-Were the Greco-Romans pagans more educated and rational when its come to science than all the Abrahamic organized religions.....If so, how were they able to reconcile their beliefs with Science.
Well the Greco-Roman Pagans were a varied bunch, generally the more educated they were, the less they were inclined to believe in myths and religions. Many of the Philosophers and scientists were outspoken atheists, agnostics, or skeptics. Whilst others believed that there was a single supreme diety and argued for it's existence using logic and reason. But paganism in the sense of believing in a whole host of gods and goddesses. I would use the modern analogy of WWF wrestling. Of the people who watch it, some actually believe that the fighting is real and not acting, whilst others know that it is acting but they still watch it for it's entertainment value, that is kind of how Greco-Romans saw Pagan religion, some believed it whilst others just thought they were fun stories.
it was depicted seeing that the Greco-Roman pagans were the ones that gathered the works of classic antiquity only to be burned by the Christians?
In the early days science and philosophy were associated with the Greco-Roman Pagan elite and so Christians were suspicious of it. However as time went on, more and more educated people started becoming Christian, and as that happened it became neccesary for Christians to debate Pagans on philosophical grounds, so science and even philosophy began to be incorporated into Christianity. In the early days in fact it was impossible to get a Christian and scientific education together. But after the reign of Julian (the last Pagan Emperor) it began to be possible to get an education that included both Christian and Scientific/Philosophical ideas.
As for Christians burning literature and science. Usually this happened with relation to mob violence, i.e. an uncontrolled mob ransacking a library or temple. It was only rarely that literature or philosophical works were purposefully burnt by decree from a Christian Emperor, and usually this was only for works that were specifically critical of Christianity, such as the writings of
Porphyry or
Celsus. Of course the Christian Emperors did close down schools of Philosophy, such as the Neo-Platonic School at Athens, on the grounds that they were a threat to Christian belief. The Philosphers there fled and went into exile in Persia.
Some important and influential early Christian writers did condemn scientific research. St. Augustine's called it a "sin of curiosity" to seek to understand the laws of nature that God ordained and are beyond human understanding. So probably yes, Christianity probably did hold scientific research back, we all know the story of Galileo being threatened to be burnt at the stake for saying that the earth evolved around the sun.
Topic: Agora