Atheism and the Good Life |
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Origins of Equality Hi Greg, Your claim that equality comes from the teachings of Jesus is not one I have sympathy for. Equality was first developed by the Stoics, predating Christ, and other Greek philosophers, notably Aristotle wrote on the subject. Yes, Christians also articulated those ideas, but I can't see that it was in any sense a dramatic leap forward beyond previous writings. Christianity's history of equality is not good. Peter Possi tells me that the early religions of Isis, Tammuz and Dionysus were much more tolerant than Christianity, which itself wiped them out. Earlier christianity was tolerant of slavery, and more recent christianity has been sexist and homophobic. Some Christian denominations at the margins have recently decided to treat women and gays equally to everyone else. While a positive development, it's the influence secular human thought rather than any "rediscovery" of the original teachings of Christ. Much of the Christian Church remains a bastion of sexism and homophobia. Indeed, recent improvements in the equality of women and gays in mainstream society derives from secular thought, not Christianity. Equality did not begin with the enlightenment. Those times were certainly sexist, homophobic and racist. There was some improvement in the rights of the common people, but its hardly the change you make it out to be. You suggest that some modern views of equality may have drawn on either the teachings of Christ or the Christian tradition, and note that Jeremy Waldron talks about Locke. Locke does talk about a secular view of ethics. He may well have drawn from the Christian tradition. However, that does not make all of modern ethical thought reliant on Christianity. We could equally argue for the influence of writers in the Greco-Roman tradition prior to Christ. There would of course be some influence from Christian thought, but I don't feel that the contribution was larger than any other influence, or in some sense vital in the way you claim. Equality in the Christian tradition has mostly been a case of "do as I say, not as I do.". You might claim the teachings of Christ can be separated from the actions of humans in institutions which share its name, something I wouldn't agree to - it's strange people put so much credence in such a mixed history. You could claim that all that was good was inspired by Jesus, and all that was corrupt was due to the misinterpretation of Jesus by human beings. However, that's a very lazy distinction - you're assuming exactly what you're trying to prove. And, in answer to your question - yes, some elements of the bible do have historical validity. I did not qualify my earlier statement sufficiently well. However, to the extent that people are trying to draw inspiration from the bible, they're drawing from a much larger set of writings. If you wished, you could remove most of the bible and leave just what the general consensus of historians (including atheists) believed in. But you'd have a very different religion. John August Trackback Link Trackbacks |
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