The Impact Of Christianity On Western Culture
My wish is to live in a society, where apistia, egalitarianism and Epicurus' principle of not harming and not to be harmed were the basis of a life in cooperation, justice, security, consideration and responsibility. Only there is no such society.
Unfortunately people can free themselves from the childhood christian indoctrination and brainwashing, while they continue to be implicitly influenced by the secondary religious thinking.
1. The acceptance of and tolerance for suffering
Christianity claims that people get rewarded and compensated in the afterlife for the sufferings before their death. As a consequence, christians are motivated and feel justified to irrational behaviors:
1.1. They are prone to endure suffering without feeling outrage, protest or rebellion.
1.2. They Inflict suffering upon others without feeling guilty.
1.3. Sometimes they consider inflicting suffering as beneficial for the vicitms due to creating their alleged entitlement to be rewarded after death.
2. The value of life
Life is considered as a gift from the god, belonging to him and being at his disposition only. The individual is not considered as having an own right to subjectively evaluate if life is worth living or not.
2.1. Abortion is not socially accepted and/or forbidden by law.
2.2. People are not considered to have the unrestricted right over their own life including the evaluation of the quality of life. They are not allowed the option to decide, if it is worth living or not. Terminally ill persons are not given the right and help to end their sufferings.
2.3. But taking lives in favor of any cause serving higher goals than the individual is accepted, as is in forcing men to be soldiers and women to risk their lives in child birth.
3. Injustice combined with the acceptance of suffering
3.1. Forgiving is considered a positive behavior, even without the transgressor's remorse, insight or amends. Transgressors feel entitled to be forgiven. Victims are morally coerced to forgive. They are brainwashed to believe that forgiving benefits themselves. This kind of forgiving is dangerous, because the transgressor is indirectly condoned for his evil and is prone to repeat damaging others as a consequence of getting off the hook too easily.
3.2. The legal system does not focus on protecting the innocent from becoming victims of transgressions. According to christianity, only the god is entitled to do justice. This god is presented as someone more in favor of the repentant sinner than of the innocent, who never hurts another person.
My wish is to live in a society, where apistia, egalitarianism and Epicurus' principle of not harming and not to be harmed were the basis of a life in cooperation, justice, security, consideration and responsibility. Only there is no such society.
Unfortunately people can free themselves from the childhood christian indoctrination and brainwashing, while they continue to be implicitly influenced by the secondary religious thinking.
1. The acceptance of and tolerance for suffering
Christianity claims that people get rewarded and compensated in the afterlife for the sufferings before their death. As a consequence, christians are motivated and feel justified to irrational behaviors:
1.1. They are prone to endure suffering without feeling outrage, protest or rebellion.
1.2. They Inflict suffering upon others without feeling guilty.
1.3. Sometimes they consider inflicting suffering as beneficial for the vicitms due to creating their alleged entitlement to be rewarded after death.
2. The value of life
Life is considered as a gift from the god, belonging to him and being at his disposition only. The individual is not considered as having an own right to subjectively evaluate if life is worth living or not.
2.1. Abortion is not socially accepted and/or forbidden by law.
2.2. People are not considered to have the unrestricted right over their own life including the evaluation of the quality of life. They are not allowed the option to decide, if it is worth living or not. Terminally ill persons are not given the right and help to end their sufferings.
2.3. But taking lives in favor of any cause serving higher goals than the individual is accepted, as is in forcing men to be soldiers and women to risk their lives in child birth.
3. Injustice combined with the acceptance of suffering
3.1. Forgiving is considered a positive behavior, even without the transgressor's remorse, insight or amends. Transgressors feel entitled to be forgiven. Victims are morally coerced to forgive. They are brainwashed to believe that forgiving benefits themselves. This kind of forgiving is dangerous, because the transgressor is indirectly condoned for his evil and is prone to repeat damaging others as a consequence of getting off the hook too easily.
3.2. The legal system does not focus on protecting the innocent from becoming victims of transgressions. According to christianity, only the god is entitled to do justice. This god is presented as someone more in favor of the repentant sinner than of the innocent, who never hurts another person.
Evil is an imbalance between the transgressor and the god. Gaining benefits by doing evil is considered as a deal between the god and the transgressor. The evil is a debt to the god, until the price is paid, the account balanced, and god and transgressor are even again. The christian sins, pay for his sin by rituals, prayers, sacrifices. As soon as he feels forgiven by the god, he can be oblivious of the victim. The victim is insignificant.
The law focuses on the breach of rules and evil is something paid for by the penalty, by which it then is legally undone. The victim of physical violence like rape, assault, robbery is often traumatized and damaged irreversibly. The culprit goes to jail for a few years, is only limited in his freedom, gets maybe even the benefits of training for a job. After the release, he is considered as having paid his debt to society. For him, it is over, while the victim still suffers. The suffering of the victims is often much worse than the legal penalty for the culprit.
The culprit is enabled to damage another victim. This is considered the next victim's bad luck and unavoidable fate. Nobody really sees the outrage of the lack of protection for the innocent.
4. Inequality
Inequality is a part of the teaching of the bible. Atrocities to outgroup members are not only accepted but commanded as service to the god. Women are not accepted as equals, but as wombs serving to supply more lives to the god as due to him. Slavery is accepted too.
4.1. As a consequence, while discrimination by explicit behavior is often outlawed, subtle and implicit discrimination is prevalent, condoned and tolerated.
4.2. A god being the top being and the clerical hierarchies serving him are the model for the general acceptance of hierarchies of power and access to resources. Forming such hierarchies is done by ruthless, cruel and devastating competition, which has general social acceptance.
5. Restricting rules
When the rules of specific religious behavior are fixed as laws, they also restrict the life of non-religious persons. An example is the law in Germany forbiding shops to open on Sundays as being holy. Laws against blasphemy are another example.
4. Inequality
Inequality is a part of the teaching of the bible. Atrocities to outgroup members are not only accepted but commanded as service to the god. Women are not accepted as equals, but as wombs serving to supply more lives to the god as due to him. Slavery is accepted too.
4.1. As a consequence, while discrimination by explicit behavior is often outlawed, subtle and implicit discrimination is prevalent, condoned and tolerated.
4.2. A god being the top being and the clerical hierarchies serving him are the model for the general acceptance of hierarchies of power and access to resources. Forming such hierarchies is done by ruthless, cruel and devastating competition, which has general social acceptance.
5. Restricting rules
When the rules of specific religious behavior are fixed as laws, they also restrict the life of non-religious persons. An example is the law in Germany forbiding shops to open on Sundays as being holy. Laws against blasphemy are another example.
