Influential Myths

Why Do People Think Christianity is Harmful to Human Flourishing?

There are many myths that influence our culture, and one of the key myths is that Christianity is harmful to human flourishing. This podcast begins a series that discusses how that myth developed and whether the historical evidence actually supports that conclusion or not. In addition, we will consider the possibility that this myth that Christianity is harmful, might be a foundational myth for many other cultural myths that influence our culture.
 

Setting the Record Straight: Positive Impact of Christianity Pt.1

After reviewing the development of the "Myth of the Dark Ages", this podcast will discuss the remarkable Innovation and Invention that took place during this alleged "Dark Ages", and the radically new view of God and man that Christianity brought to the world that led to health care, and eventually the first hospitals, as well as an enhanced view of women and children.

Setting the Record Straight - Positive Impact of Christianity Pt 2

This episode will continue with examples of positive Christian impact upon culture: Reason, Progress and Science, Education, Human equal value, worth, and dignity and human rights.

Setting the Record Straight - Positive Impact of Christianity Pt 3

This episode considers the positive impact of Christianity on the Abolition of Slavery (twice), the Missionary Roots of Liberal Democracy, the Red Cross and the Geneva Convention. It concludes that the evidence of history reveals the remarkable, beneficial social impact of Christianity. "The teachings of Jesus may well be way more helpful to us than we are allowing ourselves to believe; both the followers of Jesus and even those that don't follow Jesus need to revisit the impact his teachings can have ... especially our culture right now, needs to revisit this in a real honest way ... to see how well does the evidence hold up, and can we learn from this and apply it."

What About Notorious Blemishes in Christian History? Pt 1

After the three previous episodes, focussing on the positive impact of Christianity, we now turn to the obvious question of "What about the Blemishes in Christian History?" Do they justify the conclusion that Christianity is harmful for human flourishing?
In this episode we discuss four responses that will apply to each example of negative behaviour:
1) Yes it happened
2) Descriptions and numbers have been exaggerated
3) There are mitigating circumstances which even though they do not justify the bad behaviour, do help us to walk in the shoes of those who acted this way.
4) Most importantly, these bad behaviours are not the fruit or the result of the teachings of Jesus and the Apostles.
We then discuss the first example of bad behaviour - The Use of Force in Spreading Christianity

What About Notorious Blemishes in Christian History? Pt 2 The Crusades

The Crusades are often thought of as justifying the conclusion that Christianity is harmful to human flourishing. This episode shows that the Crusades were not unprovoked, but were a call for help from a besieged people. However, we will also see that the Crusades mixed God with torture, and mixed noble aspirations with some of the worst excesses of war, including recruiting Crusaders with promises of forgiveness for their sins.

What About Notorious Blemishes in Christian History? Pt 3 The Inquisition

In my experience, it is the mention of the “Inquisition” that most often accompanies or elicits most people’s view of the middle ages as the “Dark Ages” – as a time of cruel injustice, and sinister torture chambers employed by Christianity. As such, it can seem like adequate justification for dismissing Christianity as harmful to human flourishing.
But an accurate history of the Inquisitions has been substantially unknown until the archives of both the relevant European governments and the Catholic Church had been made available to scholars which only happened in the latter half of the twentieth century.
Rather than relying on exaggerated accounts from both 16th century Protestants and later Enlightenment atheists, researchers now have the careful records from all of the 44,674 cases heard by the Inquisitions between 1540 - 1700. And as Sociologist Rodney Stark says, “the results are solidly undeniable.” And these records paint a different picture than the one we have been fed for over three hundred years. It is time to Set the Record Straight on the Inquisition!

What About Notorious Blemishes in Christian History? Pt 4 Galileo Affair

The Galileo affair is not actually what the Enlightenment Narrative has told us it is—proof of Christianity's anti-science "DNA". When properly understood without hyperbole, it is an unfortunate exception in the relationship between science and Christianity.
The conflict thesis turns out to be a religious myth, and when we examine the data, we cannot help but notice that science emerged in a Christian context for Christian reasons. Historical development of science came from Christian thinking - not suddenly out of nowhere!!

What About Notorious Blemishes in Christian History? Pt 5 Witch Trials 1

Do the witch trials of the "early modern period" prove that Christianity is harmful for human flourishing? This episode will analyze the typical "Enlightenment Narrative" about the witch trials, the number of executions, the context in which they took place, and the role of Christianity.
As with the previous blemishes on the history of Christian influence, harm is admitted, but again shocking exaggeration of the numbers are exposed, as well as important mitigating circumstances, and a much smaller role of the church in the executions.

What About Notorious Blemishes in Christian History? Pt 6 Witch Trials 2

This second episode on the Witch Trials of the early modern period takes a closer look at the difficult question of their possible causes. Ten possible causes are considered, with all failing as a single adequate explanation, but maybe some combinations of them providing some reasonable clarification about what was actually going on.
We then consider the most important question for the purposes of this series: “was Biblical teaching a cause of the witch trials?” In fact, it wasn’t Christians acting too Christian that caused the witch trials, but not acting Christian enough!
Finally, we consider the Enlightenment narrative that implies the witch trials were eliminated by skepticism over all supernatural claims. Not only do we discover that it was the Inquisition’s views on witches that brought about the end of the witch trials a hundred years before Enlightenment thinkers even got on board, but also that the Enlightenment strategy of disbelieving all supernatural claims in order to eliminate superstitions is a case of overkill – throwing the baby out with the bathwater.