Avengers Endgame (spoilers)

[Bahnz]

Yes, the most educated were the people in the Church - which was the problem. The knowledge became restricted to few - you can see the decline in all sorts of things, from how to do things to literature and poetry. The church itself became more dogmatic. Societies became smaller. Most of the knowledge that still exists from that period was actually Greek and Roman stuff that was taken to the middle east and preserved there.

Also Christianity had a large (though not the only and maybe not the primary, despite what Gibbon thought) role to play in the decline of the roman empire.

Again, I think you'll find a lot of classical historians who would argue that Christianity was at most a minor factor compared to other causes like overreliance on slave labour and military conquest, corruption, climate change and confrontations with younger and more vigorous rival empires. I mean, one of the major problems the Romans had was that scientific progress in Europe ground to a halt during the Imperial period because of the heavy focus on military utilitarianism. They were great engineers but what limited scientific inquiry there was pretty much restricted to Greece.

 

[silentstriker]

Oh don’t get me wrong, one of the most unfortunate occurrences was the fall of Greece (particularly Athens). But just look at the size of cities in Europe in the Dark Ages. Engineering is important to create a civilization that has enough room to devote time and energy to scientific inquiry.

 

[NZTailender]

So anyway

5 years people lived without the others - they don't get their age reset one imagines, or their lives either. Bit awkward if you remarried and had kids.

 

[Athlai]

So anyway

5 years people lived without the others - they don't get their age reset one imagines, or their lives either. Bit awkward if you remarried and had kids.

Yeah and it’d probably be on the scale of tens to maybe even hundreds of millions of marriages. Lawyers would truly be loving it.

 

[OverratedSanity]

I'd have liked it if they showed that millions of people coming back to life crippled food supplies and the world became a dystopian nightmare, thus proving thanos right

Edit: I see this has already been discussed. Sad face

 

[Athlai]

Thanos is an unreliable narrator. He tells Gamorra to her face that he saved her planet and people by doing what he did, in Guardians of the Galaxy 1, the Nova Corps note that she’s the last of her kind.

 

[Flem274*]

Obviously spread of Christianity and the consequent turn away from intellectual activities had a big role to play in the difference as well.

I think you're misunderstanding the historical role of the church in ancient history. They were the preservers of knowledge. The monks and bishops were the most educated of society. The clashes between the church and scientists only really happened once science began to establish itself in the renaissance.

It was the infighting and bickering between nobles in ancient Rome that eventually led to the collapse of the empire and the subsequent dark ages.

these had their part, but imo of the major influences to the fall the 3 largest were climatic, economic and social.

-the hordes were being constantly pushed south by climate change
-the romans developed some racism. killing off the german families of their german legions is a particular highlight
-the romans never got their heads around inflation

the west had no money, no tolerance and a pile of people knocking on their door looking for somewhere that could grow food and didn't have the huns or the vandals running about. the vandals themselves migrated from northern germany to the african breadbasket.

christianity did partially socially wreck the roman slave economy, but so did the cessation of roman expansion. rome and sassanid persia were reasonably happy with their size and borders despite the usual border squabbling. no slaves means economic reform is required and that's hard to do when professional armies are loyal to their generals who then feel culturally compelled to act when their stupid armies nominate them augustus/imperator.

christianity and infighting had their roles but vastly undderate roman society. rome's strneghts were their openness to new people and ideas (roman citizenship being based on cultural instead of ethnic grounds was revoluionary) and sheer manpower. they could raise some serious ****ing numbers of professional soldiers. that's why they could afford so many civil wars without collapse.

 

[Anil]

Yeah and it’d probably be on the scale of tens to maybe even hundreds of millions of marriages. Lawyers would truly be loving it.

yeah it would be good for business...