200AD                                                           500AD                                                       750AD                                                       1200AD

 

https://www.timetoast.com/timelines/eleanors-medieval-europe

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The Romans took over Greece and Egypt initially as a Republic. After 27AD, the Roman Empire was run by emperors with Greek and Roman mythology,  and  controlled Europe and Middle East. In 200 AD, the Huns started the collapse in Germany, By 500 AD, the Eastern Roman empire is Christian. By 750 AD  Spain and the Middle East is Islamic, and the Franks are Catholic under Charlemagne. By 1200 AD, Britain and most of Europe  is now Catholic, and the crusades have started to try and push back Islam. 

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Middle Ages

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Medieval religion developed as a hybrid of pagan beliefs and practices and Catholicism, eventually dominating the everyday lives of peasants.

The religion of the Middle Ages, as characterized by historian Peter Brown, was about “the joining of Heaven and Earth.” As Christianity spread throughout Europe in the Early Middle Ages, the Latin Catholic Church dominated official and proscribed religious beliefs, in some cases driving pagan practices underground while in other cases incorporating pagan rites and rituals into the emerging tapestry of medieval religious structures. All life was dominated by some aspect of the Catholic Church, from life to death and throughout the calendar year, identified by hundreds of feast days.

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In a society where most people – as many as 98%, were illiterate serfs and peasants, the only avenue of escape rested not on earth, but in the afterlife. Although the rigidity and unending routine of society in the Middle Ages was mitigated by festivals usually tied to important feast days of the Church, such as the carnivalesque periods before Lent or Christmas – a subject explored by historians like Z. Natalie Davis, the over-riding factor of daily life was found in conformity to Church control of everyday life.

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Religion in the Middle Ages served several purposes. Catholicism represented a unifying factor as well as a controlling mechanism to define human existence within a paradigm of cosmic order brilliantly stratified and explained by the poet Dante. Detractors and dissidents were heretics, threats to the conformity of religion which formed the most important aspect of social and cultural identity.

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Christianity did not immediately win the hearts and minds of the people of Europe. The process of Christianization was a slow one and, even toward the end of the Middle Ages, many people still practiced 'folk magic' and held to the beliefs of their ancestors even while observing Christian rites and rituals. The pre-Christian people – now commonly referenced as 'pagans' – had no such label for themselves. The word 'pagan' is a Christian designation from the French meaning a 'rustic,' one who came from the rural countryside, where the old beliefs and practices held tightly long after urban centers had more or less adopted orthodox Christian belief.

Through the Middle Ages the religions founded around an monotheist god, as expressed in the the dead sea scrolls (Christianity, Judaeism, Islam), are dominant under  the European monarch and emperors.  The architecture of places of worship became the way to express fealty, and became more and more elaborate as in the Gothic Cathedrals. Religious orthodoxy ruled. 

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Magna Carta 1254 AD started the devolution of power in the UK. The 1300's saw the plague decimating the population by 30%, erosion of the control of monarchs as in Magna Carta, and 100 years war between France and England over religion. In response, the late middle ages  saw the rise of the Renaissance, a movement that sprang from the ashes of a crisis-ridden 14th century helped by the printing press (1440 AD) democratizing information.  The Renaissance began in Italy among intellectuals of the urbanized North who instead of giving way to pessimism in the wake of the death and socio-economic upheaval around them chose to create a new society through a search for renewal or rebirth. 

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Republic of Florence

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The republic was ruled by a council, known as the signoria. The signoria was chosen by the gonfaloniere (titular ruler of the city), who was elected every two months by Florentine guild members.

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The son of Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici, Cosimo de' Medici succeeded his father as the head of the Medici Bank. He played a prominent role in the government of Florence until his exile in 1433, after a disastrous war with Tuscany's neighbour, the Republic of Lucca. Cosimo's exile in Venice lasted for less than a year, when the people of Florence overturned Cosimo's exile in a democratic vote. Cosimo returned to the acclaim of his people and the banishment of the Albizzi family, who had exiled him. The Renaissance began during Cosimo's de facto rule of Florence, the seeds of which had arguably been laid before the Black Death tore through Europe. Niccolò Niccoli was the leading Florence humanist scholar of the time. He appointed the first Professor of Greek, Manuel Chrysoloras (the founder of Hellenic studies in Italy), at the University of Florence in 1397. Niccoli was a keen collector of ancient manuscripts, which he bequeathed to Cosimo upon his death in 1437. Poggio Bracciolini succeeded Niccoli as the principal humanist of Florence. Bracciolini was born Arezzo in 1380. He toured Europe, searching for more ancient Greco-Roman manuscripts for Niccoli. Unlike his employer, Bracciolini also authored his own works. He was made the Chancellor of Florence shortly before his death, by Cosimo, who was his best friend.

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Cosimo's fervent patronage transformed Florence into the epitome of a Renaissance city. He employed Donatello, Brunelleschi, and Michelozzo. All these artistic commissions cost Cosimo over 600,000 florins.

