Came across this fascinating phylogeny of worldviews somewhere on social media, credited to HumanOdyssey on Facebook.
The few bits that I know about from reading the history of the three Abrahamic religions look spot on, but I cannot vouch for the remainder of the chart. I do find it somewhat troubling that Christianity is given any credit for the scientific revolution. Even though scientific thinking unquestionably arose within the cultural milieu of greater Christendom, it is more a small stretch to claim that Christianity accelerated rather than retarded the pace of scientific discovery, as anyone who has been following Cosmos on television will be aware. For that matter, it is arguable whether there shouldn’t be a solid line to science from Hellenism rather than Christianity.
Such quibbling aside, I love the idea of treating worldviews as a colourful family tree, showing how memeplexes mutate and evolve over time. Share and enjoy!
