[Captain Kwok]

I suppose I can weigh in on a few points:

The 'dark ages' in Europe were more the result of the collapse of the Roman Empire and with much war and food shortages, people were more concerned with the basics of survival than 'science' or technology. However, the Chinese and Arabs were doing just fine in these regards and developed lots of new stuff.

Like Chronon already mentioned:

The Church during this time was actually helpful as they copied/translated many important manuscripts which allowed later scholars to develop into new ideas, of course, this was not all good because when something went against the doctrine of the church - things could get it a little rough.

But it did not really hold back 'science'...it was more of people's convictions to the old school of though (i.e. Aristotle, etc).

You may notice I say 'science'. Real science did not begin until the late 1600s and wasn't really seperated from philosophy until the late 1700s.

[ March 10, 2003, 04:38: Message edited by: Captain Kwok ]