Rustico: I did not mean to infer that you were supporting Islam over Christianity, nor was I holding up the Catholic Church as some paragon of virtue. Nope. I was making the point, however, that whatever the various misdeeds of the Catholic Church (and Christianity for that matter) in the period immediately before and following the Renaissance, far more progress has been made in the Western world than in the Middle and Near East.

The Church’s suppression of knowledge and persecution of folks like Galileo, stands in counterpoint to support of thinkers like Aquinas and artists like Da Vinci. What is inarguable is that, however misguided, the Church and the various state institutions advanced Western civilization at a rapid clip. Yes, it was mainly about the accretion of power, influence and real estate and there were some really nasty instances of bad behavior in there (Cortes, the Spanish Inquisition, pretty much everything having to do with settling The New World, etc), but all of history is replete with similar tales and regardless of geography and culture.

My main point is that we have moved forward and there is NO comparison between the Europe of the Middle Ages and the Europe of today. Individual freedoms, decentralized state and political power, the rule of law have all advanced to a point where the modern states of Germany, Italy, France and England are completely unrecognizable from their older counterparts.

I would also point out that there were more wars (of greater destructiveness) during than Age of Reason than nearly any other point in European history (save WWI/WWII obviously).