As long as there has been power, there has been the abuse of it. Quite a few Christians were tortured to death by pagans and by moslems and Jews. Quite a few Jews were murdered by "christians", moslems, and pagans. Quite a few pagans have been murdered by everyone and a lot of moslems have been similarly dispatched of without what we refer to as "due process." Conservatives and Liberals and the noble "Moderates" will all use whatever power they can wield, judiciously at first, but with less and less restraint as the length of time and amount of power increase. Poor Hypatia. Poor everyone that ever crawled in front of a steamroller demanding the right of way.

But 1000 years of Science? Like the flat earth? Like four elements(earth, fire, wind, water)? Like the sun and stars on spheres revolving around the earth? What was in any of those books that was not in another book somewhere in the world, or in dozens, if not hundreds, of minds, somewhere in the world. Just having a large collection of books does not mean that there is a large collection of usable information available. I am saddened by the loss of whatever accurate historical information may have been lost, but much of history has shown that, if anything, science is hindered by widely held yet wrong theories. X is so because Master Ying said so 500 years ago. Mice growing from piles of rags was "common" wisdom for centuries, until someone decided to put the rags in a screened-in box. I doubt that any real scientific slowdown took place due to the bonfire. What science was known at the time was being used in practical ways, was known to many, and was not solely collected at Alexandria.

That we are not on starships now is as much due to the fall of Rome, our ceaseless wars, our village mentality, and our fear of the "dark". It is gratifying that we've gone farther in the time since my grandmother was born(1890) than in all of previous history. It is exciting that we will go further in the next fifty years than in all time up till now. I expect that my great-grandchildren will fly starships, that there will be new physics, math, astronomy, geology, and biology in the year 3001, and that 10000 years from now, when we are dust and our history condensed to "primitive man began to climb out of the mud at the beginning of the third millineum", there will still be questions to be asked and answered and unknowns in our future.