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The Forum > Article Comments > Rumours of Christianity's demise greatly exaggerated > Comments

Rumours of Christianity's demise greatly exaggerated : Comments

By Lyle Shelton, published 4/1/2012

Christianity has been the great civilising influence in the face of barbarism, indifference to the sick and poor and in opposition to tyrants in the institutional church, nobility and state.

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I dunno Pericles. Maybe I'm just getting tired of the religion debate in general, but I've come to the conclusion that throughout the ages, Christianity has done at least as much good as bad. (I say this as a fairly indifferent agnostic).

Christianity has some pretty damning periods in history - the crusades, much of the dark ages, even in modern times we have to contend with the odd Christian lunatic with the desire to murder abortion doctors to 'defend life' (evidently irony isn't a strong point of theirs), or worry about the more aggressive evangelical sects pushing their creationism worldview in schools.

That being said, I think we also need to take into account that throughout history, aside from the crusades, the mighty power of the church was mostly used for politicking and power-mongering throughout Europe, with the most prominent casualties being wayward royalty. Given their centuries-old history, that's actually pretty reasonable.

I view it more as the devil we know, rather than the one we don't. There are always going to be powerful institutions abusing their position and there are always going to be religious people.
When compared to other institutions of comparative power, at least the church preaches humility, even if it's not always followed in practice.

Sure, I can hope that the world continually becomes more secular (which tends to go hand in hand with increased levels of education and increased recognition of women's rights, funny that) but I can also recognize that Christianity is probably among the religions most likely to let that happen peacefully. I'm willing to give them credit for being a force throughout history which has ultimately contributed to this trend.
Posted by TurnRightThenLeft, Wednesday, 4 January 2012 10:40:41 PM
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A balanced and well put argument TRTL.

The article was incredibly biased and did not acknowledge the horrors of the Crusades however Christianity is not alone in committing horrors and modern Christianity has come a long way from it's dark ages
Posted by pelican, Wednesday, 4 January 2012 10:44:12 PM
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"Atheist Govt killing and torture - you mean by the very religion-aligned Nazis; or the seminary-trained Stalin who exploited Russia's Tsar-messiah cult to install himself and his govt, and who used religion in WW2, and remained personally religious all his life?"

Even a contortionist would find it difficult to make such a claim. It implies that Stalin exterminated millions in the name of God, and was not acting in the capacity of a committed communist leader who was obliged to oppose all religions.
Posted by Raycom, Wednesday, 4 January 2012 11:27:37 PM
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I am intrigued by the title. As far as I can tell the only people who spread rumors of the 'demise' of Christianity appear to be Christians themselves. I think they need to believe it in order to appear to be the persecuted underdog.

Christianity may be in for another 're-invention', and in fact likely already is, but that will only prompt the old guard to lament the demise of the religion again.
Posted by Bugsy, Wednesday, 4 January 2012 11:30:15 PM
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Raycom,
it does not imply that, it just negates the simple proposition that Stalin and his government governed in the name of atheism.

Persistent claims that events, often over decades, were all due to one thing is tiresome. Besides, we are very unlikely to see governments like that in "the west" again - where else is there a former seminarian trying to use a previous or recent messiah cult (or both) to install himself and his fellow messiah-following cronies in govt with such a negative aura ... oh, dear ....
Posted by McReal, Thursday, 5 January 2012 5:46:22 AM
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How many human beings would Jesus have murdered?
How many armies would Jesus have blessed or commanded?
How many continents and countries would Jesus have invaded?
Posted by Daffy Duck, Thursday, 5 January 2012 1:19:38 PM
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