Could the dark ages happen again

The Dark Ages is a period of European history that we know very little about – there is very little written record, and that is why its called the “Dark Ages”.  Its supposed to start somewhere around 476 AD and lasted to around to 1000 AD.  Up until the Dark Ages, the Roman empire had conquered and untied Europe in a way that the world has never seen before.  There had been written language, philosophy, math, and art for thousands of years.  And all of a sudden, it was like technology went backwards thousands of years.

Rome had the aquaducts, sewage and running water.  After the Dark Ages started, it was like people forgot how to build stuff like that.

Greece had the arts and science.  In the Dark Ages, it was like people were living in the stone age again.

The advances in medicine and infection control were lost.  Diseases like the plague wrecked havoc all across Europe.  Instead of understanding the disease for what it was, people blamed sinners and their crimes against GOD.

The questions is – with technology like what it is today, could another Dark Age ever happen again?  Could something happen that is so terrible, that man kind is cast back to the stone age?

In the case of Rome, the empire got to big to handle, taxes got out of hand, there were problems with the Huns, the Barbarians attacked,,,,, there were just a number of issues that led to the fall of the Roman Empire.

If another Stone Age could happen again, what would cause it? Nuclear war, disease, financial collapse, meteor impact with the earth, another ice age, massive earthquakes all over the world, drought, food shortages, water shortages? With so many people talking about climate change, could food shortages and drought be right around the corner?

Chances are it would have to be a combination of things, just like what happened with Rome. But what could those conditions be?

Post your comments in this forum thread about the Dark Ages.