This clip, from “Cosmos: A Personal Voyage”, Carl Sagan’s amazing series, still makes me weep at what was lost.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MsF8JhkRIk]
Not the loss of Sagan himself, although that is part of it. But the loss of knowledge, and history that he is speaking about.
I know that knowledge of the roots of Christianity will not sway modern-day Christians, but how can anyone hear of Cyril’s conflicts with Hypatia, and the later destruction of the Library of Alexandria and not feel the lesser for supporting “faith” over reason?
It seems to me that Christianity, like the other fundamentalist religions, are only supported in the present, by denying their past.