Why do so many people use the Dark Ages to slander Christians?

Question

Why do so many people use the Dark Ages to slander Christians?

Answer 1

I always flinch when I see otherwise educated atheists and others using the Dark Ages too, they should be using The Burning Times, 300 years of inquisitions, starting in Spain, came later than the Dark Ages. The Dark Ages were actually called so because with Roman's withdrawal and subsequent collapse of the Empire most of Europe was so dessicated, and the population was so illiterate that very little was written about what happened then, scholars and historians have had to piece the events together, thus it is a "dark spot" in the history of Europe. The Inquisitions now, THAT's ammo!

Answer 2

The Catholic Church in the Dark Ages held the central power for most of Europe. It held to many superstitions, beliefs and practices that are not followed today



These include selling of indulgences (e.g. the rich had the power to buy forgiveness with money) and selling positions of power inside the church...such as priesthoods and bishops. that brought about the Protestant revolutions.



You should also look at the Spanish Inquisition you see that the Catholic Church, or its supporters, were not always "godly".



Then if you look at the Crusades.. where Christian Knights from Catholic Europe invaded the middle east to "protect" the Holy Land..

Answer 3

The "plague" killed 1/3 of the world population. People had little if any hope for tomorrow. When the situation becomes such as the grim reaper comes a calling, people could care less about anyone else.

It must have been clearly, aa dog eat dog world back then.

"Nobody" was nice! Everybody was blaming everybody else for a tragedy of this magnitude, not just the Christians.

We will have no one to blame the next time around. Hardly anyone will even be here.

Answer 4

You're absolutely right in one sense -- history is not so simple that it can be generalized across an entire continent with one or two phrases.

However, you've also made quite a few statements that fly in the face of historical reality. For example, there were indeed people who *thought* (not knew, they did not have or put forth undeniable evidence) that the earth was spherical and attempted to calculate its size and prove their claims...however, read up on the catholic church's brutal oppression of any such thought as heretical, their treatment (which included torture, imprisonment, and death) of anyone who publicly taught such heresy, and their claims of absolute knowledge from god...and you'll see that anyone who tried to rationally deal with the nature of the earth had to do so in secret and in hiding from the church and royal governments sponsored by them.



I'm right now reading an excellent History of Europe by J.M.Roberts. He spends a great deal of time on the "dark ages," in the end concluding that the name is deserved for the period simply because any "new ideas" (and there weren't many) were only accepted and promoted if they bolstered church doctrine or church wealth -- any other ideas were brutally eliminated from discussion by willful church action. The "dark ages" were dark because of oppression of thought and action, and a near total cessation of human progress that had begun in Greek and Roman civilizations, but was halted almost entirely by christian rule.



Oh, and "cadisney" -- it wasn't the same people who later led the way into the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, it was different people taking advantage of the protestant (and Muslim) efforts to erase christian dominance of government and thought that allowed truly new ideas to become public and flourish. And the end of christian (mostly catholic, but not all) dominance of government came mostly through bloody and devastating wars -- the church did not give up its absolute control willingly or happily.



Peace.

Answer 5

From stupid people you can expect stupid answers!



The Dark ages was a time of general ignorance, where many of the population were uneducated, extremely superstitious, and existed in fear of change.



It is true that a very few were burned as witches, but when looked at in the context of the time, we find this was generally ascribed to petty local politics, or even in some cases property based.



The Christian Church has given rise to exquisite art, the expression of wonderful music, writing of outstanding literature and in extolling the divine teachings of The New Testament, illustrating that Jesus preached love rather than hate.



People often confuse politics with religion, which is what happens when the powerful use religion as a shield to hide behind.



This is a very different story to what we find in the teachings of a rather different religion, which practises cutting limbs from the body, beheading, stoning and ultimately the annihilation of the Jewish and Christian peoples from the face of the planet.

