XPost: talk.politics.misc, soc.history.what-if, alt.history.what-if   
   From: aspqrz@tpg.com.au   
      
   On Sun, 08 Dec 2019 20:05:41 -0600, Ned Latham   
    wrote:   
      
   >Phil McGregor wrote:   
   >> Ned Latham wrote:   
   >> > Phil McGregor wrote:   
   >> > > Ned Latham wrote:   
   >> > > > PhantomView wrote:   
   >> > > > >   
   >> > > > > I am at a bit of a loss to explain why Rome missed the boat.   
   >> > > >   
   >> > > > Christianity stultified it.   
   >> > >   
   >> > > Christianity had little or nothing to do with it.   
   >   
   >It had *everything* to do with it.   
      
   I disagree with your unsupported personal assertion.   
      
   Christianity onlly started to be a factor from the early 4th century,   
   by which the Empire was 3 centuries old and, the late Republic, which   
   had an Empire even if it wasn't one, adds another century to that.   
      
   >> > > The real problem was economic ... slavery.   
   >> >   
   >> > Rubbish. Slavery was central to Ancient Mediterranean economies   
   >> > throughout the entire period of innovative thought all the way   
   >> > from pre-Classical times in Greece to the Roman Empire's "Silver   
   >> > Age" and beyond.   
   >>   
   >> Evidently you didn't bother to read the REST of what I said.   
   >   
   >Wrong. I read it and dismissed it.   
      
   With no justification other than your unsuppoted personal assertion.   
      
   Which is, of course, entirely valueless.   
      
   >> "Slavery made mechanical and industrial innovation uneconomic in the   
   >> early, usually expensive, stages."   
   >   
   >Irrelevant. The advances that later lifted Europe above the rest of the   
   >world were made before Christianity became the State Religion in the 4th   
   >century. Progress was then suppressed in every area of human endeavour   
   >that had aspects worrying to Christian dogma until the Renaissance.   
      
   Twaddle. Absolute total utter tosh.   
      
   >Even then, it continued trying to suppress progress.   
      
   Twaddle.   
      
   I'm hardly an apologist for the Roman Catholic Church, but your   
   unsupported personal assertion simply doesn't fly and smacks of   
   nothing more than sectarian hatred.   
      
   Perhaps you'd like to condemn the Papist heretics and the Pope as an   
   anti-Christ while you're at it?   
      
   (Me? Born and baptised a Presbyterian ... but an agnostic by choice).   
      
   Phil McGregor   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)