The Dark Ages is a Myth!

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#Medival #Science #History

[regularfather]

Nobody living in a so-called dark age is gonna spend centuries building beautiful architecture that endures for over a millenia. We love to remember the worst things about the past so we can denigrate those who built the world we live in. Meanwhile, the achievements of our forefathers are systematically forgotten.

[TitusCastiglione]

The fact that whole idea of the “dark ages” even still holds credibility with many people is something almost guaranteed to tick me off.

[Acerthorn]

Ok, we DEFINITELY need a full-length video on this matter.

[CharlieKraken]

This is why "Dark Ages" is a loaded term which propagates misconceptions by its very nature. "Middle Ages" is a much better, far more neutral, term for it.

[idongesitx]

Love how the last suggestion was: “read a book”

[skylerharris]

I’d love to see a more expansive video on this.

[Damage_r]

Even the term “the dark ages” is historically inaccurate and unscientific. The term historians use is “early Middle Ages.”

[mavericktheace]

I thought "Dark Ages" referred to the last time Elves had dealings with the Dwarves...

[fas]

Yea. I realised that after reading The Foundations of Modern Science in the Middle Ages. And later God’s Philosophers.

[chrisbolland]

Well... yeah they didn't try to get RID of old authors, the problem was there weren't many copies of them, and most people were more worried about defense.
And it wasn't the 'Christianization' of the empire that had anything to do with it, it was the FALL of the western roman empire, followed much later by the east.

[fyoxept]

Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Kent, Padua, Paris, Florence were established in Medieval Europe.

[ruthannemackinnon]

We are the ones living in the dark ages

[JazzGinas]

Fun fact: all the burning of heretics, witch hunting and etc started after the Dark Ages, during the rise of Renessance when Church was corrupted by many conflicts and recent splits

[EstbXCIII]

Alcuin was actually a teacher, . scholar and poet.from Northumbria, England. He would travel to and teach in Italy where King Charlemagne met Alcuin during his visit with the.Pope. So impressed was Charlemagne with Alcuins vast knowledge that he asked Alciun to serve under him back in Frankia. For a long time Charlemagne would rely on Alcuins advice and his wisdom when decision making. The Emperor also pit him in charge of educating the people of Frankia as the Prime Minister Of Education. He was described to be "The most learned man anywhere to be found" bu the author of the biography "Life Of Charlemagne.

[markmcflounder]

I just accepted the idea of the Dark Ages. And, just recently have discovered that it is a myth and an intended perjorative one at that. I was just reading a book on the history of physics from 2010 & it mentions the dark ages. James Hannam makes it very clear that the roots of the scientific revolution were in the middle ages. There were some that thought that the earth moved and related its motion to someone being on a boat & Copernicus drew from the knowledge of the middle ages. Moreover, you have Charlemagne's influence of education and reading the classics. The university emerged from this period. And, David Berlinski in "The Devil's Delusion" makes note of the powerful intellect of Thomas Aquinas.

[codygillard]

May we all pray for John Dunfee, he needs the love and support of Christ in this dark hours, and may we pray for his mental stability.

[michaelnixda]

Certainly it was No backdrop into savagery. But after the downfall of the Roman Empire they lost a lot of engineering skills (concrete, waterworks, medical Instruments). And I think education focused a lot more in the elites. And life expectancy went down for the Common people. So I think you could call it a kind of dark age, at least for a Part of the population. Had nothing to do with religion though.

[nobilisvaga]

Well thier is a dark age of learning now, i just had to teach my nephew why math isn't racist.

[JohnBaskette]

The “dark ages” myth utilizes an historical misdirection. The Germanic tribes, Britain, Gaul, and Germany were never particularly “light”. The light of classic civilization shown mostly in the eastern Mediterranean and extended into Rome, North Africa, and Spain. These Western centers fell into a material decline after the fall of Rome and the influx of Germanic tribes settling in to these areas. We see the church preserving classical culture and expanding it into areas where it never really existed.

But as Islam expanded and ended cultural exchange with the East and North Africa, we do see the wide spread knowledge of Greek decline precipitously. The west broke from the East and became its own separate culture to a much greater degree than before. It had its own advances, but many ancient writings were no longer available until translated into Latin in the late Medieval period from Arabic copies obtained from Cordoba. But it’s not fair to describe the period as “dark”. Rather it was a developing Nothern European culture as compared with its more developed Southern European and North African classical predecessors.

[uniqueYouTubeCreatorHandle]

For fans of engineering or economics, I would also recommend "The Medieval Machine", which was an enlightening read for me. Like most people I believed the myth, and in school was not interested enough in history to ask good questions.