If people like to imagine how life was in the Dark Ages, they can look no further than the Middle East to find such practices are very much still alive and well,

Answer 6

Pagans are actually the cause for the Darrk Ages... Read this verse in Revelation 12:15, 16 and remember that God had a Holy Church then.. And the flood represents the masses trying to destroy God's Church(the woman) through Satan's agencies.



Now, the first official church was founded off of Peter just as Jesus said it would be... But, this was short lived though...



Peter was eventually crucified by the Romans and thought himself to be unworthy of the kind of death of Jesus so he was crucified upside down.



After the death of Peter and the others, the Church was persecuted up until the time that the Roman Emperor Constantine marched a 1000 Pagan soldiers through a river in 321AD, and "baptized" them... This effectually did not baptize the Pagans but just made the "wet Pagans"



After this Constantine gave all the Pagans Christian names and went around the City of Rome and named everything a Christian name. Including the Statue of Jupiter(Mars/Pluto, whatever) He renamed it "Peter" as in the Peter from the Bible...



After Constantine became a Christian the true Christians werew outnumbered by far because Christianity was suddenly "popular and everyone wanted in on the new fad... The true Christians had minority vote and many new un biblical doctrines were introduced into modern Christianity.



Pagan Christianity began to climb and in 538AD Emperor Justinian gave his Keys of the Western half of the Roman Empire to the Arch Bishop of Rome and moved his head quarters to Constantinople... The Arch Bishop then began to take over and forced out all of the tribes living in the area. During the next 1200 years the Roman Church deeply persecuted any Christians who would stand against the Papacy and claim the Bible as the only rule of faith... This started the Reformation and the spreading of many kinds of denomonations.

Email me for more information.

Answer 7

As a matter of historical fact christians did spread ignorance, burn books and forbid certain styles of art and architecture. They also systematically went about destroying whatever survived of pagan culture and religion. They slaughtered Jews. They sent numerous religious crusades into the Holy Lands including one led by a duck or goose and several made up entirely of children. People were imprisoned, tortured, and slaughtered for any type of heresy and the church stored up riches while the people suffered in sickness ignorance and poverty. What you see in the architecture and art is the facade built up by those ill-gotten gains. What we see is the misery and darkness hiding behind it.

Answer 8

-This member said it right; and hit the mark with- "They have nothing else to fall back on, so they just use this stupid and outdated "argument" as their default setting. Most of them are also extremely immature." *-Another member who says- "It seems to me people have trouble separating the tares from the wheat, and assume all that claim to be Christians, are Christians"- is correct & wise too!*



If you'll notice, the slanderers always bring this subject up(Christians & "the dark ages"), even when it has absolutely nothing to do with the question they were asked whatsoever(and most often it doesn't)! Also, notice though, that they never present proof of their accusation. For such a popular 'answer' here, surely someone would have bothered to include the proof by now, after all, it would surely set us Christians straight if they did.......and isn't that what they want so desperately to do, set us straight? Yet, no one posts it.



I see that your question isn't receiving a whole lot of answers. I'm extremely surprised! With all the members I've saw over the years that have 'answered' questions with this argument about "the dark ages & Christians", I thought that you'd get a ton of replies! There must at least be eleventy thousand of them.......Where are they?.......I'm sure we'll see them later!



**EDIT**~~But when they do reply, instead of getting good, thought provoking logic & proof, you'll get a bunch of insults & spelling/grammar corrections, etc!**Very good question! ~~God bless!~~**!

Answer 9

It could be that throughout history religions have been hijacked and used as an excuse for evil endeavors.

I am sure that the Crusades are in mind when people say those sorts of things. As well as the Salem Witch Trials, and the forced conversions of Native Americans. Even Hitler claimed religious reasons for his insanity.

It seems to me people have trouble separating the tares from the wheat, and assume all that claim to be Christians, are Christians.

Answer 10

Christian missions actually brought civility and values to savage areas. It's a fallacy to say society was better off without Christians messing it all up.



Contrary to modern myths, when Christopher Columbus discovered the Americas most Europeans believed the world was round.



