Stamping out the ancient wisdom by Christianity and Western civilization also involved stamping out human sacrifice in the western hemisphere, head hunting in the pacific islands, immolation of widows on their husband's funeral pyres in India, and other practices across the globe that the world is a better place without.
And might it not be somewhat unfair call a religion which produced the Book of Revelations, so many
parables in the bible, and the
allegories of later Christian writers as "literalist".
From a brief look at
your web site it seems to me that with all those star myths in the bibile, Christianity has done well to preserve the star myths and since the bible is the most read book in the world it has done much to spread them too.
And Western technology (with its roots in Christianity - see below*) including the printing press have preserved what remnants of the star myths still survive.
The reason we have so little information about the cultures of our remote past is not just because they lacked writing. It is because loss of culture is a common phenomenon when two cultures meet and one supersedes another. This has happened innumerable times throughout human history. In our own time we see
Islam doing this. Singling out Christianity and Western Civilization for special criticism is fashionable these days but it is problematical because it creates the misimpression that these cultural influences are harmful when in fact they have reduced human suffering immeasurably in untold ways. This fashionable misunderstanding can lead to loss of advances that we take for granted which billions of people across the globe are benefiting from. If we don't understand history we are condemned to repeat it.
http://ncu9nc.blogspot.com/2015/03/video-lecture-by-john-lennox-explains.html
Jürgen Habermas
For the normative self-understanding of modernity, Christianity has functioned as more than just a precursor or catalyst. Universalistic egalitarianism, from which sprang the ideals of freedom and a collective life in solidarity, the autonomous conduct of life and emancipation, the individual morality of conscience, human rights and democracy, is the direct legacy of the Judaic ethic of justice and the Christian ethic of love. This legacy, substantially unchanged, has been the object of a continual critical reappropriation and reinterpretation. Up to this very day there is no alternative to it. And in light of the current challenges of a post-national constellation, we must draw sustenance now, as in the past, from this substance. Everything else is idle postmodern talk
Behind the European Declaration of Human Rights lies Christianity, behind universities, hospices, hospitals, lies Christianity, behind the abolition of slavery lies Christianity. It is a delusion that Christianity has done no good what so ever.
Richard Feynman
Western civilization, it seems to me, stands by two great heritages. One is the scientific spirit of adventure — the adventure into the unknown, an unknown which must be recognized as being unknown in order to be explored; the demand that the unanswerable mysteries of the universe remain unanswered; the attitude that all is uncertain; to summarize it — the humility of the intellect. The other great heritage is Christian ethics — the basis of action on love, the brotherhood of all men, the value of the individual — the humility of the spirit.
Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry
We have forgotten just how deep a cultural revolution Christianity wrought. In fact, we forget about it precisely because of how deep it was: There are many ideas that we simply take for granted as natural and obvious, when in fact they didn't exist until the arrival of Christianity changed things completely. Take, for instance, the idea of children.
...
Various pagan authors describe children as being more like plants than human beings. And this had concrete consequences.
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Children were rudely brought up, and very strong beatings were a normal part of education. In Rome, a child's father had the right to kill him for whatever reason until he came of age.
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One of the most notorious ancient practices that Christianity rebelled against was the frequent practice of expositio, basically the abandonment of unwanted infants.
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Another notorious practice in the ancient world was the sexual exploitation of children.
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But really, Christianity's invention of children — that is, its invention of the cultural idea of children as treasured human beings — was really an outgrowth of its most stupendous and revolutionary idea: the radical equality, and the infinite value, of every single human being as a beloved child of God. If the God who made heaven and Earth chose to reveal himself, not as an emperor, but as a slave punished on the cross, then no one could claim higher dignity than anyone else on the basis of earthly status.
Nancy Pearcey
Contemporary atheist Luc Ferry says the same thing. We tend to take the concept of equality for granted; yet it was Christianity that overthrew ancient social hierarchies between rich and poor, masters and slaves. "According to Christianity, we were all 'brothers,' on the same level as creatures of God," Ferry writes. "Christianity is the first universalist ethos."
James Hannam in firstthings.com
*"... the "scientific revolution" was a continuation of developments that started deep in the Middle Ages among people whose scientific work expressed their religious belief. ... Given the advantages Christianity provided, it is hardly surprising that modern science developed only in the West, within a Christian civilization."
[more at the link]