What Went Wrong?

Only a couple thousand years ago, the Arab world was populated with alchemists, mathematicians, and philosophers who have had huge contributions to our current bank of knowledge in science, math or philosophy. Al-Farabi was recognized as The Second Teacher, Aristotle being The First Teacher. Al-Khwarizmi created and started using the "zero" for the first time. Jabir Ibn-Hayyan discovered the hydrochloric acid. Ibn-Sina identified the nerve cells and what they do to transmit pain, among many other discoveries. All of these important men lived in the same era; approximately around the years 800-1200. So, what went wrong? What turned the Arab world into being recognized as " a very rich public with lots of oil"? The answer to these questions is the same for every question which seeks the reason behind a stop in development, a misunderstanding, or any war; it is religion.

But blaming it strictly on religion isn't fair. Religion, if used in certain ways, could unite people instead of pitting them against each other. Dogmatism and strict religion was what caused these advancements by the Arabic scientists to stop, because Islam was already there when these discoveries took place; what wasn't there was dogmatism.

And we shouldn't be putting the whole load on Islam. Unfortunately, Islam is recognized as a very strict religion with no means or what-so-ever with science and logical thinking, and is related with violence. If you were to take an objective stance in the case, however, you would see that all religions can be bent, stretched, understood or portrayed differently, and it is very easy to manipulate people using religion.

So, I guess it is safe to say that what caused the "knowledge spring" of the Arab world to stop one thousand years ago, was not specifically Islam or religion, but that it was dogmatism and inside-the-box thinking or not thinking at all, which has, and will continue to, ruin and stop many nations and civilizations from reaching freedom or enlightenment.