A question about atheism, please read.?

Question

Christianity has contributed to the arts(funding some of the greatest works of the Renaissance) and literature (the Cyrillic language was created by Christian missionaries and the printing press was funded to print Bibles), thousands of hospitals, orphanages, colleges and universities were created by Christianity. Please note that I have said nothing about salvation, grace, or redemption.
Please list for me some examples of contributions by atheism, however, since I listed no spiritual benefits of Christianity, I will except no answers of “freeing people from superstition” or other claims of benefits to those holding atheistic views. Only answers that site examples of how atheism has benefitted society in general. Thank you.

Wow, a lot of bad answers so far, and completely ignoring all the wars and destruction caused by communism a atheistic philosophy, 200 million in 1 century.
Also, "Bad Liberal" Paul Ehrlich was an atheist? Only atheists are working on gene therapy? And the "freeing people from superstition" comment seems to be the atheist default comment, which is why I mentioned that I hoped not to hear the same argument again.
"stevevil0" 1 your link isn't real and 2 wars between other people doesn't show anything good about atheism, and still missing that atheism has caused several wars and millions of deaths.
So far lap dancing bars is in the lead.

Okay so far there is 1 example of atheism doing something positive from fra59e who ignores the thousands of hospitals set up by Christianity through out Asia and thinks that Christians only hand out Bibles.
Come on atheist all those million slaughtered to impose atheism on peolpe around the world and all you have to show for it is 1 example!
You can do better right, you can come up with more examples to offset 200,000,000 deaths in 100 years, right?

Answer 1

Lap dancing bars

Answer 2

It's become a habit of some on this forum to think they posted a "question" because there's a question mark at the end of the sentence. And then, to make it even less meaningful, they load it up with hedges and provisos.

Your most transparent ruse is to imply the existence of some sort of historical "atheist" movement that could have had the power to do the things religious movements did, in its name. You might just as well have asked how many brunettes have contributed to world progress.

Since we've never huddled in warring congregations or sectlets, we'd have to address the areas where atheist thinking has made the greatest difference.

But even restricting ourselves to your gimmicky approach, there are obvious answers. The first and outstanding one is SCIENCE, which has progressed against the tide of religious hostility for millennia. Yes, we know there are (an ever-decreasing number of) "religious" scientists. The same way you should know that the "hospitals" and "universities" founded by religious people were amply staffed by freethinking individuals as well as "Christians." As we speak the scientific community is by and large atheistic- with a great majority rejecting the notion of a personal god altogether. And the higher you climb on the achievement level, the greater the proportion of atheists.

So remember, the medicine administered in Our Lady of Perpetual Responsibility is likely the result of the collaboration of the godless. And even Notre Dame teaches evolution, the theory of an avowed atheist, and relativity, the theory of a man who laughed at the idea of a personal god.

Answer 3

Christianity is a supernatural belief system. Atheism is doing without a supernatural belief system.

Christianity did not give us the great works of art. Perhaps Christian devotion contributed to the building of the great cathedrals in the Middle Ages but I think inter-city rivalry had more to do with it.

Some great music has been inspired by religious devotion, such as Handel's "The Messiah". But Beethoven was a Humanist, and Mendelsohn was Jewish even though he composed a great "Ave Maria". There is no necessary correlation between the greatness of a work of art and the religious beliefs of the artist.

In the visual arts, Michelangelo was a Humanist, as was Leonardo da Vinci, Lorenzo Valla, and others.

In literature and philosophy, Desiderius Erasmus and Thomas More ("Utopia") were Humanists. Queen Elizabeth 1 was educated by Roger Ascham, a Humanist, and aborbed Humanist ways of thinking, not just the Christian ways of thinking of her devout stepmother Catherine. Her reign was a golden age and gave us the greatest of literature in Shakespeare - whose works carry no mention at all of religious devotion.

