Science and ReasonAnti-rationalism, the hatred of reason and knowledge, is deeply rooted in the Bible. Rooted in the Bible, this mistrust of reason was faithfully brought to full fruition by the early church fathers and the christian Roman emperors, who together successfully brought about the demise of Greek learning. We see the fruits of this anti-reason slant in many historical acts:
Thus, we are not surprised when we hear that book burning forms a major part of the Christian persecution method.
Censorship of course was a natural follow up to book burning and another manifestation for the anti-reason and anti-knowledge slant of the religion.
Contrary to what some may believe (after all, aren't there many mission schools all over the place in "backward" countries?) Christianity had always been anti-education, especially secular education. It was the Christian emperor, Justinian (483-563), who had the dubious honor of closing down the last schools of Greek philosophy, thus plunging Europe into the dark ages.
Perhaps the most clear cut example of Christian anti-rationalism is their historical, and in many cases continuing, suppression of science. Important examples of this include:
The arrest of Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) for publicizing his findings that it was the earth that orbited the sun and not vice versa (as the Church had erroneously believed).
The suppression of medical science began when Christianity took political control of the Roman Empire. After successfully suppressing Greek medicine, it continued to fight any advances in medical knowldege including the ban on dissection of cadavers for anatomical research, the outlawing of the use of anesthetics during childbirth and the condemnation of the live saving use of inoculation and vaccination.
Of all sciences, the one that threaten Christianity most is the science of evolution. For regardless of what liberal theologians might say, finding out that the apes are our cousins no longer makes us much of a "divine image". Thus the moment Charles Darwin (1809-1882) published his book The Origin of Species in 1859, the Christian response was swift and immediate.This attitude of anti-evolution continues well into the twentieth century. The the last quarter of the twentieth century there arose a new manifestation of anti-scientific Christian irrationalism known with the oxymoronic name scientific creationism.
It's "science" seems to involve little more than quoting their opponents out of context and invoking miracles when rational sounding arguments fail.More recently, scientific creationism have evolved a new species: intelligent design creationism (IDC). Realising the weakness of it predecessor, especially in the latter's inabaility to provide strong evidence for a young earth and for the reality of a world wide Noahchian flood, IDC have decided to minimize their approach to merely pointing out ostensibly designed aspects of biology and the cosmos. We have reviewed these arguments in the another section of this website.
The current ban on stem cell research is just another manifestation of Christian irrationalism-depriving millions of it's potentially life saving discoveries.Social Progress
Many lay Christians vaguely believe that their religion had somehow been responsible for many of the social advances of the modern world. Among these include the abolition of slavery, the improvement of the position of women in society [1] and the "civilizing" influence of missionary activities among native tribes all over the world.
This view, that Christianity had somehow been responsible for social improvements is held not only by the laity but also by theologians and writers as well. For instance under the entry for Slave in The Illustrated Bible Dictionary (1894) by M.G. Easton the following passage is included:
The gospel in its spirit and genius is hostile to slavery in every form, which under its influence is gradually disappearing among men. [2]
The Christians churches had also taught that it had always been the protector of women. In the early twentieth century it was still possible for the Bishop of London to make such a statement: "the gospel has given women the position she holds today."[3]
The problem with all these claims are that they are simply not true. The feeling of ex-Christians who came to realized the truth for the first time upon leaving the influence of their religion is akin to someone who had just been swindled. Given below is a bitter denunciation of these false teachings regarding the social good brought by Christianity by the ex-Carmelite nun, Phyllis Graham:
One of the most irritating tricks of the Christian mentality is the habit of attributing every advancement in social awareness and humane action, on every plane of evidence, to the wisdom and benevolence of Christians inspired by grace and motivated by love. This is a nauseating trait which disgusts, and frequently infuriates, those who have regard for the historical truth and the sheer weight of evidence that cannot be refuted. [4]
It is the aim of this section to present the reader with what Graham called the "historical truth and sheer weight of evidence that cannot be refuted." For it is true that history shows us that Christianity was not responsible for bringing about these social advances, in fact in some cases it actively suppressed any attempts at social reform.
Let's first look at slavery. We see that the Bible had never criticized slavery as an institution. In fact in many cases it actually made laws to support it. Actually slavery was already beginning to be viewed as a flawed institution in pagan Rome, however when Christianity came into ascendancy, the leaders of the church, openly supported slavery in word and in deed. Black African slavery was fully supported by the Christian churches in the U.S. Religious arguments, with quotes from the Bible, were prominent in the defense of slavery.
Next we look at the position of women. Save for a few Muslim countries today, women today enjoys opportunities unparalleled in their history. This major social progress has not been the result of Christianity. The Bible had never held women in high esteem. The Christian theologians, of course, faithfully continued this misogynist tradition. Thus while we find that the position of women were reasonably good in Pagan Rome, it took a turn for the worse when Christianity became the dominant force.A modern twist of this misogynist tradition has been the Catholic Church's continued opposition to abortion and birth control. In its battle against abortion, the Catholic Church has entered into an alliance with fundamentalist churches using an ostensibly righteous battle cry:
the right to life. With this issue they have found an ardent supporter in the administration of George W. Bush, whose "culture of life" policies have directly led to the deaths of many third world women. It must be remembered that the argument that "abortion equals murder", removed of any theological obscurantism, is a fallacious one. Tied in to this misogynist tradition is a perverse view of sex.
The Catholic Church's adherence to celibacy for the priesthood is one of the causes of the current scandal of clergy sexual abuse of children. Lastly we will look at missionary activities. There is a "romanticized" view of missionary work that needs to be corrected.
