The tragic burning of the great library of Alexandria destroyed over 500,000 scrolls amassing the collective thought of the ancient Greeks, Egyptians, Macedonians, Babylonians, and unknown others, depriving these priceless items from future scholars.

The original copies of the Homeric texts where presumed destroyed.

The original handwritten copies of the Old Testament from the Aramaic and Hebrew into Greek were destroyed.

Original scrolls about ancient medicines, geometry, astronomy, and mathematics were lost forever.

These scrolls could have provided modern scholars and historians with answers about the life and thought of the ancients, instead of having to guess or deduce from third hand sources.

I thought I would just let you know about this. If only I could have seen these scrolls for a little while!!

Am I the only one that would be thrilled to have seen this library? Well I am excited to be in a building full of books anyway! lol

So I guess this article wasn't interesting enough to give a reply??? lol

It is okay...I guess I am the only one that would have been interested to see these scrolls! ha ha

For me the entire lesson of the destruction of the great library of Alexandra merely shows to destructive and negative influence that "jealous god" religions have on humanity.

Yet it appears that this was a lesson that has gone unappreciated by the masses for millennia

This time in history surely does show the anxiety of rulers determinations to control the masses by all means necessary. If only this library could have been spared from fire we could have read interesting scrolls on various ideas at the time. It just seems like a part of history is missing... or even ideas at the time could have been saved for historians to read up on. We could have many historical aspects wrong, although we have them stated in texts book to read anyhow.

Aristotle's, Socrates, Plato's writings have burned away! Not all of their works of course but some of their works that we will never have set eyes on.

The original translations of the bible...even though I understand your view of how flawed it is...but maybe a way of seeing if it somehow gotten construed in its translations at the time.

Hebrew beliefs and history may be wrong also.

Perhaps more on the Babylonians

Others ancient civilizations that we still haven't dug out yet could have been revealed showing yet another belief system we haven't thought of yet. Who knows?

Perhaps even other mathematical propositions that we haven't seen yet ...even if they are the same today but used in a different way then we know it could have been interesting to see.

Afterall, 500,000 scrolls is a lot to go by! Darn it Julius Caeser why were you so foolish!

greeneyeman,

You can always look at the past and wonder "What if things had been different?"

In fact, that's a really huge question about the dark ages in general. What if the dark ages had never happened? Would we today be living in a far more advanced state of technology than we are now? Or not?

It's hard to say.

You look back at the library of Alexandria and wonder how that loss of information might have changed the course of history, or the ways that we view things today.

I look back over my very own life and wonder how it might have been different had I lived in a totally different society? Say a non-religious society that focused on science and knowledge? Or maybe a different kind of spirituality that was focused on love and achievements instead of being focused on the idea that everyone is a sinner in dire need of repentance.

Of all the things that I feel would have made a huge difference in my own personally life, it would have been the existence of truly intelligent mentors who genuinely understand how teach via encouragement and enlightenment rather than just using threats of punishment for failure to compete and/or comply.

What if people would have actually listened to men like Copernicus or Galileo instead of treating them as "heathens"?

What if people would have actually sought to learn of healing methods of midwifes instead of burning them at the stake as "witches"?

What if the church would have listed to Gregor Mendel and let him teach his scientific discovering instead of mocking him and calling him a fool for not accepting the popular religious superstitions?

Yes, the library at Alexandria probably represents the most damaging "single event" caused by superstitions and religions. But in truth that story of thing permeates all of history and can even been seen today by religious extremists attempting to deny evolution in favor of their jealous god doctrines.

The ignorance hasn't ceased to this very day. It's still quite alive and kicking unfortunately.

Yes I agree with everything you say on this and I also wonder why we don't learn from history.

Fortunately, we don't see anymore (((midwife's))) burning on stakes or any of this dark age thinking and horrible actions anymore, although I must say I am sure many believe they are doing good but in reality or really doing bad (on purpose or not by not knowing).

Okay let me correct myself. Yes we still see bad things happening in the name of a religion. These individuals are still in the dark age! It is sad actually.

((( ))) = Sorry but I don't believe in witches, pagans, heathens, or infidels. These are christian and muslim terms created by those that wanted to eradicate any other belief system but their own. Today I have the power to not acknowledge these terms and will not. I am probably only 1% of the world population that will not acknowledge such horrible terms. I actually believe many civilizations have been eradicated because of their belief system and coined these terms against their will. Many innocent people that is. I don't support all of them, but I do understand the premises of why they thought they did was right or normal in everyday life concerning these systems that are not Christian or Muslim.

We are just a flawed species it seems and the earth will probably out live the human species anyway. I think it will. I think we will destroy ourselves before the planet will not be able to support life anymore. Of course this is very pessimistic and I shouldn't thrive on it, but just looking at the results of how we treat each other and how we treat the planet shows indications we won't make it. It just shows that if we cannot unite as a whole to really tackle important issues we will never get there. I mean it won't happen in my lifetime but maybe in a thousand years the population of humans won't exist. Of course it is hard to predict for maybe we will get it together after all and really agree on a great deal of things.

If you're interested in related things similar to this, I suggest some books by an author named Michael Wood: The Jesus Secret, The Jerome Conspiracy, The Hidden Bible, and Breaking The Romans Code. Check out his site and some of the Dead Sea Scroll info:

http://www.michaelwoodcrypto.com/

Thank you for sharing this:)