.

Dear Paul 1405,

.

You wrote :

« BP, … You say; "Christianity, like all things human, has done some good, some bad, producing, in my opinion, an overall neutral result." That is only true if you believe bad is neutralised in some way by good, that good is a counter balance to bad. In my opinion bad is bad, and good is good, they are mutually exclusive, and one can't justify the other. »
.

I am not a chartered accountant, but I did have in mind a financial trading account when I wrote those words, Paul. The “good” being on the credit side (Right), and the “bad” on the debit side (Left), Christianity being the trader.

What I am trying to say is that since Christianity was established 2025 years ago, it has, on several tragic historical occasions, engendered atrocious human costs for society. But it has, nevertheless, largely accomplished its mission of maintaining peace and harmony among the members of society on a vast scale throughout most of those 2025 years.

So how do we evaluate it ?

I say, "Christianity, like all things human, has done some good, some bad, producing, in my opinion, an overall neutral result."

It deserves neither to be admonished nor to be lauded. We probably could have done without it. We could, perhaps, have placed our faith in mankind itself.

After all, we were the ones who invented everything, weren’t we ?

.

Hi BP,

Thank you for the reply, I understand where you are coming from with the "chartered accountant" analogy, which is fine when comparing like to like. I much prefer this;

I am not a cordon bleu chef, if a cake recipe calls for half a pound of arsenic (bad) I can't add half a dozen eggs (good) and then claim my cake is neutral.

I can't agree; "But it (Christianity) has, nevertheless, largely accomplished its mission of maintaining peace and harmony among the members of society on a vast scale" In our times, both WWI and II were fought by men with Christian values, their Christianity didn't prevent the slaughter of millions. There is no evidence that Christianity has been responsible for maintaining peace and harmony among members of society. Maybe it has bred intolerance which has the opposite effect. Are Christians any less violent members of society than say Buddhists, Hindus, atheists etc etc, me thinks not.