Christianity and progress..........?

Question

A while back, someone posted an unbelievable statement, that if Christianity never existed, civilization would have progressed much further than it has.

Putting aside the absurdity of that statement for a moment, my question is: IF that were true, then how come the NON Christian civilizations of Africa, Asia, etc.., did not surpass us technologically? I mean, who put the first man on the moon? Who invented the airplane, the microchip, and on and on and on. Who broght us representative government? It wasn't the Asians or the Africans. It was the Christian West.

Agree? Disagree? Why?

Yes just look at the USSR. Wait, you can't, because THEY CRUMBLED
...moron

Answer 1

Not to mention that most the famous scientists were Christians.

Answer 2

Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda. All this seems a little bit beside the point.

We can create any number of narratives: Illustrating enormous progress. Illustrating enormous regress and evil corruptions. And most, if not all, of these narratives would be useful for something.

There are two points in my mind: We simply do not know what would have happened if Christianity never existed. The Church has played a role in both preserving learning and retarding it. Islam had at least some role in preserving ancient learning for the Christian west. I do not think that China or India need be ashamed of their culture vis a vis the West--they are different, and I would probably not feel comfortable living there, but I am not the measure of things. Africa gave us humanity--what more can we ask? We are all Scatterings of Africa.

I suppose we can say that the West gave us representative government, but I cannot help but remember that this came in reaction to some teachings of Christendom (divine right of kings; the very assumption of a state sponsored church, indeed the Church thought of itself as above the State).

Second: Where do we go from here? I, for one, do not want Christianity (or any other religion for that matter) dominating the ideas and practical techniques that will shape the future. Science, and all formalized thought, for all its liabilities for creating terrible tools of destruction, will be needed to cope with the situation that has developed.

Quite frankly, I will take any ideas, from any sources that provide the hope of leading us all into a future where there is less suffering and conflict.

(Just as a side note: Alfred North Whitehead attributes some of our Western concern for the well being of the individual to Wesleyanism/Methodist application of Christianity to the working class of England. Maybe so. I know that this has led me to think about the difference between the orthodox theology of both Catholic and Protestant flavors and the religion expressed in English language Protestant and revival hymns.)

Answer 3

Like it or not, christianity was the only thing that saved western civilization after the fall of the Roman Empire. Christianity has never been anti-intellectual, one simply has to look at all of the philosophers, great thinkers and scientists in church history. However the church has tried to guide intellectualism from commiting errors. The church has never, ever made reason her enemy, but she also cannot deny the necessity of faith. She upholds both.

It was christian ideals which led to democracy (as we know it, yes it existed in Rome, but differently), individual value and rights and which were the foundation of all western society after the fall of Rome. If it were not for the christendom the barbarian tribes would have been in brutal war with each other for centuries or the west would have been conquered by the east. Its just history people.

And most people knew the world was round from the time of the Greeks, so anyone spouting that nonsense needs to do some research on the subject.

The Dark Ages, may have been the on the lower end of christendom but it was not by any means in a standstill. The middle ages gave the world some of the best philosophers (Aquinas) the middle ages were what gave birth to the enlightenment due to the reintegration and building upon of the philosophies which had been lost since the fall of Rome, most especially the writings of Aristotle which were reintegrated into the west by Islam and Eastern Orthodox christendom. That reason flourished so in the west is proof enough that the church was not its enemy.

Lets think of it this way: If the U.S. and the E.U. utterly and completely fell apart tomorrow, I would like to see one institution step in and try to maintain society and pick up the pieces. That is what Christendom did for the west. Rome was the most powerful empire that has ever existed and it ended in a matter of days. The only thing that kept utter anarchy, brutality and chaos from prevailing is Christendom.

Most of the problems in the middle ages were due to the financial, civil and societal structural hole left by the fall of the Roman Empire, the warring barbaric tribes (which the church brought into her folds and united), disease, famine, warring factions between kingdoms (which the church tried to quell), invasion from the east and from the vikings. Much of these problems had nothing to do with the church in a direct way. Having all of this set against it, I think christendom did a great job of holding the west together. It was never perfect or without mistake, but give credit when credit is due.

Answer 4

Agree. I'm sorry, I can't ignore the aburdity of the statement this person made. I would merely echo your retort above. Also, I'd like to see any art from any other religion or society in the history of the world that rivals what the Christan West was producing even 600 years ago.

Answer 5

There is a rotten apple in every bushel, as well as false
prophets, who use the name of God/Christian for their own power and greed.

Where would civilization be with out the ten commandments?
Simple in their form, human's complicated them, not God.
As for your other comments, all countries at one time or another have excelled in "our" progress, We are a universe!
Every thing transfers, In this era that should be more obvious
then ever before. Empires fall via Power and greed, that is
common sense history.

Answer 6

It is 100% true that we would be much more progressed.....The Dark Ages where the church kept science from advancing cost us a great deal of progress.

Also it was not Christianity that brought us these inventions like airplanes, democracy (which was started by pagan greeks), man on moon.
It was society as a whole, in which I will not deny the contribution of people who were Christians (such as mendel the father of genetics)...but Christianity itself did not really make these discoveries..but people who were Christians made discoveries.


Spiffs> sorry gotta disagree with your idea...Christianity had nothing to do with democracy..in any way...it had already been thought up and implemented WAY b4 Christ

Answer 7

There is a very distinct period of about eleven hundered years that contained very little in the way of scientific progress. This occurred from about 300 AD to 1400 AD, which coincides with the beginning of the Catholic cult in Rome (Nicene Council 325 AD), and ends around the beginning of the Renaissance. During these years, that catholic cult tried to assert their dominance over much of the world, subjugating non believers, attacking other faiths, labelling scientists as heritics and witches and killing many of them. There were advancements in other parts of the world, like gunpowder developed in China around 900AD, the advancement of mathematics in the Arab world, herbal medicines in Africa, etc. Many of these were taken by Europeans later in the 14-16th centuries, thus contributing to the Renaissance. Did christianity it'self cause this 'dark age' in scientific progress for the European world? Probably not, but the use of it by cults to justify the killing of nonbelievers and those conducting scientific experiments is well documented. How many great scientists were brought before the clergy and told that they were heretics because their scientific knowledge conflicted with the cult dogma and doctrine of christianity. They wanted to kill people for heresy when they said that the earth was round and revolved around the sun!

Just look at the U.S. today, religious cults trying to stop stem cell research, religious cults trying to subvert science by wanting creation myths taugh instead of evolution, religious cults wanting books banned because they contain the same kind of magic and monsters as their 'holy' books. Seriously all one has to do is pick up a paper to see the deleterious affect that religious cults have on scientific progress and free thought.

Answer 8

As I suspected you're finding why so many atheists are some of the biggest hypocrites in the world. They are so quick to blame Christianity for all the world's problems, but won't give it credit for the things that go right. You can't have it both ways my friends.

Answer 9

Look at the islam, when islam started in 7th century thier civilization was more advanced than west. Only after crusades they fall back. Look at USSR, it had no religion and in short period of time it was very advanced compare to many tousands of years religious stupidity

Answer 10

I totally agree with you. It is obviously true that most non-Christian nations are poverty stricken and technologically ignorant, even to basic farming techniques. The only obvious exceptions are the Chinese and Japanese, but they had a culture of order and honor and respect for elders...things that God and Christianity value highly. Maybe God blessed them with knowledge because of these qualities, despite their lack of knowledge of Him(God).