Christian Responses: What good has Christianity done?
What good has Christianity done?
Quick-read this article:
While evolution’s philosophy of “survival of the fittest” has brought overwhelmingly harmful movements such as Nazism, Stalinism, and eugenics, Christians following Christ’s teaching of “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” have established hospitals, welfare agencies, orphanages, charities, relief agencies, universities … and fought for prison reform, abolition of slavery, better education, and treatment for alcoholics.
Jesus Christ said: “A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit” (Matthew 7:18).
The frightful evolutionary catchphrase of “survival of the fittest” has led to many harmful movements, such as Stalin’s murderous rampages, Francis Galton’s appalling eugenics ideas, and Hitler’s master race program. (See the article What harm can come from believing in evolution?)
Is Christianity any better?
Atheists and skeptics sometimes say that Christianity is no better — just look at the crusades, the Ku Klux Klan, slavery in the American South, etc.
Yet true Christianity is based on Jesus Christ’s Golden Rule — Do unto others as you would have them do unto you (Matthew 7:12). None of the movements they mention — the crusades, the KKK, slavery in the American South, etc. — have been based on this principle or any other of Jesus Christ’s teachings.
In fact, if you want to compare the fruit, you will find there are no Skeptics’ or rationalists’ hospitals, charities, or aged-care homes, no evolutionists’ orphanages, welfare agencies, or relief agencies, or any other life-improving institutions such as those founded and funded by Christians who have followed Jesus’ teachings.
Christianity has always been humanitarian
The early church in Jerusalem appointed deacons and elders to care for widows and the sick (Acts 6:1, James 5:13), and churches still do this today. In the Middle Ages, the monasteries created hospitals. Burgeoning numbers of pilgrims to the Holy Land were cared for by the Order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem.
The noble nursing reformer Florence Nightingale received her training at the first Protestant hospital — at Kaiserwerth in Germany.
While Charles Darwin was finalizing publication of his Origin of Species in 1859, Swiss humanitarian and Bible-believer Henri Dunant was planning the Red Cross and negotiating the Geneva convention for the care and treatment of wounded soldiers. Dunant was co-winner of the first Nobel Prize for Peace in 1901, and his inspiring Red Cross committee later won the award three times.
It was the Bible-believing Christians in England in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries — not the evolutionists of the day — who tackled the illiteracy problem, adult education, abolition of slavery, prison reform, and treatment for alcoholics. The Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) was formed in 1844, the YWCA a decade later, and the Salvation Army launched its multinational welfare organization based on Christian ethics and precepts six years after the release of Darwin’s Origin of Species.
Care for those who are troubled
Christians have always offered pastoral care to those who are hurt, troubled, grieving or alienated. Christians set the foundations for education in North America, including the establishment of universites such as Harvard and Yale.
It is unlikely that the evolutionary world view would ever allow significant humanitarian causes to arise and flourish, because if you believe you are the product of purposeless evolution through “survival of the fittest”, there is little incentive or reason to help the weak. Hence we get monumental abominations under the likes of Stalin, Galton, and Hitler.
The concept of humanitarianism comes from Christ’s teachings. That is definitely not a “corrupt tree” or “corrupt fruit”.
History shows that it is the Christians who have made this world a better place for all — even for Skeptics, anti-Christians, evolutionists and atheists.
Jun 19, 2011 @ 04:54:13
If this is all historically accurate, I see no reason to be posting this article on a website for mocking religions.
It’s not until “It is unlikely that the evolutionary world view would ever allow significant humanitarian causes to arise and flourish, because if you believe you are the product of purposeless evolution through “survival of the fittest”, there is little incentive or reason to help the weak. Hence we get monumental abominations under the likes of Stalin, Galton, and Hitler.” does the article really proclaim anything stupid.
Obviously, they are characterizing the Theory of Evolution as a belief system, much like a religion, when it’s soul essence is as a scientific observation on how we came to be. We(ANY sane human being, theist or atheist) lives by “Survival of the fittest” on a conscious level. It’s just human nature according to the general nature of life. But we’ve developed morality and all the lovely bits of it(sympathy, empathy, remorse, etc.) as we’ve evolved as an intelligent, aware species. To me, religion, especially Christianity, is more like a LACk of faith in ourselves as a species. We’ve come a long way since our unexplainable creation. And I’m not even an evolutionist, but agnostic on all fronts.
Jun 19, 2011 @ 04:59:16
Edit: “We(ANY sane human being, theist or atheist) have never lived by “Survival of the fittest” on a conscious level.”