Many of the Christian crusades were a reaction to the Muslims spreading their convert or die evangelism into Europe. All the predominately Islamic areas of the world are Islamic due to evangelism by way of the sword, and the Christian crusades effectively halted their advance into Europe.



What's funny is no one ever mentions the Muslim crusades, so to speak. Particularly the first 400 years after Muhammed's death was an especially bloody period where Muslims rolled over unsuspecting villages.



It's not just the Medieval dark ages that Muslims slaughtered Christians. Turkey (Asia Minor) was the cradle of Christianity, yet today is 99.8% Muslim. In Turkey it's estimated that 1.5 to 2 million Armenian Christians were murdered in the early 20th century. So, instead of complaining about Christians messing up the dark ages, why don't they speak of Muslims messing up the modern world today. Most all the wars across the world, which are many, involve Muslims.



Those who often harp on the evils of the Medieval Christians bring up the inquisitions with grossly inflated figures. I feel some actual figures instead of hyperbole needs to be injected. Let's look at the inquisition numbers done by actual scholarship, not biased fiction. Below is taken from an article:



"There were two major Inquisitions, the Medieval Inquisition and Spanish Inquisition. Although there are no exact numbers, scholars believe they have estimated Inquisition deaths reasonably accurately. There were not as many deaths as the popular press claims. Numbers have often been inflated to as high as 9 million by the popular press, with absolutely no scholarly research. This figure is completely erroneous. A broad range of scholars, many of whom were not Catholic, have carefully studied the Inquisitions. They looked at all the existing records and were able to extrapolate. . . . If we add the figures, we find that the entire Inquisition of 500 years, caused about 6,000 deaths. These atrocities are completely inexcusable. These numbers are however, a far cry from the those used in the popular press by people who are always looking to destroy the Church."



http://askville.amazon.com/people-killed-Inquisition/AnswerViewer.do?requestId=3878676

Answer 11

It was the restoration of Biblical Christianity that took the world OUT of the Dark Ages.

Answer 12

if you go to the end of the book of Malachi chapter 3 talks about people robbing God 3:8 Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. after that is 400 years that nobody heard from God in between Malachi and Matthew. the 400 years is know as the dark ages

Answer 13

Hey, great point!



It's the same things as fundies picking and choosing things from the Bible and using it out of context as an excuse to hate people or bar ideas. But that's not every Christian. Everybody does their thing to hate the other side.



I agree with you completely, just using that as an example, and one that a lot of atheists use on here to bash all Christians.

Answer 14

I agree that it's kind of silly to poo-poo christians for things that happened a thousand years ago. But there is no denying that it has a dark history..



I think it was probably called the dark ages for the lack of technology and progression.

Answer 15

After Christianity came to power, the schools and academies in most of the towns and cities were shut down because the church considered them pagan. The church from then on decided what was truth, and it resorted to the inquisition and religious wars to maintain its power.



Even after the Protestant Reformation, the Protestants themselves were no better.



It was not until the Enlightenment that church power waned and human intellectual progress began again.

Answer 16

Because the Christian Dark Ages practically sent scientific knowledge spiralling backwards.

Take a look at this...

http://www.molecularstation.com/molecular-biology-images/500-member-galleries/87-the-hole-in-progress-left-by-the-christian-dark-ages.html?ppuser=4096

Christian dogma during the Dark ages in Europe effectively stifled scientific inquiry for over a thousand years. Perhaps the greatest 'sin' carried out by the church was the ban on the dissection of cadavers that held back medicine and biology for a millenium. The power of the church even led to a regression in our scientific understanding of the world and in our use of technology. It was only with the coming of the enlightenment and the rediscovery of 'heretical' Greek and Roman texts that Europeans could claim they had surpassed the Roman's, who's civilisation had collapsed a thousand years previously.

Answer 17

Abuse of power that can be gained from religion certainly had a place in creating a not-so-pleasant period in time.



However, the abuse of something doesn't make that something necessarily bad.



It's sad that the worst argument most of them can muster against the Christian faith is a hundreds-year-old period in which power was abused.