Spinoza was accused of being an atheist (although he wasn't) and was kicked out of his synagogue. Typically it is the religious fanatics who see everything in terms of black-and-white, them-and-us, who are intolerant. The reality is that there can be overlap and shades of grey - Erasmus, for instance, as well as being a prototype of Humanism, was also an ordained priest, a fact which probably freaks out the fundies who think in terms of "my way or the highway."

But the clearest trend of advancing human wellbeing by clear critical thought separated from Christian devotion is in science. Bruno and Galaileo were not friends of Christianity; they were victims of Christian persecution. Isaac Newton was a Unitarian.

In our time, the list of scientists who have contributed most to human advance can easily be googled as the Nobel Prize winners. I challenge any Christian to try to find even one fundie on the list.

Your question is essentially defective because you ask about "Christianity" and "atheism" contributing to the arts etc. But those are philsophical positions and attitudes. Contributions to the arts etc. are not made by philosophies and attitudes. Contributions are made by people. And in many instances the belief systems held by the artist, or rejected by the artist, have nothing to do with his art.

Finally, take note that I have cited a bunch of Humanists and freethinkers, not atheists. These people may or may not be atheists in particular cases, and who cares? It doesn't matter. The Sistine Chapel ceiling is great art and the fact that a Pope paid for it makes no difference.

Hospitals and orphanages? Let's take an example. In Vijayawada, India, it is the ATHEIST Centre that maintains two hospitals and seventeen schools there, and rescues the untouchables from the oppresion of the caste system. Google their site and see what they do. Their founder, Gora, has been featured on an India postage stamp. Where are the Christian missionaries while all this good work is going on? Busy giving out Bibles when what is needed is bandages?

I am not an atheist but I think the world will be a better place when we have more atheists.

Answer 4

Apparently Napoleon Bonaparte, Charles Darwin, Susan B. Anthony, Sigmund Freud, Madame Marie-Curie, Albert Einstein, James Madison, Francios Voltaire, Edgar Allan Poe, Lance Armstrong, Marlon Brando, Bill Gates, Katharine Hepburn, Billy Joel, Jack Nicholson, Andrew Carnegie, Isaac Asimov, Ernest Hemingway, Carl Sagan, Bertrand Russell, Freidrich Nietzsche,
George Bernard Shaw, Leo Tolstoy, Frank Lloyd Wright, Irving Berlin, George Orwell, Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain), Vincent Van Gogh, Thomas Edison, Percy Shelley, Sir Charles "Charlie" Chaplin, Jean Paul Sartre and others had nothing to contribute to society?

Pity.

Answer 5

Antibiotics - the single most important medical advance in history. Gene therapy - the most promising advance yet to come.

Atheists have produced their share of art, considering the amount of time they've had to do so. They contribute to our educational methods and general humanitarian needs. I think it could be called a pretty important contribution to humankind that we haven't started too many wars trying to demonstrate that our religion is right.

And freeing people from superstition sounds like a good reason to me as well - you imply yourself that superstition is entrapping.

===

Oh, hurrah for Paul Ehrlich! By your logic the contributions of Mary Shelley, Pablo Picasso and Richard Rogers mean that literature, art and architecture are all evenly represented by theists and atheists - which I wouldn't normally claim (though the trend is only going one way). You forget that the only reason the church commissioned so much art is because they had all the money. As for gene therapy, one of the biggest obstacles to it at present is the Christians who stand in the way of stem cell research - thanks again for all those efforts in retarding progress gguys - why break the habit of a couple of millennia?

And it isn't for you to judge whether or not there have been any good answers. Deal with it.

Answer 6

Of course it did... when you control the only learning systems and educational institutions, chain the Bibles and thrash anyone who challenges you, you can claim sole contribution status to everything. Frankly anybody can create a system of writing and language and force it on someone else in order to convert them, which is why Cyrillic was "created", to subdue those naughty Slavic pagans who wouldn't toe the line. So you see, I'm far from impressed.

