I was lucky in my mid 20s to be exposed to the Eastern Orthodox – the Greeks.
I got to learn an entirely DIFFERENT view of history.
Knowledge wasn’t lost after the “fall of the roman empire”.
The fact is, there were 7 OTHER EMPIRES that were going perfectly fine without Rome, thank you very much.
The Roman Road turned to shit, but progress in knowledge and technology continued on just fine without Europe.
When we *do* bring it up, we like to point to a radical Muslim just to make it interesting. But it was a continuation of the Ancient Greek culture, andd the only reason the stuff GOT to the West, is because a new Islamic leader decided that getting along with the Christians was getting BORING.
He wanted to get strict and “go back to the old days”.
Mind you, this is 1493. Old days is old days.
So, he went Fundie, screwed up Byzantium and the scholars ran off to Italy.
They formed schools. [well, they started forming schools in the 12th century or 13th I forget].
And one of them happened to have Michelangelo. Rich boy, got good education. Started Renaisance.
The ancient books were never lost and rediscovered. They were never lost.
Wait – I was wrong: 1453.
This dude, 21-year-old Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II,
Hero to Islam.
Villain to Eastern Christians.
Western Christians (and the cultures that stemmed from Western Christiandom.. which includes the form of modern atheism we know), doesn’t even know his name.
The history of Science is riddled with AWFUL holes.
Drives me nuts. But it’s nearly impossible to escape propaganda whenever there’s education involved. Somebody has a vested interest somewhere.