In the premodern Christian medieval context, slavery was all but completely forbidden
It feels like you’re gerrymandering a time, place, and scenario to make the answer come out correctly. The medieval era was not the only era where Christianity was powerful, and you’re just handwaving it away by saying that Christianity was an arm of the state after that (and ignoring the period before that—the Romans kept slaves even when they were Christian.) You’re also including or not including Islam depending on whether it’s convenient for your argument (they don’t count when they keep slaves, but they count as religion being a source of learning). And you’re handwaving away serfdom—yes, it isn’t slavery, but it’s still a pretty big violation of human rights practiced by religious people back then that we don’t practice today.
(For that matter, I’m not convinced that “we only enslave pagans” is much of an excuse. Modern secular society doesn’t enslave pagans, after all, so we’re still better than them.)
How can the church hold back something which doesn’t yet exist?
By making it dangerous for it to come into existence.
it is fair to say that religious people in the industrial era have the desire to hold back science. But they simply don’t have the power anymore, they are no longer the center of learning.
There’s a big gap between “no power worth speaking of” and “not in the position of the Pope in 1500″. For instance, religion had enough power to be a serious obstacle to the acceptance of evolution, even if in the 21st century the remaining creationists are a joke.
It feels like you’re gerrymandering a time, place, and scenario to make the answer come out correctly. The medieval era was not the only era where Christianity was powerful, and you’re just handwaving it away by saying that Christianity was an arm of the state after that (and ignoring the period before that—the Romans kept slaves even when they were Christian.) You’re also including or not including Islam depending on whether it’s convenient for your argument (they don’t count when they keep slaves, but they count as religion being a source of learning). And you’re handwaving away serfdom—yes, it isn’t slavery, but it’s still a pretty big violation of human rights practiced by religious people back then that we don’t practice today.
(For that matter, I’m not convinced that “we only enslave pagans” is much of an excuse. Modern secular society doesn’t enslave pagans, after all, so we’re still better than them.)
By making it dangerous for it to come into existence.
There’s a big gap between “no power worth speaking of” and “not in the position of the Pope in 1500″. For instance, religion had enough power to be a serious obstacle to the acceptance of evolution, even if in the 21st century the remaining creationists are a joke.