Quote: (04-19-2015 03:07 PM)Libertas Wrote:
So while Christianity has its a bad past, it was crucial to the development of Europe as we know it too. Anyone who says otherwise is very foolish. Does that mean we should go back to that zeitgeist of faith? Not necessarily, but I do think that most people need some sort of higher glue to keep their excesses in check, otherwise you get an empty, meaningless, nothing matters narcissism in society. I don't know the answer going forward, but I do know that science has in many ways failed man's need for meaning.
It's off topic. Personally I think that Christianity brought a certain moral set that is valuable - for example the notion that ALL LIFE is sacred - even the poor, the slave or the very sick/born with birth defects - all being worth something as soul. That was a drastic new concept back then.
But I agree with VVV that the teaching was quickly used even by the Roman empire for power and other means. Later on it was mainly even a knowledge stifling power despite some conversation measures that it enacted. Europe developed through a multitude of factors, but Christianity was at best a basis for that and actually the rise of protestant faiths made quicker development possible.
Whether civilization would have progressed faster with or without Christianity is difficult to say, because it depends with what it would have been replaced. If Islam had conquered all of Europe, then I doubt that we would be sitting here on our PCs - we would be likely writing on scrolls in candle-light.
So who knows really - alternative history is hard to assess - let's be happy it worked out so far - heh.