Answer 18

I think you are actually misinterpreting what people are saying



In the Middle Ages, Theocracies ran rampant (Holy Roman Empire, Orthdox Empires, Church of England / Tudor Family, etc.) and during this time the Christian elites misused these powers and basically destroyed any form of opposing civilisation.

Answer 19

because most peopel contribute part of the dark to christianty



i dont have to i just point out the fact that the religion is as it was then today

and tahts quite an achievment, and nothing to be proud of

Answer 20

Well, probably because of all the atrocities committed by xtians during the Dark Ages, for one. But you don't have to limit yourself to the Dark Ages - xtians have committed genocides and other atrocities during every historical era.



It is a historically "dark" period ("dark" meaning not many good historical accounts are to be found) and is known for its growth of fundamentalist dogmatic xtianity. Those other Y!A users are right - the LAST TIME xtians were in complete control, we were, in fact, in the Dark Ages.

Answer 21

The Dark Ages were a time when religion reigned. Countries were ruled by the Church, and scientific progress and inquiry were quashed through coercion, torture, and execution.

Answer 22

For it to be slander it has to be untrue.



No one is slandering Christians, they are just pointing out uncomfortable truths.





Feel free to research the origin of the phrase "God will know his own" which occurred during a particularly loving Christian act.

Answer 23

I often wonder why these same people never bring up the fact that Christians were also around and contributed during great periods of enlightenment and technological advancement.



Religious authority did help to suppress knowledge and progress in our history but it wasnt because of the actual religion. It was because they wanted power over people. The fact that people of that same religion that was doing the oppressing and suppressing were also the ones that eventually pushed forward great knowledge and advancement proves that it wasnt the religion itself, but the people that wanted to use religion to gain power and control.





But hey, lets not let common sense and actual historical facts interfere with our bashing, lol.

Answer 24

Laziness.

Answer 25

it's a historical fact, deal with it.



at least you can improve Christianity rather than hiding what's wrong with it.



although I do agree that people shouldn't generalize all Christians about the dark ages for the same reason people shouldn't generalize all Germans on Nazism.

Answer 26

BECAUSE IT HAPPENED! If the founding fathers of your church were torturers and murderers, it matters today. They killed Christians and many of those they killed they have cannonized as saints.

Answer 27

slander? if your not educated for civil rights you will not see that slander (gossip) in killing non-believers. like the witch hunts that occurred.

Answer 28

They are ignorant of other Christian blunders

Answer 29

Inquisition

Witch burning

Women abused

Crusades

Superstition



The Renaissance was when most of that was shaken off and ther really beautiful art, music, architecture happened

Answer 30

to remind people that theocracies are about ignorance and to not be governed by such stupidity again

Answer 31

they like to tell truth and lies together



they do not like to be totally honest so they slant the information to favour their argument just as they claim all wars are caused by religion or christians

Answer 32

Because they want to slander Christians. Its a flaw in their character. Since they reject God, they want to "bully" those who accept Him. They know it doesn't have anything to do with today's Christian, but it's mud, so they sling it.



Useless little creatures really.



To ascibe the faults of middle age Christians to today's Christians would be to ascribe slavery to todays white people.

Answer 33

They have nothing else to fall back on, so they just use this stupid and outdated "argument" as their default setting. Most of them are also extremely immature.

Answer 34

Because history was tainted by Satan

Answer 35

10th Century Obscenities

Vile Princes of the Papacy

"Popes maimed & were maimed, killed & were killed... Without question, these pontiffs constitute the most despicable body of leaders, clerical or lay, in history. They were, frankly, barbarians. Ancient Rome had nothing to rival them in rottenness."

– Peter de Rosa (Vicars of Christ, p48)

John XII (955-964).

Born from an incestuous relationship between Pope Sergio III and his 13-year-old daughter Marozie. John, in turn, took his mother as his own mistress.

Pope at 18, he turned the Lateran into a brothel. He was accused by a synod of "sacrilege, simony, perjury, murder, adultery and incest" and was temporarily deposed.

