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There is a lot to source from Christian ideals, many of which are the foundations of Western culture: human dignity, moral equality, conscience, limits on power and care for those less fortunate and weaker. Much of what is happening in the world today feels like a stark reversal of those ideals: selfishness and divisiveness manufactured to promote a narrow segment of society.

Recent news articles have indicated an increase in church attendance. This makes sense: we have lost our moral compass... Specifically in the USA... And people are searching for a new direction.

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From what I’ve seen religions derive from basic human virtues and not the other way around.

and?

I think what actually happened is that the Enlightenment comprehensively developed the concept of natural rights and the Christians were like "well, we're not beating that with divine right of kings, better adopt it as the thing God did all along".

The absolute, immutable, eternal and unchanging nature of God somehow changes with the times. Even in scripture. Odd, that.

What have the Roman’s ever done for us?

There's a big difference between the Christian ideals and the practices of organised Christian churches. The acquisition of wealth and power seemed to be a major goal for organised Christianity through to the Middle Ages. My opinion is that Christianity held back human civilisation for maybe a thousand years with their doctrine (c.f. Copernicus).

As an atheist, I find it grating to hear people talking about only the idealistic side of Christianity and ignoring all the wars, torture and denigration of people that it caused. Of course, other religions are also responsible for a lot of the same sins.

That said, I do have respect for the teachings of Jesus - he seemed to be very much into socialism and very anti-Captialist.




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