanism, but not secular Humanism. a handful of people, such as daVinci may have pondered whether or not there was a god, but moments of doubt among creative thinkers was never a unknown in christian Europe, even in Rome.
As an example, Galileo was even commisioned by the church to figure out what he did about the planets, becuase the church was very aware of how inaccurate their calendar was. Initially they were quite pleased with his discovery, and if only he had stopped shouting about how his discovery disproved the bible, he never wouldve gotten in trouble with th pope.

Answer 4

No.

When modern scholarly study of the Middle Ages arose in the 19th century, the term Dark Ages was at first kept, with all its critical overtones. When the term Dark Ages is used by historians today, it is intended to be neutral, namely to express the idea that the events of the period often seem "dark" to us only because of the paucity of historical records compared with later times

I did not have a better way to say this, so I borrowed it from Wikipedia.

Answer 5

Yes, probably. I am a Christian, but there are aspects of "Christianity" that turn my stomach. Many believers were, and have become so infatuated with the man made rules and regulations of the whole thing, that it becomes a three ring circus. Only those with a real relationship with Jesus sees through the self serving muck, to the truth. I'd consider that "free thinking".

Answer 6

Yes. The Rennaisance free thinkers prevented Europe from becoming like modern day Iran. The Church hated them. They changed the world. Now the Church has much less influence.

Answer 7

i doubt we'd still be in the dark ages by now... someone woulda shed some light.

but alot of the "free thinkers" were philosphers like Voltaire and Immanuel Kant... they didn't exactly agree with the ethics behind religion but they all did argue to prove the existence of God.

Answer 8

In a sense we still are in the dark ages as we still are influenced by groupthinkg propelled fantasies centralized around an imaginary heavenly father and his human son

Answer 9

Have you ever heard a case of an Atheist killing anyone because we couldn't make you sheep stop believing in God? One good thing about most Atheist we don't go door to door or hand out pamphlets to convince Christians of anything.

Answer 10

doubt it. Mesopotamia is the cradle of civilization where the first written and recoded form of literature are found. this early civilzation believed very strongly in Gods and Goddesses. but without modern technology these ancient people accurately charted the movements of the moon and stars, using mathematics. priests were astronomers.

so, even though people are deeply religious , logic and critical thought eventually prevails