Atheism and the Good Life |
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Greg,
We've several points here - one is whether values are philosophically independent of any system of belief - and another historical one, of where the beliefs first started. But let's look at the historical issue for starters. Many other religions which preceded Christianity captured and articulated positive values - Buddhism and Zoroastrianism for example, but I can list others if need be. In the Greco -Roman tradition, Plato and Aristotle spoke about the worth of Human beings, and Cicero, writing about a hundred years before Christ, first developed the ideas of humanitarianism. Jesus may well have made a worthwhile synthesis of ideas which were in circulation at the time - but in no sense was it a novel framework. The ideas had been around beforehand. Christianity in its history suppressed knowledge about the world (for example the Copernican heresy) and was the source of much violence - for example the inquisition and crusades. But, also to be fair, the Civil Liberties movement of equality for blacks in the US was informed by Christianity - as compared to the religious right these days. Also, non conformists in the UK pushed for the availability of the bible and improved literacy, with people thinking about the bible for themselves, outside of a hierachical structure. This was certainly positive, much as I do not credit the bible as a factual record. And I could go onto why Ethics is philosophically quite separable from all religions, not to mention Christianity - but for the moment, I think this does for challenging any historical claim of Christianity being the source of positive values. (We ask that you please keep all comments to 200 words or less) |
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