A game for Atheists- Name one thing that has benefited mankind from Christianity.

Serendipity.. said:

Here is your task, see if you can find a place where since the introduction and spread of Christianity a people group has benefited and their lives improved compared to before Jesus legacy existed.

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What precisely are you asking? There may be many ways in which a people could benefit after the introduction of Christianity that aren't directly caused by Christianity itself. Do we have to be certain of a clear causal link?


eudaimonia,

Mark

Hospitals and orphanages!

Serendipity.. said:

the idea of the game as an atheist is to find a positive change Christianity has made to someone like giving hope, hospitals & orphanages maybe? See what you can do!

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Benny Hinn and other televangelists have prospered materially, but of course it has come at the expense of other Christians who fork over their money.


Honestly, when I first thought of your question, my first thought was, 'well, you can forget the entire New World.'

As for peoples in the Old World, it is hard to disassociate the influence of Christianity from other things, as Eudaimonist has, as usual, insightfully opined.

(Hospitals and orphanages are not unique to Christendom.)

The concept of hell was an adequate moral regulator and before societal law and order could be established. Although it also wasn't exclusive to Christianity.

Honestly, I unable to think of anything that is exclusive to Christianity.

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Serendipity.. said:

the idea of the game as an atheist is to find a positive change Christianity has made to someone like giving hope, hospitals & orphanages maybe? See what you can do!

Click to expand...

But then I ask myself, wouldn't hospitals and orphanages have developed anyway as technology and prosperity had increased over time?

I could try and say something like "universities" and "the preservation of knowledge from the classical world", but Islam gets a huge amount of credit for those -- much more, I think, than Christianity.

And this is further complicated by philosophy's influence on Christian Apologetics. August of Hippo and Thomas Aquinas were greatly influenced by the Greek and Roman philosophers, and so I have to wonder when giving credit to Christianity for something isn't really a compliment to the wisdom of the classical world.

Many advances are completely ambiguous. Should I give Christianity credit for double-entry bookkeeping? I'd guess not.

Some Christians try to give Christianity credit for Science (citing the intelligibility of the world if God had made it), but this isn't completely believable to me. The classical world did figure out brilliantly that the Earth was round through clever observation, for instance. I can't rule out Science's development if only the Roman Empire hadn't fallen.

This is a difficult task you have set me. I understand that you are trying to get atheists to see something positive in Christianity, and I can appreciate the point behind that. There's too much negativity in the world. It's just not easy to do.

Atheists often claim a higher intellect than religious people and I have given you a task to see if you guys are up to it. you have to find something good about Christianity!

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No, that's not the task you gave us. You want us to give innovative credit to Christianity. Sure, there are good things in Christianity, but they are not necessarily exclusively Christian.


eudaimonia,

Mark

What are you thinking of that is exclusive to Christianity (and demonstrably true)?

Teaching the poor to read and write while indoctrinating them.

I've got one!
Gay rights are becoming more and more available in the US due to the lies propagated by the vehemently anti-gay, far right Christian organizations. More and more people are seeing that gay people aren't the monsters that groups like the FRC, AFA, and NOM would have you believe and that the sky hasn't fallen because tax paying citizens are now entitled to the same benefits as everyone else.

Or maybe this doesn't count because it was unwittingly helpful and was contrary to their goals. Also, governments of other countries believe the lies and are now persecuting gay people because of it.

Serendipity.. said:

Atheists often claim a higher intellect than religious people and I have given you a task to see if you guys are up to it. you have to find something good about Christianity!

Click to expand...

That's not the task you set upon us.

You asked us to find something exclusive to before before Jesus (ie Christianity) that benefited or improved the lives of a group of people.

I'm still unable to think of anything.

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Serendipity.. said:

I have faith you guys can find something good.

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You are redefining the challenge. Okay, something good.

It amounts to this: the average Christian is roughly as good a person as the average non-Christian.


eudaimonia,

Mark

Serendipity.. said:

I have faith you guys can find something good.

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So what are you wanting? I'm confused. In the OP you were asking for something only exclusive to Jesus coming onto the scene and now you have lowered the bar to pretty much anything good anywhere.

The thing is pretty nearly all religions have done some good, somewhere. And I'm unable to thank of anything exclusive to Christianity.

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Something exclusive to christianity is serving the fellow person(mostly christian) in the sense that it was stressed by Jesus more than anything else. That One may take an uncharitable view on such a command is a different matter altogether.

Serendipity.. said:

Here is your task, see if you can find a place where since the introduction and spread of Christianity a people group has benefited and their lives improved compared to before Jesus legacy existed.

Click to expand...

The town I grew up in was largely built by a local Abbot about 800 years ago, moving people from an area that regularly flooded to a drier and safer area. The reason he did that was because the town was growing around the local cathedral.

I can think of plenty of examples of all religions benefiting people and improving their lives. I can think of plenty of negative things too (for example, the holocaust would likely never have happened without the antisemitism spread by Christianity). Are you trying to prove something with this thread?

Serendipity.. said:

Here is your task, see if you can find a place where since the introduction and spread of Christianity a people group has benefited and their lives improved compared to before Jesus legacy existed.

Click to expand...

Many slaves had a friend who they thought loved them, when the rest of the world treated them like dirt? They also had hope that they'd join him in everlasting bliss after they died?

That's the only thing I can really think of. Perhaps other religions gave them this too, I'm not sure..

Trying my best here..

Was a major factor in the Renaissance which brought us an era of enduring art and music?