Just an idle thought, but it interested me anyway. Sadly, I'm rather new to this topic (and alternate history in general) so I humbly ask the opinion of you guys here. The topic is the title, but perhaps I might be interested if the Church wasn't oppressive in a general term; not just against European pre-science communities, but against foreign ideas as well?
Will Secularism still develop anyway? How will this affect the Western Paradigm of Science-Religion Relation? Will Europe instead adopt the Islamic Paradigm of science? Will Protestantism emerge as well? What other things might be caused by this?
Thanks in advance.