Does Christianity Help or Harm? (Gathering Assertions)

How we see right and wrong depends on how we see God, Nature, and Society.  If you're Maori, then the "mythological origin of women" explains why the male symbolizes "success, prosperity, and vigor," while the female symbolizes "calamity and distress."  (Maori Women, Berys Heuer, 10)  In which case, don't let your wife near your house or canoe while you are building them, but you might have her consecrate them afterwards with her evil powers.  Likewise, a clear change for women can be traced during the evolution of early Hindu thought.  Ramayana already began to idealize the woman who burnt herself to death.  Then the Law of Manu warned widows they would be born as jackals if they remarried, which I think helps explain why two thousand years later, Rajput women still refused to remarry (Sitah's Daughters: Coming Out of Purdah, Leigh Minturn, ).  (Even if they were virgins.)

Clearly, ideas have consequences.  

And so recently on two web sites that encourage debate between Christians and skeptics,  I asked what have been the consequences of that set of ideas bound up in Christianity.  

My goal in these three posts is to evaluate this question in a more systematic and careful way than is usual, so we can seek credible historical conclusions.  Let us approach the historical impact of the Gospel in a step-by-step manner, getting input from both sides, then looking for ways to objectively and usefully evaluate the answers given.  

So I begin (1) by collecting assertions from both sides about the good and the bad that Christianity has allegedly worked.  I sort these by popularity and by origin: should we credit or blame Jesus himself for a given effect, or the Bible in general, or later tradition? 

(2) I then sort or analyze these assertions by asking a series of questions designed to tease out historical causation from the mere "background noise" of human sociology.  What was actually caused by Christianity?  Which are better credited to human nature, accident, pre-Christian culture, or some other cause?

Here I'll make some judgement calls.   I'll apply those questions to each assertion in (1), then offer a tentative response.  Of course my conclusions will not only be debatable, I realize some of them may seem provocative.

(3) But not all effects are equally important.  If Christianity played a role in the rebirth of modern science, for instance, that affects us all, for good and ill, far more than, say, Prohibition.  So these items must be evaluated not only by how strongly they are linked to the Christian faith, but also by how great the impact of each effect has been.  So I then weigh that impact.  

(4) In the same post, I'll end with some tentative conclusions about the effect the Gospel of Jesus has had on the world, for good and for ill.  Of course, weighty books have been written about many of these items, and some of them inform my conclusions as well, which I will refer to more often than cite.   

I.  Gathering Assertions

"When the priest bites, when the inquisitor stings,
I simply remember my favorite things . . . "

I asked skeptics on two sites about the alleged harmful effects of Christianity.  I asked respondents to focus not on ideas in the Bible or Christianity they disliked, but on harms that posters believe have worked themselves out in history.   I then asked Christians (and unbelievers) to give historical goods which they credit to the Gospel, also focusing on verifiable effects rather than subjective "these are my favorite things" kinds of responses.  (Though one smart-aleck did indeed invoke Julie Andrews.)

But as some respondents pointed out, defining Christianity is no easy task.  Any given religion or ideology can be defined by reference to (a) the person, teachings, and acts of its founder or chief guru; (b) written or oral scriptures; (c) developed tradition.  To which of these three are we tracing producing benefits or harms? 

So I asked people to place a J (Jesus), B (Bible) or T (tradition) by each alleged harm or benefit brought about by Christianity.  (Or use lower cases -- j, b, t -- to indicate that the harm was accidental or indirect.)

I then scored results by giving "number one" items 5 points, "number two" items 3 points, "number three" items 2 points, and then 1 point each for subsequent claims.  

My first step yielded two sets of alleged historical effects, sorted by a weighted voting system (five points for first place, three for second, two for third, one each for later placings):  

A.  How has Christianity Harmed the World ? 

1. Supports despotism: 19

2. Anti-Science: 18.

3. Venomous message to kids (self-loathing, etc): 12

4. Supports slavery: 10

5. Supports misogyny: 9

6. Stifles doubts, hamstringing progress: 7

7. Otherworldliness: 5

8. Sexual repression: 4

One each:

9. Discord between religions and denominations.

10. Ambiguous Scriptures that can be read to encourage harmful social movements.

11. Genocide.

12. Idealizing human sacrifice.

Only one skeptical poster took the time to follow my instructions in assigning blame.  Here is his analysis:

1. Supports despotism: 19 – J, B, T, j, b ,t (all six)

2. Anti-Science: 18 – B, b, T, t

3. Venomous message to kids (self-loathing): 12 – B, b, T, t

4. Supports slavery: 10 – B, b, T, t

5. Supports misogyny: 9 – B, b, T, t

6. Stifles doubts, hamstringing progress: 7 – B, b, T, t

7. Otherworldliness: 5 – I’m not sure what you mean on this one

8. Sexual repression: 4 – J, j, B, b, T, t (all six again)

One each: 

9. Discord between religions and denominations. – B, b, T, t

10. Ambiguous Scriptures that can be read to encourage harmful social movements. – B, b, T, t

11. Genocide. – B, b, T, t

12. Idealizing human sacrifice. – B, b , T, t.

B. How has Christianity helped the world?  

Here's the list given by other posters, with my own analysis of the source of benefits of Christianity offered.  

1. Education & Universities: 15 B, J, T
2. Political: creation of Western Civilization, democracy, or the USA: 14 ("The philosophy of John Locke led directly to the development and implementation of the US Declaration of Independence and the Constitution") B, J, T
3. Help for the poor, charity, orphanages, "the last shall be first:" 13 B, J, T
4. Contribution to abolition of slavery: 12 B, J
5. Science: 12 B, j, T
6. Input into human rights: 7 B, J, T
7. Art, music, literature: 7 b, j, t
8. Women: 6 b, J, t 
9. Beatitudes, influence of: 5 b, J, T
10. hospitals: 4 B, J, T 
11. saved Roman Empire: 3 (I don't see why this is a good thing.) 
12. respect for authority: 2 B, J, T
13. peace-making: 1 b, J, t
14. BC / AD: 1 (Nor this.) 
15. stop Islam: 1 B, J, T
16. Christmas: 1 b, j, T
17. the weekend: 1 B, j, T 

Now let us analyze and sort the harms and goods attributed to Christian faith.  As much as possible, I'll link these to corresponding benefits, and discuss them together.  

I will ignore three alleged benefits: 9, which describes a cause not effects (though I'll consider it as a plausible source of 3, 4, 6, 10, and 13), 11, and 14.  That leaves us with 12 negatives, and 14 positives.  Others were offered later, but let's start with these.