No, it's the basis of the ruling discourse.

Protestantism was a phase we needed to get from Catholicism to secular humanism.

I (and several thinkers, Nietzsche for one) find it was rather the inverse: while catholicism was more relativistic, open, and even carnal, protestantism brought a fundamentalist look at the Bible that was a regression to even stricter interpretation and zealotry.

Which is why modern protestant denominations in the US for example are even more Old Testament and wacko than catholics.

And of course the same strictness has been inherited by atheists that grew in a protestant culture, contrary to classical humanism.

People believe all kinds of crazy things, but it's undisputed that Protestantism has been generations ahead of Catholicism in social change.

Even today, protestants have been accepting of same sex marriages, female clergy, birth control, and even abortions than the monolithic Catholic church, and that's not about to change anytime soon.

>People believe all kinds of crazy things, but it's undisputed that Protestantism has been generations ahead of Catholicism in social change.

That's only superficial, as protestant countries (and especially calvinist ones) transcribed into everyday non-religious morals all kinds of religious tenets, from the "protestant work ethic" to modern versions of puritanism like "political correctness".

Some did yes. Protestantism was a very diverse collection of sub-theologies.

Based on these replies, I'm wondering if there wasn't pop-history hit-piece on Protestantism that I'm not aware of.

Just for for the record, I'm an atheist myself.

One of the main accusations the Protestants levied against the Catholic Church was that Catholic Church was too liberal and too willing to be flexible in its theology. The Counter-Reformation (a reaction to these accusations) did prompt the Catholic Church to become much more conservative, but this was not the state of the church prior to the Protestant Reformation.

>One of the main accusations the Protestants levied against the Catholic Church was that Catholic Church was too liberal and too willing to be flexible in its theology.

Some did yes. For others the appeal of Protestantism was flexibility.

> People believe all kinds of crazy things...

Same sex marriage, ordination of female clergy and birth control are not christian doctrines 'progressive' as they may be.

There are many Protestant churches believe it is.