"...made the most effective use of these principles. Possessed of the tightest organization, the most bewildering logic, the most impressive sacred literature, and the most fanatical spirit of any, it captured the Principate...

This, however, happened long after classical science had withered in the sirocco of a resurgent supernaturalism, of which Christianity at first was but a small part.

It withered because few paid any attention to science any more. Who wanted to spend years in pursuit of some obscure natural law, or pay somebody else to do so, when by joining one of the new cults you got drama, passion, mystery, a feeling of superiority to all non-members, and a promise of eternal bliss in Heaven?"