Rath said:
Jumpin said:
Rath said:
Jumpin said:
Christian values include: forgiveness; the equality of humanity under God; sharing with the poor, the widows, the orphans, the sick, and elderly; etc... The principals of modern Democracy are rooted in Christianity - there was democracy in classical antiquity, but it was class-based - and people were not granted equal rights.
Christianity was also a very liberal and revolutionary religion: The bringer of peace, Lord, son of God, Saviour, etc... are not titles unique to Christianity, but rather titles that were bestowed upon Jesus to put him on the same standing as the Roman Emperor. In the first century AD, if you asked someone about those titles in Latin or Greek, they would be the titles commonly attributed to Augustus. The difference being Augustus used violence, Jesus used peaceful tactics.
The first Christians were Hellenized Jews, living in the Roman Empire, who lived around the crossroads of the African trade (egypt was newly conquered) and the silk road passing from India (also newly secured) - so given that environment with the obvious flow of tradition. So essentially the first Christians were Jewish philosophers who were likely initiates in the mystery cults with influence from Buddhism and Zoroastrianism (Judaism already was heavily influenced by this faith, it's where Angels and Archangels, as well as monotheism, originated). The way I see Christianity is that it is an evolution of the greater Indo-European religion.
Also, followers of Liberal Christianity for a big part believe in religious pluralism: that there are cultural differences between religions, but also core similarities. Liberal Christians believe that the Bible is metaphorical, and that spiritual enlightenment is not exclusive to Christianity. |
I don't really see how it can be claimed that liberal democracy is related to Christianity, democracy as we know it didn't rise until after the French Revolution changed everything up.
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And it was justified on biblical authority.
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Well over a thousand years after Christianity had become the dominant religion. During which time absolute monarchs had ruled with what they claimed to be biblical authority.
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Absolute Monarchs ruled under the divine right of Kings; not through biblical authority. The issue was that in the middle ages, very few were literate, and even fewer had access to a bible. First of all, bibles were generally in Latin or antiquated Greek, and not the native languages of most Europeans. The rise of the Gutenberg printing press helped lead to the modern revolution; which included the Protestant revolution, uprisings such as Oliver Cromwell's in England, the age of enlightenment, and the French Revolution.
It was actually post-modernism, and anti-Christian morality which brought back absolute authorities in the 20th century; as well as ideals such as social Darwinism. Although many will argue that Nietzsche's works were misinterpreted. In the end, Nietzsche was not able to really solve the riddle of how to gain a good moral system without religion. Even when he broke it down into the ideas of basic human wills. Ultimately, the discovery of post modernism was nihilism; in a world without God, everything is permitted - and this includes genocides.
