Emma Kenney

There is a constant battle between the ideology belonging to atheists and that belonging to Christians. Author Robin Daverman states:

Religion may have accounted for a lot of wars in the Middle Ages, but in the 20^th century, the biggest source of human disasters is actually pseudo-science. The biggest military disaster is WWII, which was triggered by Nazi ideology. The Nazi ideology borrowed heavily from Darwin’s “natural selection” and the nascent environmentalism. There were films made about “superior race” eugenics, and how those who were born less than perfect should just go kill himself. The whole “lebensraum” (German for “Habitat”) was about environmental carrying capacity — for humans. Total fatality from WWII ranges from 50 million to 80 million.

Why then do so many people say that the world would be better off without religion, specifically Christianity?

Many people think being an atheist leaves you with no connection to religion, but that is inaccurate. Author and director of the Henry Jackson Society, Douglas Murray states, “atheists tend to imply that there isn’t much work to do after discarding God. On the contrary, after discarding God, all the work of establishing morals is still before you — just as after demonstrating mankind’s need for ethics, the work of proving a particular religion is true remains before you.”

A question long pondered is “where do morals even come from?” According to Friedrich Nietzsche’s On the Genealogy of Morals, morals come from the clash of opposing social strata. However, how is it society can have long standing concrete morals if the clashes of society are always changing? In theory, shouldn’t that produce vastly changing morals instead of ones that stand concrete? That is not to say everyone agrees with or even acknowledges the same morals. There will always be a dispute over morals, but that comes from humanity’s sin nature and their inward desire to do only what is beneficial to them.

If humanity does indeed have concrete and never-ending morals it would involve a Divine being having placed them within the framework of each individual human themselves. It is simply just not something humanity can claim to have done. This therefore means morals come from religion, so by default, if you took away the religion you would be taking away the sense of morals. Man is simply too sinful to claim he (or she) is capable of always being morally upright just because he feels like it. There will always be the desire to and the act of sin within every human that is and ever will be.

Religion has also contributed greatly to charity within society, leading many organizations and fighting for many rights. Author Jonathan Sarfati says:

Christianity has been at the forefront of other humanitarian causes, such as literacy, hospitals, orphanages and abolition of child labour. The biblical teaching that all humans come from “one man/blood” (Acts 17:26) is the best antidote to racism, and science is catching up. It’s notable that Wilberforce was also an advocate of animal welfare. (Beware the confusion of animal welfare with animal rights. The former seeks to treat animals humanely, while the latter purports to give animals, e.g. the great apes, the same rights as humans.)

Even today, conservative Christians still give far more support to charities than do other people, as noted by a recent book, Who Really Cares, by Prof. Arthur Brooks. The data were a total surprise to Brooks, who had a socially liberal background. It showed that:

“Religious Americans are more likely to give to every kind of cause and charity, including explicitly nonreligious charities. Religious people give more blood; religious people give more to homeless people on the street.”

Christianity has also contributed to the scientific world as well, contrary to popular belief. In fact, Christian science is significant enough to even be considered by some as the beginning of all other sciences. Without it, the modern science of today might not be the same. Sarfati states:

Science is another area where the conventional wisdom puts it at loggerheads with Christianity. However, historians of science have pointed out that modern science first flourished under a Christian worldview while it was stillborn in other cultures. This is due mainly to two biblical teachings: (1) man had dominion over creation (Genesis 1:26–28), so had a duty to investigate it without praying to the “water spirit” or “forest god” or the like. (2) God is a lawgiving God of order, not confusion (1 Corinthians 14:33). So the early scientists had faith that God’s upholding of His creation in an orderly way could be described in terms of “natural laws.”

Author Alex Williams talks about Christian scientists in the medieval era, bringing up the fact many of the scientists whose theories we still acknowledge today were in fact Christians. He says the following:

Alchemy and astrology were highly developed in China, Islamic regions, India and ancient Greece and Rome, but only in medieval Europe did these become the sciences of chemistry and astronomy. “It is the consensus among contemporary historians, philosophers and sociologists of science that real science arose only once: in Europe.” The leading scientific figures in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were overwhelmingly devout Christians who believed it their duty to comprehend God’s handiwork.

Science began in the Christian universities under the influence of the devout scholastics. Copernicus was described by the infamous A.D. White as “a simple minded scholar” who “discovered” that the Earth revolves around the sun. More fudging. Copernicus was an eminent Christian scholar who studied at the Christian universities of Cracow, Bologna, Padua and Ferrera. He was taught the fundamentals of celestial mechanics that led to his heliocentric model. A long series of scholastic developments, including the demolition of Aristotle’s view of mechanics, made way for the modern version (via “impetus theory”), and it was biblical reasoning that guided the process.

But what was the Christian difference? India, China, Persia, Greece and Rome all had venerable traditions of scholarship but why did only Christian Europe develop science? Stark’s answer is simple but profound — the Christian God was rational, responsive, dependable and omnipotent and the universe was his personal creation in which his divine nature was put on display for man’s benefit and instruction. Among the passages most commonly cited by medieval scholars was: “Thou has ordered all things in measure and number and weight.” Christians believed that science could be done and should be done.

A world without religion would have serious consequences. It is best put by Sarfati, who says the following:

It is no accident that the greatest mass murderers in history were the atheistic communists like Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot; and the thoroughly evolutionized Nazi Germany. It has also been noted that when people cease believing in the true God, they don’t believe in nothing, but believe in anything. So it is not surprising that absurd God-substitutes abound.

It is evident a world without Christianity would not be a pleasant place, but would instead be a place with no morals, less charity, and less science. Many principles and discoveries known today might not have been known for years upon years after they were discovered if it were not for the Christian scientists and thinkers who devoted so much time to researching the world their God made. This shows if you don’t believe in something, indeed, you will fall for anything.

Works Cited

Daverman, Robin. “Would the World Be Better If Everyone Was an Atheist?” Quora.com. N.p., 27 Jan. 2015. Web.

Murray, Douglas. “Would Human Life Be Sacred in an Atheist World?” The Spectator. N.p., 19  Apr. 2014. Web. 10 Mar. 2016.

Nietzsche, Friedrich, Walter Arnold Kaufmann, and Reginald John Hollingdale. On the Genealogy of Morals; Ecce Homo; Friedrich Nietzsche. New York: Vintage, 1967. Print.

Sarfati, Jonathan. “What Good Is Christianity?” CMI Mobile. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Mar. 2016.

Williams, Alex. “The Biblical Origins of Science.” CMI Mobile. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Mar. 2016.