Missionary activities have wrought much harm on native tribes all around the world. It's methods, far from just preaching the word of God to natives, involve deception, coercion and even kidnapping! It is a known fact that the missionaries have been responsible for many deaths of native peoples all around the world.
Modern FundamentalismUntil about four decades ago the majority of Christians count themselves in the mainstream liberal churches. In a way the churches’ loose and undogmatic approach to biblical interpretation help in ensuring that the pathological side of faith is kept to the minimum. The involvement of the churches in social issues kept the religion meaningful. In the US, these issues were the civil rights movement and the protest against the Vietnam war. However, once these crises passed and the psyche turns inwards, liberal theology-which as we have seen is essentially cognitively meaningless- was unable to provide the solace that the Christian needs.[5]
Thus since the second half of the sixties the attendance in mainstream Protestant Churches had dropped dramatically while a corresponding increase can be seen in the evangelical/fundamentalist churches. [6] Lay Christians, grown tired of the liberal theologians' endless and meaningless sermons turned to the fundamentalist churches. While liberal churches begin to lose members, the fundamentalists ones began to gain adherents. The Assemblies of God registered a 300% increase in membership from 1960 to 1979 in the US alone. Many other fundamentalist churches at least doubled their membership within the same period.[7]
The fundamentalists’ main tenets are that certain biblical teachings represent the rock bottom fundamentals of the faith and cannot be questioned by those who still wants to remain within the faith. [8] Thus, they reject any scientific findings, a priori, that does not square away with these basic beliefs. We have seen in the previous chapters that the complete acceptance of Biblical "truths" has made the fundamentalists anti-science, anti-Semitic, anti-women and anti-social progress. However, they do offer a kind of concreteness and certitude which the liberals lack. And it is this set of simple [but simplistic] answers that attract many to fundamentalism.
This evangelical fundamentalist revival is a worldwide phenomenon. Countries in the West have been the main epicenter of these phenomena-not surprising as these are the ones that are traditionally Christian. In the United States today there an estimated fifty million born again Christians, who are mostly fundamentalists. At the time of writing (2004), the US has fundamentalist Christians as its President and attorney general. In Latin America, a traditionally Catholic stronghold, an estimated seven percent of the population, or roughly, 35 million are fundamentalists Christians. Europe is also not spared from this looming darkness. In 1991 in England, about a quarter of a million took part in the fundamentalist “March for Jesus”. [9] Third world countries, the traditionally non-Christian ones, have also seen their fair share of evangelism and conversions. The author personally knows some Christian evangelists who try to proselytize in countries, such as Nepal, where the preaching of Christianity is officially banned. We will look at some of the harm fundamentalists do to themselves and to others. It is a warning that if vigilance is not kept, a new Dark Age would again arise.
In many ways modern fundamentalism harks back to traditional Christianity, to quote from the Bible:
Ecclesiastes 1:9
What has been is what will be
and what has been done is what will be done;
and there is nothing new under the sun.
I agree, they are the Christians that are most true to their tradition. Indeed we find that:
The intolerance of some of the more prominent TV Evangelists do not really differ much from the old church fathers.
Even their sexual excesses remind one of the Renaissance popes.
The trust of many fundamentalists on faith healing is a continuation of tradition of anti-reason and anti-intellectualism of traditional Christianity. That lay Christians are continually been duped and cheated by these healers does not seem to abate the strong irrational belief in faith healing.
Like the Christian mobs of old who burned down synagogues and persecuted heretics, modern fundamentalists burn down "New Age" stores, condemn modern music, still burn books and are generally not "worldly". Finally we look at one fringe fundamentalist sect: the Jehovah's witnesses. Despite repeated mistakes in predicting the end of the world they continue to attract believers. And like all Christian sects, they harm these very followers in many ways.
Not allowing blood transfusion due to some passages in the Bible has caused needless deaths and suffering. ConclusionsOur conclusions are many:
The behavior of prominent Christians and Christian mobs should prove once and for all that religious instructions and contemplation do not lead to moral behavior.
Rather than being the cure for the ills of the world, Christianity had, in fact, been responsible for many of its ills: the inquisitions, witch-hunts, wars and persecutions.
Christianity was, is and looks like it shall remain as long as it exists, a fundamentally anti-rational and anti-intellectual movement.
Christianity, rather than being a force to bring about social change, had always been champions of the status quo. It's historical record on slavery and the position of women attest to this.
The Catholic Church continues to cause harm in the world due to its position on birth control and abortion.
Modern fundamentalism embodies all the major characteristics of historical Christianity: they are intolerant, anti-reason, anti-women and anti-life. They are without doubt, the "true Christians".
If this page leaves a foul taste in your mouth, then I have done what I set out to do. To show that Christianity has brought more harm than good to the world. References
1. Knight, Honest to Man: p49
2. Easton, Illustrated Bible Dictionary: p636
3. Phelips, The Churches and Modern Thought: p198
4. Graham, The Jesus Hoax: p95
5. Cohen, The Mind of the Bible Believer: p31-32
6. Gardner, The New Age: p225
Nelkin, The Creation Controversy: p59-61
7. ibid: p61
8. Godfrey, Scientists Confront Creationism: p7
9. Haiven, Faith, Hope, No Charity: p218
Edmund Cohen, "The Religiosity of George W. Bush", Free Inquiry Vol 24 No. 4 June/July 2004 p38-40
Gilbert, Casting the First Stone: p16-17
http://www.geocities.com/paulntobin/history.html
