Thanks for sharing—this is really important

Where did you hear this?

Once again, I am not defending the bad things done in the name of Christianity. And just as Christians have done atrocious things in the name of Jesus, various pagan cultures have sacrificed children for their religious beliefs.

I don’t doubt that religion hasn’t been used for evil things. It certainly has. But it has been used for good things as well. Saying that religion is wholly bad is just as ignorant as saying that it is wholly good. It’s much more complicated than that.

I’m not saying that charity and humility are restricted to religion. I’m saying that our modern humanism was historically shaped by the ideals of our religious ancestors.

Well that’s because the bad things get all the attention. I would argue that, without Christianity’s emphasis on humility and charity and the good things countless Christians have done in pursuit of those principles, we could be living in a world much more unfair.

Christianity did not cause the “Dark Ages.” After 381, the Empire survived as a Christian empire for 100 years in the West and 1100 in the East. The collapse of the Roman Empire was a complex process that involved multitudes upon multitudes of variables.

Are you just going to ignore the countless Christians (including MLK) who fought tooth and nail in opposition to these movements and for the sake of social advancements which we today take for granted?

Christianity was not responsible for the Dark Ages (a stupid and inaccurate term). If anything, they were less dark because the Church provided an institutional structure that survived the collapse of the Roman state and encouraged the preservation and cultivation of knowledge.

For me, tiny spoons create the illusion of eating more than I am.