Did faith based religions put us back 2000 years?
I've heard many things about how faith based religions, Christianity being the major one, have put us back 1 or 2000 years. Many brilliant thinkers agree that if science was accepted back in the time of the dark ages, we would be far more advanced, scientifically and I believe spiriturally as well. Not only could this have put us back a couple thousand years, but it also could have shaped our world in the current condition it is in today (in other words, the fact that our race is on the brink of destroying itself could be connected to the Crusade and the Dark Ages).
Alexander the Great had a huge library that consisted of all the scientific theorys and work put together by the great thinkers of that time. To our dismise, this library was destroyed (read about it here).
Carl Segan used to talk about this in his tv series "Cosmos". He believes that if it weren't for the Crusades and the Dark ages (and the destruction of Alexander's Library), that right now the human race would be so technologically advanced that right now, during this time, we would already have spaceships that could carry us to distant stars and solor systems.
So, what does everyone else think about this?