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Foreign relations, both as a backdrop to Cosimo's rise to power and during first twenty years of his rule, were dominated by the Wars in Lombardy. This series of conflicts between the Republic of Venice and the Duchy of Milan for hegemony in Northern Italy lasted from 1423 to 1454 and involved a number of Italian states, that occasionally switched sides according to their changing interests. Filippo Maria Visconti of Milan invaded Florence twice in the 1430s, and again in 1440, but his army was finally defeated in the battle of Anghiari. The Milanese invasions were largely instigated by the exiled Albizzi family. Death of Filippo Maria in 1447 led to a major change in the alliances. In 1450 Cosimo's current ally Francesco Sforza established himself as the Duke of Milan. Florentine trade interests made her support Sforza's Milan in the war against Venice, while the fall of Constantinople in 1453 dealt a blow to Venetian finances. Eventually, the Peace of Lodi recognized Venetian and Florentine territorial gains and the legitimacy of the Sforza rule in Milan. The Milan-Florence alliance played a major role in stabilizing the peninsula for the next 40 years.

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The political crisis of 1458 was the first serious challenge to the Medici rule. The cost of wars had been borne by the great families of Florence, and disproportionately so by Medici's opponents. A number of them (Serragli, Baroncelli, Mancini, Vespucci, Gianni) were practically ruined and had to sell their properties, and those were acquired by Medici's partisans at bargain prices. The opposition used partial relaxation of Medici control of the republic institutions to demand political reforms, freedom of speech in the councils and a greater share in the decision-making. Medici's party response was to use threats of force from private armies and Milanese troops and arranging a popular assembly dominated by Cosimo's supporters. It exiled the opponents of the regime and introduced the open vote in councils, ``in order to unmask the anti-Medician rebels".

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From 1458 Cosimo withdrew from any official public role, but his control of Florence was greater than ever. In the spring of 1459 he entertained the new pope Pius II, who stopped in Florence on his way to the Council of Mantua to declare a crusade against the Ottomans, and Galeazzo Maria Sforza, Francesco's son, who was to escort the pope from Florence to Mantua. In his memoirs, Pius said that Cosimo “was considered the arbiter of war and peace, the regulator of law; less a citizen than master of his city. Political councils were held in his home; the magistrates he chose were elected; he was king in all but name and legal status. . . . Some asserted that his tyranny was intolerable."

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The Renaissance flourished in the Republic of Florence a community run by a series of oligarch families elected by a small group of power brokers. The Medichi's supported a new breed of open thinkers, such as Leonardo Da Vinchi, Michaelangelo, etc.  Leonardo Da Vinchi (1452-1549 AD) predates Columbus, Magellan's voyage, Elizabeth 1, Copernicus heliocentric theory, Dutch Masters. Galileo (1564-1642 AD) still fell foul of the Catholic Church dogma for championing Copernicus's ideas, and in 1859 Darwin imposed a self imposed delay in Origin of Species possibly due to religious pressure with debate continued  through  the Scopes monkey trial in 1925, until today. 

 

1520 AD Luther excommunicated started the Reformation. 

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​The Age of Enlightenment

The Age of Enlightenment, or simply the Enlightenment, was an intellectual and philosophical movement that dominated Europe in the 16-1700's with global influences and effects. The Enlightenment included a range of ideas centered on the value of human happiness, the pursuit of knowledge obtained by means of reason and the evidence of the senses, and ideals such as liberty, progress

In 1749, the French naturalist Georges-Louis Leclerc proposed that age of the earth was much longer than the bible suggested. By the early 1800's the deposition of strata was accepted, and that fossils could be used to identify layers. Even though the first dinosaur bone was found in 1674, it was  only identified as an extinct giant lizard in 1824. 

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USA established their democratic revolution in 1777 AD, the French in 1799 AD.  It was not until 1802 that a general election process was established in the UK is response to the revolutions in the US and France. The great democratic powers then proceeded to dominate the  Industrial Revolution and the post World War 2 technology revolution. At the same time societies controlled by religious orthodoxy or monarchies, such as Tsarist Russia, Afghanistan etc seem unable to progress.   

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In the end, religion just provides an unchanging, fact-free, construction whereas understanding reality is the only way to make progress, democracy is a critical freedom that allows freedom of thought. 

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See also 

• Draper, John William. (1875). History of the Conflict between Religion and Science. Henry S. King & Co (reissued by Cambridge University Press, 2009; ISBN 978-1-108-00069-7)

• Henry E. Sigerist 1938. Science and democracy.  "it cannot be mere coincidence that science actually has flourished during democratic periods"

 

Monarchy - Sacred kingship or theocratic kingship, religious and political concept by which a ruler is seen as an incarnation, manifestation, mediator, or agent of the sacred or holy (the transcendent or supernatural realm). 

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Democracy - Republic - a state in which supreme power is held by the people and their elected representatives, and which has an elected or nominated president rather than a monarch.

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Conflicts in the 1990's

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1905 started with a revolution in Russia to make the Tsars a constitutional monarchy. In 1914, the assassination of the Austro-Hungarian heir by a Serb,  triggered a cascade of allies to join WW1 with Germany, Austro-Hungary, Italy and the Ottomans against France, England, Russia, China and eventually USA - the autocrats against the democracies.  By 1918, a second  revolution resulted in a Russian communist autocracy. 

