LTMD: I address this to you as there really aren’t many people with whom I could speak freely regarding this subject. So, as I do with many ‘difficult’ topics I’d rather write it to you.
I’ve recently become fascinated with the ‘ancient world,’ which is defined as the time before the fall of the Roman Empire in AD 476. I was never taught much about it throughout my education and so I was intrigued by the amount of attention ‘ancient knowledge’ is gaining today.
It first caught my attention when I read “Reality Is Not What It Seems‘ about Quantum Gravity by Carlo Rovelli. (My post about this book here) In this book the majority of his praise goes to Democritus and his formulation of the atomic theory of the universe way back in 460 BC. He also attacks the Catholic Church for doing a pretty good job of systematically destroying any ancient teaching that was not in line with its own.
The closure of the ancient schools such as those of Athens and Alexandria, and the destruction of all the texts not in accordance with Christian ideas was vast and systematic, at the time of the brutal anti-pagan repression following the edicts of Emperor Theodosius, which in 390-391 declared that Christianity was to be the only and obligatory religion of the empire.
His basic point here is that Democritus was a giant of his time in the scientific field, was on the right track and that the rise of the Catholic Church was a major setback for science, truth and the reality of all that is around us.
The next book which I’ve just finished is ‘Meditations‘ by the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius. I’ve written a post which contain my favorite quotes here. In it Marcus Aurelius talks about the universe being formed by atoms which must have come from the teachings of Democritus. Marcus Aurelius also speaks of the universe as nature, of gods, and even a line mocking Christians.
“What a great soul is that which is ready, at any requisite moment, to be separated from the body and then to be extinguished or dispersed or continue to exist. But this readiness must come from a man’s own judgement, not from mere obstinacy, as with the Christians, but considerately and with dignity and in a way to persuade another, without tragic show.”
And so what is my point in all of this? The point is that I feel I’ve just made an enormous discovery: It is not a discovery that is unknown to humanity, but it is hidden in academic journals, in the minds of college professors and something that is lightly and delicately mentioned by our most famous scientists of today so as not to alienate the massive amount of religious people.
The fall of the Roman Empire was a complete disaster for science, for knowledge, for philosophy and for advancing mankind’s understanding of our universe. This incredible knowledge was burned and destroyed by both marauding, wild hordes of uneducated savages and what was left destroyed by a cult of superstition called the Catholic Church. The rise of the Church coincided with the dark ages, a time of ignorance where the only knowledge was that of a superstitious, quasi-historical book called The Bible.
And what really shocks me is that this superstition persists to our own modern times; times where the regular person has more education than at any other time in history.
Science and the knowledge of the Greeks were making inroads into the superstitions of the western world but it all collapsed with the fall of the Roman Empire. Superstition through religion gained the upper hand and it hasn’t let go of its grip even now in the year 2017.
Somehow, even the very brightest scientists, Ph.D holders perform an enormous amount of mental gymnastics to believe in science while at the same time believing in the superstition of religion. Religion has such an incredible grip on the human psyche that I doubt it will ever die away until perhaps thousands of years from now. Christianity has lasted for two thousand years and even with new discoveries that directly contradict its teachings, many people can still find a way to look past the blatant errors and continue to believe.
And so, today on April 21st, 2017 I’m shocked that scientists in the Ancient World were on to the truth and that it has been blatantly buried by religion, by Christianity until the twentieth century, a century which we’ve just left. Humanity, through science has landed people on the moon and has machines exploring other planets and our galaxy. Yet, a very large amount of humanity still clings to a cult started just 2000 years ago.
I’ve come across truth and I feel strange that there are very few people I can speak with about this. How incredible is it that they would reject it due to superstitions taught to them since birth, or be a subject that doesn’t interest them even though it leads to the reason for their very existence!
This is a subject I’ll surely write more about. It is shocking to me to realize that the Ancient World had such incredible knowledge and we’ve been thrown into the dark for 2000 years. Perhaps if we were to look at it through the lens of seemingly infinite time, this is just a very small chapter: protagonists, races, or even entire species have their ups and downs; they come and go, have triumphs and failures. Perhaps one day the majority of humanity will dig itself out of the pit of superstition which began 2000 years ago with the tragedy of the fall of the Roman Empire.
