appreciate the gradual changes that Christianity brought to those forests... To be fair, Christianity's position is that of chance, Europe could all just as we

appreciate the gradual changes that Christianity brought to those forests... To be fair, Christianity's position is that of chance, Europe could all just as well have been founded on Slavic Paganism, Islam (arguably it largely is and this is insufficiently recognized), Mongol pluralism or some similar belief system. Any nominally centralized society capable of a rule of law and literate record keeping would have had the same effect, if capable of gluing together society long enough to create a surplus and decrease the risks of increased specialization. See earlier civilizations, other parts of the world, etc.