i was mostly talking about Africa but okay.
the islamic world were CENTURIES ahead of europe in terms of science and technology for a long time.
1. First of all, there's an extraordinarily large amount of bullshit floating around regarding what technologies muslims are actually responsible for:
http://wikiislam.net/wiki/How_Islamic_Inventors_Did_Not_Change_The_World
2. This was largely thanks to the works they stole from the christian lands they conquered (funny how muslims are never shamed for their imperialism the way europeans are).
3. What the fuck happened? If they're so intelligent, what went wrong? Why today do they lag so far behind europeans and NE-Asians in intelligence? Why have things been increasing for millennia for europeans, but gravely worsening for muslims?
Do you like medicine? Do you like modern mathematics? Do you like greek philosophy?
You can thank the muslims for saving that shit
They were translated into arabic because of islamic imperialism!
By the 8th century Islam had overrun the Christian lands[122] of Syria, Iraq, Iran and Egypt[123] This swift occupation further severed Western Europe from many of the great works of Aristotle, Plato, Euclid and others, many of which were housed in the great library of Alexandria. Having come upon such a wealth of knowledge, the Arabs, who viewed non-Arab languages as inferior, even as a source of pollution,[124] employed conquered Christians and Jews to translate these works from the native Greek and Syriac into Arabic[125]
"It was not until 1204, during which the Latins conquered and took Constantinople from the Byzantines in the name of the fourth Crusade, that a renewed scholarly interest in the original Greek manuscripts began to grow."
Furthermore, you're arguing that we should be thankful for muslims' saving of these works, which has nothing to do with them being intelligent.
You're saying we should credit muslims for the genius of europeans. I like Greek philosophy and so I am thankful to the greeks for that, not the thieving arabs.
whilst the catholic church was burning people for having a brain. They called it the dark ages for a reason.
Hey look at that, an extremely ignorant, uneducated view of medieval europe. why am i not surprised?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Ages_(historiography)#Modern_academic_use
"However, the early 20th century saw a radical re-evaluation of the Middle Ages, and with it a calling into question of the terminology of darkness,[10] or at least of its pejorative use. Historian Denys Hay exemplified this when he spoke ironically of "the lively centuries which we call dark""
"Historians who use the term usually flag it as incorrect. A recently published history of German literature describes "the dark ages" as "a popular if ignorant manner of speaking" about "the mediaeval period""
"The medieval period is frequently caricatured as supposedly a "time of ignorance and superstition" which placed "the word of religious authorities over personal experience and rational activity."[42] However, rationality was increasingly held in high regard as the Middle Ages progressed. The historian of science Edward Grant, writes that "If revolutionary rational thoughts were expressed [in the 18th century], they were made possible because of the long medieval tradition that established the use of reason as one of the most important of human activities".[43] Furthermore, David Lindberg says that, contrary to common belief, "the late medieval scholar rarely experienced the coercive power of the church and would have regarded himself as free (particularly in the natural sciences) to follow reason and observation wherever they led".[44]
The caricature of the period is also reflected in a number of more specific notions. For instance, a claim that was first propagated in the 19th century[45][46] and is still very common in popular culture is the supposition that all people in the Middle Ages believed that the Earth was flat. This claim is mistaken.[46][47] In fact, lecturers in the medieval universities commonly advanced evidence in favor of the idea that the Earth was a sphere.[48] Lindberg and Ronald Numbers write: "There was scarcely a Christian scholar of the Middle Ages who did not acknowledge [Earth's] sphericity and even know its approximate circumference".[49]
Other misconceptions such as: "the Church prohibited autopsies and dissections during the Middle Ages", "the rise of Christianity killed off ancient science", and "the medieval Christian church suppressed the growth of natural philosophy", are all cited by Ronald Numbers as examples of widely popular myths that still pass as historical truth, although they are not supported by current historical research.[50] They help maintain the idea of a "Dark Age" spanning through the medieval period.
Unlike pagan Rome, Christian Europe did not exercise a universal prohibition of the dissection and autopsy of the human body and such examinations were carried out regularly from at least the 13th century.[51][52][53] It has even been suggested that the Christian theology contributed significantly to the revival of human dissection and autopsy by providing a new socio-religious and cultural context in which the human cadaver was no longer seen as sacrosanct.[51]"
"The Church, rather than being an oppressor of scientific progress during the time, is largely responsible for saving much of Western Civilization's knowledge. Catholic monks, especially Irish ones, maintained huge libraries full of the works of Rome and Greece, spending much of their time copying these manuscripts. Monks were usually the most educated people in Europe. Women who entered nunneries were also granted unparalleled educations at the time.":
http://books.google.com/books?id=tbYbR6amEdoC&lpg=PA24&pg=PA24#v=onepage&q&f=false
"The Middle Ages also saw the birth of many of the world's first and grandest universities. Oxford, Cambridge, Bologna, Salamanca; the Middle Ages saw the explosion of formalized higher education and the birth of advanced educational degrees. Modern medicine as we know had its roots in the experimentations done in the era, most of which, contrary to popular belief, the Church was completely fine with. The institutional advancements and protection of knowledge achieved by our ancestors in the Middle Ages made the Renaissance possible."
Where are all the great islamic universities? You mock asians for their poor tertiary system, but the muslims ain't got shit on them.
And ANYWAY we were talking about intelligence,
not anti-science ideology. Even if this dark ages narrative were valid, it wasn't that europeans were too dumb to be scientists, it was the state holding them back.