Edit/addition: Modern medical advances has come via military "experimentation" and such at the expense of military members by testing vaccinations on them (all through history to include the most recent conflicts we've engaged in), surgical procedures, marching them towards mushroom clouds at the Nevada test sites during the above-ground nuclear testing, should we hail the military as something "divine" as well? I think not.

_()_

Answer 7

I highly doubt that it has.
However, you must remember the thousands of lives lost in the crusades and other holy wars, and not just the good things christianity has done.
Perhaps not atheism, but science has saved a great many of lives through modern technology and medicine.
But, it too has also caused death, so neither are completely in the right.

Answer 8

Dude, you must also look at the damage religion has caused. It's not just a rosy view. In fact, there are some pretty atrocious acts in there.

Atheism, or a lack of belief in god(s) is not a motivator for anything. People don't go fighting wars or curing cancer specifically because they don't believe in god(s).

Answer 9

Norway ftw. edit: Clipt merely made some outrageous claims antagonistic to Norway, and supported it with 2 information memories about completely unrelated issues. One about intense heating prices, and the different about moose burping being undesirable for the ecosystem. Wow. How deceitful can someone be.

Answer 10

List of religious wars:
Confucianism vs. Taoism, Mongol invasion of Western China, 1205-1209 CE
Confucianism vs. Taoism, Mongol invasion of Northern China, 1211-1234 CE
Confucianism vs. Islam, Mongol invasion of Central Asia, 1218-1220 CE
Confucianism vs. Islam, Mongol invasion of Baghdad, 1258
Confucianism vs. Buddhism, Mongol invasions of Vietnam, 1258-1285
Confucianism vs. Shinto, Mongol invasions of Japan, 1274-1281
Confucianism vs. Taoism, Mongol invasions of Southern China, 1279
Confucianism vs. Christianity, Mongol invasion of Hungary, 1285
Confucianism vs. Christianity, Mongol raid against Bulgaria, 1285
Confucianism vs. Christianity, Mongol raid against Poland,1287
Confucianism vs. Buddhism, Mongol invasion of Vietnam, 1288
Confucianism vs. Islam, Mongol invasion of Syria, 1299



Christianity vs. Zoroastrianism, Roman-Persian Wars, Mespotamia and Modern Turkey, 502-562 CE
Christianity vs. Islam, Byzantine-Arab Wars, Modern Lebanon and Turkey, 632-750 CE
Christianity vs. Islam, Umayyad Conquest of Iberia, Modern Spain and Portugal, 711-718 CE
Christianity vs. Islam , History of Islam in Southern Italy, Sicily and Southern Italian Peninsula, 831-902 CE
Christianity vs. Islam and Judaism, Reconquista, Iberian Peninsula, 923-1212 CE
Christianity vs. Islam, Crusades, Middle East, 1091-1402 CE
Christianity vs. Judaism, German Crusade, Germany, 1096 CE
Christianity vs. Confucianism, Mongol invasion of Hungary, 1285
Christianity vs. Confucianism, Mongol raid against Bulgaria, 1285
Christianity vs. Confucianism, Mongol raid against Poland,1287
Christianity vs. Indigenous Beliefs, European colonization of the Americas, The Americas, 1492-1890 CE
Catholicism vs. Eastern Orthodoxy, Fourth Crusade, Balkans-Greece and Anatolia, 1201-1204 CE
Catholicism vs. Protestantism, Wars of Religion, France, 1560-1598 CE
Catholicism vs. Protestantism, Thirty Years War, Western Europe, 1618-1648 CE
Protestantism vs. Catholicism, The Troubles, Ireland, 1609-1998 CE

... (Click url below to view entire list)

You said: ""stevevil0" 1 your link isn't real"

Answer: Yes, it is; try the link below.

You said: " and 2 wars between other people doesn't show anything good about atheism, and still missing that atheism has caused several wars and millions of deaths. "

Where do you see any wars between atheists? Atheists can't fight for their religious beliefs, because they have none. If they would fight, it would be for something else, but religious people have one more reason to fight and that is religious differences.