HOLY F'ING SH**. YOU GUYS ARE EURO-CENTRIC AS HELL!
Genghis Khan the Nomadic Civilization Representative here to explain to you all about the Dark Ages and the Renaissance! 2 Things that didn't really exist, and because they didn't really exist or happen, they're pretty irrelevant to anything and everything!
The Dark Ages (or Early Middle Ages, whatever) occured due to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire and ensuing power vacuum. Without anybody to take orders from anymore, the barbarous invaders and other likes had to set up shop and get the ball rolling again! The Church was a recognized symbol in Europe, and thus a lot of the rising powers came to respect and praise the Catholic Church and its power rose steadily and exponentially off and on. Over time, humanity stagnated in technological advancement as plagues were everywhere, wars ran amok and feudalism was magically imported from Japan! Somehow. Don't ask.
However, after a thousand years of this BS to glorious Europa, an awesomeness wave of a shift from awesome hair to awesome shirt came about and a bunch of stunning architecture, revived literature and new knowledge from the old antiquity came about and spurred a Renaissance, literally a rebirth!
And thus, Humanity advanced once more into a triumph, having slowly become wary of the Church and preparing things for Europe to become a dominant power. Except not.
The Dark Ages were only really dark for Europe. Meanwhile, China and other cultures of the like in the modern-day Middle East, North Africa and notably the Americas rose about and came to be. In Arabia especially, the quality of peoples' life was booming. Knowledge was increasing, and some soothsayers say that they actually nurtured and fostered our modern-day numerals system! (1234567890, so much better than I,II,III,IV,V,VI,VII,VIII,IX,X! Whew...)
Now, even if the Dark Ages were only in Europe, the Dark Ages still happened right? Wrong!
When Rome took over Europe, most of the wealth was coming to Rome and regional capitals and urban areas. That's it. Most people who were rural were just the peasants who were a foundation for the wealthy and the Legions. Life was pretty cruddy. But then, wait for it, the Huns (okay a whole bunch of other barbarians too) rode in with fancy horses skills and steppes language and barbarian meal etiquette and ghetto bows and Seaxes and etc. and they're all "Oh cool, liberation from a tyrant! Yay! Go freedom train, go!". Except no. Barbarians were already integrated, assimilated and added a cultural portion to the Roman Empire, and what it meant to be Roman was liberalized and misconstrued every day. The Roman Auxiliaries are the best way to express this: The Barbarians they had just fought were now literally fighting for them. Dafuq?
Barbarians were never AT the gates. Barbarians were the people INSIDE the gates! The Barbarian invasions were just a formalization of the fact.
I must say though, you people are very, very biased Rome lovers! What did Rome do besides... okay, I guess I can understand why you like them, but Greece? Why the hell would you like them? They're just a bunch of crackpot theorists who fight each other all the time for no reason! Compare that to an Empire of religious freedom, regional autonomy that is the Achaemenids of Persia. I'd love to be Ephialtes; he was right to betray Leo.
But I digress.
Now you're saying, " But Genghis, what about Leonardo Da Vinci! My butt buddy, my soul mate and my 50 Shades of Grey fantasy affair rape! ".
Long story short, only rich people got to see half the stuff the Renaissance brought out, peasants barely noticed a difference besides " Hey, we're not at war as much " and most of the Renaissance stuff was outdated compared to the stuff the Eastern world was pumping out. Also, the Renaissance was still pretty bad. Remember my horde? (refer to my earlier picture)
With Renaissance and Dark Age misconceptions out of the way, time for some cold hard truths:
Don't tell your kids what to believe. Offer them different viewpoints and let them decide. Or better yet, let them find out on their own.
Now, pretend everybody alive is your kids.
And finally, don't be an asshole c*** munch. Don't tell people their lifestyle is wrong unless they personally, in your face, infringe upon your beliefs. This means that this entire flame war should be rendered null because it is just people using all caps and thinking up nasty insults behind a computer. Let me just tell you where this discussion goes, where every other discussion like it has gone, and where every discussion like it in the future will go: