This headline reads like a tabloid. Terrorists? Seriously? There can be no doubt that, following the Council of Nicea called by the Emperor Constantine in 325, a significant purge of non-canonical writings occurred, and that this spread to so-called pagan writings, helping to usher in a period of relative intellectual stagnation. We should also be grateful for the schism in Christianity that split the east (orthodox) church from the west (Roman Catholic). Without it, the writings of the ancients may have been lost to history.

As to the Christians today, they are a pathetic and ineffectual lot, whose efforts will eventually fail miserably. These two-faced idiots should be deprived of all the advancements of science and technology that they exploit, while at the same time angrily criticizing. No medicines, vehicles, computers, phones, etc. Return them to the dark ages where they belong.

No new content there realty and as Rhetoric pointed out Nixey not the greatest researcher. Pretty standard history of Christianity really. It was the Islamic scholars that brought the Classical world back to life and heralded the Rensissance which in turn spawned the Age of Reason and the rise of intellectualism. Which leaves us here? Hmmmmm. Good, bad, indifferent?

An interesting perspective. My view was always that marauding goths destroyed most of the classical world, but I never looked deeply into it.

FYI, Nixey doesn't do the best research with this topic and goes is over the top with what she says about early Christianity [historyforatheists.com], even Richard Carrier doesn't go close to this adversarial in his dissertation [amazon.com].

That being said, Christianity did not help the advancement of knowledge. I wouldn't put it up with ISIS, but it was pretty bad. Christianity is to ISIS what Fukishima is to Chernobyl.

Most religutards are anti-intellectual. Education is a threat to them.