lol that's about as poor a reading of history as a 6000 year old earth http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Christianity - that's what I was talking about. The Greeks actually kept very excellent records; there's a lot of myths within new atheism about history that aren't generally regarded as historical facts. Christianity's boom in the East was going on fine as the West was getting eaten up by rats and after the East/West Schism, all kinds of stupidity came out of Rome. The East had their heydey - and the Muslim and Greek Christians had a decent relationship, if imperfect. Even after the occupation of Constantipole in 1200-something for 200 years, Islamic leaders allowed schools to continue, eventually leading to a few Greek schools to show up in Italy, fueling the Renaissance in the West. But then that hard-ass Islamic ruler came in.. I forget his name - around 1493 or so... the Fall of Constantiple... pretty much marked the end of the East in Christiandom for a long time. Western Christiandom was a bit of a joke, with Inquisitions and other bits of stupidity, rightfully mockable. Timeline of Christianity - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The purpose of this timeline is to give a detailed account of... en.wikipedia.org 35 mins * Like * 1 * Remove Preview Kenneth Udut Joe NapolitanoThanks for the Like - I appreciate it. I get vigilant on the historical part of things (I spent a few years in my 20s totally immersed in Eastern Orthodox Christian stuff, so I learned a lot of history they don't teach us here - all the missing parts) - because I keep seeing historical errors cropping up over and over again by people who are otherwise extremely highly intelligent people. The guy that makes me cringe heavily is one of my favorites too: Neil Degrasse-Tyson. He's awesome - he's my black science man, and I enjoy it when he talks about modern science. But when he dives into history, I find myself going, "no no no no no no NOOOOO!" - he repeats a lot of the same errors (supposed persecution (and torture!?) of Gallileo; Gallileo was a bit of a jerk; they let him publish his hypothesis but not as fact (and, in turns out, they WEREN'T facts... he was wrong although on the right track) - and even *that* wouldn't have been so bad, but he mocked the current Pope of the time. They put him under house arrest. Not tortured. An Inquisition was like a court trial; there were many inquisitions. The mistake often made (and hearing Degrasse-Tyson repeat it would make me yell at the TV) - is lumping them all together. The Spanish Inquisition was an entirely unique affair; the fact that they both shared the same title (Inquisition) is all they really had in common. Another common error is lumping together anything with the word Inquisition and "burning at the stake" and the witch trials in America. Had nothing to do with each other. Different historical events entirely. One may decide to consider it a "symptom of a disease" - that's fine. But Gallileo wasn't tortured, even though he was arrested for personal reasons (he gave a fictional character in one of his books the words spoken by the current Pope; and the Catholic Church *did* finally apologize for it; although it took them a long time ) I'm not defending their activities; that Pope was an idiot; I'm just defending a more rounded view of History.... and I hold educators like Tyson at a higher standard because they influence so many people... and basic factual errors from a man of science who is a public figure and well-regarded is something I don't expect to see in 2014.