He took his revenge on opponents by hacking off limbs. He was murdered by an enraged husband who caught him having sex with his wife.

11th Century Horror

Church lords over ignorant squalor of millions

1095 - Pope Urban II calls upon the Franks to invade the more civilized Muslim world. Begins five centuries of warfare.



"Let those who have hitherto been robbers now become soldiers."

– Urban II addresses his gangsters.



1009: Rivalry from Islam prompts eastern churches to break with idolatry. This 'iconoclasm' begins breach with idol-worshipping Catholic west. Centuries of bloodshed ensue.

1079: The Council of Rome: Persecution of Berengarius & his followers who cannot stomach the dogma of 'transmutation of bread & wine into Christ.'

12th Century Criminality

Christian Church ally of murderous kings & rogue princes



"Warrior Monks" - Muslim heads catapulted into the besieged city of Antioch by Christian Knights (Illumination from Les Histoires d'Outremer by William of Tyre 12th century, Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris).



1118: Christian fanatics captured Saragossa; the beginning of the decline of Muslim civilization in Spain.

1184 Council of Verona condemns Waldensians for witchcraft. The charge is later extended to condemn heretics.



13th Century Wickedness

Vile Crusaders Plunder & Murder for God

1204 Christian crusaders sack & ruin greatest Christian city, Constantinople.

1209 Pope Innocent III launches Albigensian Crusade against Christian Cathars of southern France. 7000 massacred in La Madeleine Church alone.

1211 Burning of Waldenses heretics at Strasbourg begins several centuries of persecution.

German Teutonic Knights butcher their way through the Baltic lands, savage Catholic Poles & Orthodox Russians.



1231: Pope Gregory IX authorizes Inquisition for dealing with heretics.

1277 Pope John XXI, alarmed by rumors of pagan heresy among “scholars of arts in the faculty of theology" pressurizes Stephen Tempier, Bishop of Paris, to prohibit 219 philosophical and theological theses. The "Condemnations of Paris" is the first of 16 lists of censorship.



14th Century Catastrophe

Church hostility to medicine allows plague to decimate Europe







Burning of the Jews of Cologne – blamed by Christians for the Black Death (Liber Chronicarum Mundi).

World Domination?

"We declare, say, define, and pronounce that it is absolutely necessary for the salvation of every human creature to be subject to the Roman pontiff."



– Pope Boniface VIII, Bull Unun Sanctum, 1302

1311-12: Ecumenical Council of Vienne. It authorises the brutal suppression of the Knights Templar (mercenaries of the church who have outlived their usefulness).







1316-1334: Pope John XXII, world's richest man and first pontiff to promote theory of witchcraft. Sanctions bull allowing heresy charges to be brought against dead people. In 1320 he instructs French Inquisition to confiscate all property belonging to blasphemers or dabblers in black arts.





1347-50: The Black Death sweeps across Europe, killing one-third of the population.

"Jews were burnt all the way from the Mediterranean into Germany... under torture confessing to have spread the plague by poisoning wells... the poison made from the skin of a basilisk (a kind of mythical serpent)..."



– N. Cantor (In the Wake of the Plague)













15th Century Malevolence

Tortured Bodies by Sadists of the Lord





16th Century Mayhem

Pogroms & civil wars in the name of Jesus



"My advice... is: First, that their synagogues be burned down, and that all who are able toss sulphur and pitch; it would be good if someone could also throw in some hellfire.."

Martin Luther ("On the Jews and their lies" 1543)



1517: Martin Luther posts 95 theses at Wittenberg. The Reformation will turn Europe into a battleground.

1517 A Dominican monk Johann Tetzel swells papal coffers by selling indulgences ('souls freed from purgatory'!)

1524: Luther – no friend of the downtrodden – encourages savagery of German princes in putting down the two-year Peasants’ Revolt.





Book Burners for Christ–

Dominican monks in the service of Ferdinand proudly consign the wisdom of Moorish Spain to the flames (Berruguete, Prado Museum, Madrid)



1553 John Calvin, the "Protest