Originally posted by JohnR7
Christian are to be the "light" of the world and the "salt" of the earth. In simple terms that means we are to set an example for others. Many people believe that if you were to take the christians out of the world, that mankind would quickly destroy itself.
Christians aren't the light of the world. Christianity has been the cause of war, terrorism, and oppression, and it has stood in the way of moral and scientific progress.
The careful student of history will discover that Christianity has been of very little value in advancing civilization, but has done a great deal toward retarding it
--Matilda Joslyn Gage
When the theologian governed the world, it was covered with huts and hovels for the many, palaces and cathedrals for the few. To nearly all the children of men, reading and writing were unknown arts. The poor were clad in rags and skins -- they devoured crusts, and gnawed bones. The day of Science dawned, and the luxuries of a century ago are the necessities of to-day. Men in the middle ranks of life have more of the conveniences and elegancies than the princes and kings of the theological times. But above and over all this, is the development of mind. There is more of value in the brain of an average man of to-day -- of a master-mechanic, of a chemist, of a naturalist, of an inventor, than there was in the brain of the world four hundred years ago.
These blessings did not fall from the skies. These benefits did not drop from the outstretched hands of priests. They were not found in cathedrals or behind altars -- neither were they searched for with holy candles. They were not discovered by the closed eyes of prayer, nor did they come in answer to superstitious supplication. They are the children of freedom, the gifts of reason, observation and experience -- and for them all, man is indebted to man.
-- Robert Green Ingersoll