Originally Posted by Mutt

there is truth to that but the Greeks and Romans and the Egyptians had structured and progressive societies, by antiquity standards, long before the Church was founded. the Jews who like to take credit for the 10 Commandments 'borrowed' them from the Egyptians and also 'borrowed' many of the moralistic stories/legends in the OT from other cultures - most obvious one is Noah and the Great Flood, a total lift from the Sumerian myth The Epic of Gilgamesh. The idea that these monotheistic religions civilized us is very debatable.

I don't know what the history of Western civilization would have been like in the absence of the powerful Church of Rome, whether we'd have been better or worse off. There's a lot of blood on the hands of Christianity throughout history right up until the present day.