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The poverty in post WW1 Germany eventually led to the democratic election of Hitler who made himself dictator, and who's expansionist aims precipitated WW2 between the autocracies of  Germany, Italy and Japan against everyone else. Post war Europe was divided by the "Iron curtain" forming a communist "sphere of influence". This time, stability in democratic Europe was maintained by financial support and continued passive military presence. Civil war in China led to a communist take over in 1949.

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Post WW2, the remining world empires gave up direct rule, the power conflict became US led democracy vs. USSR  led communism using proxy countries forming "spheres of influence".  Communist expansion stalled after conflict in Korea and Vietnam. In 1976, Mao Tse Tung died and China moved to economic liberalization. Eventually communism in USSR collapsed with the fall of the Wall in 1989. 

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As communism declined, Islamic purists reemerged resisting external  influences which resulted the Islamic revolution in Iran in 1979,  the rejection of USSR by Afghanistan in 1989,  the attack on the Twin Powers in 2000, and subsequent entanglement in Afghanistan, and Iran. 

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All religions 

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Since the earliest humans walked the earth, individuals have wondered where they came from, why they’re here, and what it all means. Religion, by and large, represents society’s attempts to answer those questions. While it isn’t always able to achieve that goal, it often succeeds at providing followers with structure, a code of ethics, and a sense of purpose. The promise of an afterlife, a core tenet of most organized religions, is another key motivator for followers, as this belief serves an important psychological function.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/religion

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Christianity, Islam, Judaeism, Buddism, Hinduism, Zoarastrianism, Ancient Egypt, Inca, Mayan,  with all their diversity of beliefs, the major religions are in accord in one great teaching: Human beings are immortal and their spirit comes from a divine world and may eventually return there. Since the earliest forms of spiritual expression, this is the great promise and hope that religions have offered to their followers. 

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   https://www.encyclopedia.com/science/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/how-major-religions-view-afterlife

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All religions seem to create elaborate constructions to support our need for there to be  life after death. 

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https://www.neatorama.com/2007/03/23/heaven-and-hell-according-to-various-religions/

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Judaeism - Gan Eden/ Hell

Zoroastrianism - Paradise / The Chinvat Bridge:

Christianity - Heaven / Hell

Greek /Hades

Islam - Paradise / Hell

Hinduism - Moksha / Samsara

Bidduism - Nirvana / The Bardo

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychology_of_religion

According to Eric Fromm, humans need a stable frame of reference. Religion fills this need. In effect, humans crave answers to questions that no other source of knowledge has an answer to, which only religion may seem to answer. However, a sense of free will must be given for religion to appear healthy. An authoritarian notion of religion appears detrimental.[20]

https://archive.org/details/psychoanalysisre00fromrich/page/4/mode/2up

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Islam

Muslims believe that Islam is the complete and universal version of a primordial faith that was revealed many times through earlier prophets such as Adam, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus, among others;[15] these earlier revelations are attributed to Judaism and Christianity, which are regarded in Islam as spiritual predecessor faiths.[16] They also consider the Quran, when preserved in Classical Arabic, to be the unaltered and final revelation of God to humanity.[17] Like other Abrahamic religions, Islam also teaches of a "Final Judgement" wherein the righteous will be rewarded in paradise (Jannah) and the unrighteous will be punished in hell (Jahannam).[18]

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Judeo/Christian/Islam

It is important to note that Judeo-Christian and Islamic religions are Abrahamic in their nature because their roots lead to Abraham. Thus, Christians and Muslims believe in one God, in God’s prophets, in the concepts of revelation and resurrection of dead people (Bowker, 2006).

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Evolution 

To put this into perspective, the number of genetic differences between humans and chimps is approximately 60 times less than that seen between human and mouse and about 10 times less than between the mouse and rat. On the other hand, the number of genetic differences between a human and a chimp is about 10 times more than between any two humans.

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Human to human   200Ky   A  differences  -      0.123%  of genome - random common ancestor early humans

Humans to chimps 7My   10A differences -       1.23% of genomes                                                               

Human to cat                                                         10% of genome

Human to mice       50My  600A  differences -  10% of genome

Humans to dogs                                                    16% of genome

Human to bird        200My                                    35% of genome - based on early dinosaurs as common ancestor.

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Each of these differences involves 2 paths, each species back to the common ancestor. 

Roughly 1% of genome changes every 10My, with an average life span of 10 years = 1M generations or 10^-6 % change per generation, 3.2B base pairs in DNA so 3000 base pair changes between generations.   10 -8 per per bp per generation !!

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The spontaneous single base pair mutation rate was found to be roughly 7×10 -9 per bp per generation. Given that there are an estimated 30 replications per generation  (see vignette on “How many chromosome replications occur per generation?”) this leads to about 2×10 -10 mutations per bp per replication.

http://book.bionumbers.org/what-is-the-mutation-rate-during-genome-replication/

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