Since The Forum began carrying Ross Nelson's column some time back I have found myself in agreement with the vast majority of his views. I must, however, take issue with his latest comments concerning Christianity vs. Atheism.
Morality does not arise within a vacuum, but neither is it confined solely to those who have religious beliefs, particularly those of the Christian variety. Rather, it comes from the socialization a person has undergone, as well as those indefinable components that make up an individuals' psyche. How else can humanity explain the breakdown of Holocaust survivors into those who want revenge (the majority) and those who, Mother Theresa like, practice the art of complete forgiveness as the only way to heal themselves (the minority)?
To concentrate only on the number of people killed by Christians verses those killed by atheists renders an inaccurate picture because it is an incomplete analysis. One would have to attempt to ascertain the total amount of human misery completed by both camps in order to accomplish this.
During the Reformation, Catholic Christians and Protestant Christians killed each other en masse in northern Europe during the Thirty Years War because each was convinced the other was wrong. During the American Civil War, World War I, and almost every war since the founding of the Christian religion up to now, Christians on both sides of any particular conflict prayed to the same God for the death and destruction of their enemies and for victory for their own side because they felt their belief(s) the correct one.
Slavery in America was upheld in part by the Biblical belief that the sons and daughters of Ham were ordained by God to be servants of the white race. The Christian countries of Western Europe colonized Africa, Australia, North and South America and parts of Asia, almost always to their benefit while to the overall detriment of the native peoples.
ADVERTISEMENT
Within the last year the entire country has been awash in church scandal which has been shown more and more to have been, if not condoned then at least canceled, by the church itself.
Ever since that point in our distant past when people began to seriously organize themselves, one of the primary responsibilities of religion has been to safeguard the throne. Organized religion is generally parochial and conservative, resistant to change, particularly when that change threatens to detract from whatever power a particular religion has managed to accumulate. The many positive aspects of religion become stymied as soon as religion becomes organized and codified.
Belief in the Christian God, or lack of it, it not a good indicator of either the humanity or inhumanity of any particular individual or society. Were I to hazard a guess, it would be that Christianity has contributed, at minimum, as much overall human misery as any other religion, and certainly more than atheism, simply because there are now and always have been (nominally, anyway) so few atheists.
Hempeck, Hendrum, Minn., is a self-employed, single father. He can be reached at capitaincossack@juno.com
