Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 (Tek) 9/26/83; site azure.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!unc!mcnc!decvax!ucbvax!ucbcad!tektronix!teklds!azure!jonw From: jonw@azure.UUCP (Jonathan White) Newsgroups: net.flame,net.religion Subject: Why attack Christianity? Message-ID: <2624@azure.UUCP> Date: Mon, 19-Mar-84 17:23:57 EST Article-I.D.: azure.2624 Posted: Mon Mar 19 17:23:57 1984 Date-Received: Wed, 21-Mar-84 03:28:52 EST Organization: Tektronix, Beaverton OR Lines: 59 I think that the following comment from Jeff Sargent (posted to net.flame) would make an interesting topic of discussion: I broadcast my faith because it has helped me and people I know, so I believe it can help others. Why do you attack Christianity? What good do you expect to gain, or to help others gain, by attacking something which has done good for many people? Why do you bother attacking something which has been attacked many times, which received some of its worst attacks when it was still fledgling, and survived them all? Surely you see how futile that is. What profit does it give you (enjoyment, perhaps?) to wound Christians? There is a strange tendency for Christians to view themselves as martyrs that are struggling against the overwhelming forces of evil in the world, although I think that an objective look at the past 2,000 years of history would reveal that Christianity has done a lot more harm than good. Consider, for example, just exactly what things would be like if the Roman Catholic Church had managed to hang on to the awesome power that it enjoyed in the middle ages. Certainly you wouldn't be reading this article on a computer terminal. In fact, I doubt that any of us would be enjoying the fruits of science, because science as we know it would not exist; it would be considered heretical and its practitioners would be regularly burned at the stake! We would all be secure in the knowledge that the Earth was the center of the universe and that everything in the Bible was the literal truth. Yes sir, the answer to any question could be found right there in that one book. Why would we even need science? Everything that we need to know is in the Bible, and any observation that conflicts with Biblical knowledge is false by definition. So why do I attack Christianity? Because I don't think that it is necessary to have a belief system that is based on nothing more solid than a bunch of Hebrew myths, especially when that belief system is responsible for much unnecessary bloodshed (the Spanish Inquisition, the Holy Wars, etc.), and also responsible for setting back the social and scientific progress of mankind perhaps hundreds of years. Even though Christian institutions no longer have the power to burn dissenters, the forces of Christianity are still hard at work to promote their view no matter what the social or scientific cost. [1] By the way, I don't dispute the statement that Christianity has done some people some good. However, I do think that the same results could have been achieved in other ways that would ultimately be less destructive and divisive to mankind. Jon White [decvax|ucbvax]!tektronix!tekmdp!azure!jonw [1] A good example of this is "scientific" creationism. Here we have a group of people who so firmly believe the creation myth in the Bible that they want to bend science to fit their particular view. Never mind that once you allow a supernatural force into science, that science falls apart at the seams (if it's not falsifiable, it's not science!). Another example is our former Secretary of the Interior, James Watt (a born-again Christian). His basic attitude is that since we are in our final days, we might as well rape the land as much as possible. Such Christian philosophy I can do without! (Note to would-be flamers: I realize that there are Christians who disagree with Watt and creationism; I'm just trying to point out that religion and politics/science don't mix.)