Civilization Founded on Rational Thought

James Marriott writes in the London Times:

The Dark Ages, as I am hardly the first to remark, seem to be returning. Occult forces we believed the Age of Reason had banished forever are swarming back into public life. ...

It is becoming clear we have drastically undervalued the rare and precious achievement of a civilisation founded on rational thought. Ironically, as the Dark Ages return, the Enlightenment philosophers and scientists who campaigned against zealotry and ignorance — and to whom we ultimately owe the entire miracle of scientific modernity — are patronisingly downgraded by revisionist historians.

He goes on to complain about some podcasters with farfetched theories.

This is a common view of history, and it is wrong.

Universities were invented during the Dark Ages. We own scientific modernity to the Dark Ages, not those Enlightenment philosophers.

To the extent that the Dark Ages suffered economic decline, it was mostly because the Islamic world had disrupted Mediterranean trade routes. The Roman Empire had previously kept these routes open.

If you really believe that Europe created a civilization founded on rational thought, and you want to follow their example, then the first thing is to keep out the Mohammedans.