Blog: Happy 4th of July! Western Civilization Wouldn’t be Here Without Christianity. Change my Mind.

One of the most popular claims that I hear coming from the Left – particularly atheists, surprise, surprise – is that Western civilization was never founded on Christianity, doesn’t need it, and that it’s all a product of the workings of us humans, a.k.a. “very clever apes.” If you disagree, then you’re just another one of those evil MAGA Christian nationalists (i.e. anyone to the right of Hillary Clinton) who wants to bring in fascism and racism and all other isms except for the Left-approved ones. But what’s wrong with this statement is…let’s see here *flips through notes*…pretty much everything, as it shows a lack of understanding about basic history. So, here’s a quick rundown of why this statement is false and why western civilization could not exist without a Judeo/Christian base.

To understand this, we must first go back to the biblical creation account, as this is the basis for setting apart the Hebrew worldview from that of the pagans. In the biblical creation account, God creates the world in a peaceful and orderly fashion. However, in other creation accounts, such as the Enuma Elish (the Mesopotamian creation account), the world comes from process of violence and chaos with the god Marduk violently murdering the goddess Tiamat who he then turned into the sky and from there, creation continues to become a thing. That’s also not mentioning the Greek creation account, which is also all kinds of messed up.

From this, not only can we see a foundational difference between the Judeo-Christian worldview and that of the pagans in that God is peaceful and orderly, but we also see something else. The Biblical creation account shows us that God is not part of His creation, unlike the pantheons of panentheistic gods in other religions, but is outside of it, the creator and divine law-maker. Because of this understanding, we see a big difference between how government was run in Judeo-Christian kingdoms or tribes versus those of the pagans. Take for example the Egyptians. The Egyptians believed that the Pharaoh was a god, usually Horus or Ra. Thus, what he said went. However, with the Judeo-Christian understanding of God, God preceded kings, judges, etc. and thus, took precedence over it. God’s law went before the king’s law.

Furthermore, the Hebraic tradition differed from that of the pagans in another way. Though God was outside of the world, His relationship with man was just that – a relationship. He made a covenant and listened to the pleading of man and kept His word. This was unlike the gods of myth, who didn’t see humans as something to have relationship with but saw them as a nuisance or slaves. This important difference gave man an understanding that if God keeps His promises and cares for man, He knows what He’s doing and so following His guidelines for society was a good idea.

From the Hebrew worldview, then, Western Civilization got its understanding of man and God, and their relationship, which would be fundamental later on. However, there was another pillar holding up Western Civilization and that is the Greeks, who, after the collapse of the Myceneans, brought us many advancements in politics, language, science, art, mathematics, war, architecture, and economics. Most notably, they introduced to the world Western philosophy and democracy. In fact, Western philosophy came as an offshoot of the Greek’s emphasis on political participation, which was so great that Alcaeus of Lesbos said that the horror of exile is that one can’t participate in the assembly. After all, according to Aristotle, man is a political animal. To deny him the ability to think and debate is a horrible thing.

This is where Christianity comes in. Christianity differed from Judaism because of its acceptance of Greek philosophy, combining logic with God, hence the word “theology,” the study of God. It was truly a fulfillment of the command in Matthew 22:37 to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind” and from it has come more scientific advancements than in any other religion. Just look up some of the most famous scientists in history, such as Robert Boyle, Issac Newton, Leonardo di Vinci, etc. Most of them were Christian.

The merging of Hebraic religion and tradition and Greek logic and philosophy was also instrumental in the political justification of Christianity during the days of the early church. As it grew, many Romans grew concerned, seeing it as an unattractive religion because of its exclusivity and moral rigor, which made the Christians easy scapegoats, especially under characters like Nero and Diocletian. However, the movement continued to grow and under Constantine, the lines between church and state became blurred as he converted to Christianity.

[Author’s Note: Before you try to attack me on Constantine, first learn about the Constantine from history, not from The Di Vinci Code.]

Now fast forward to the collapse of the Roman Empire and the beginning of the medieval period. After the collapse of the Roman empire, many writings were preserved and spread throughout Europe by Christian monks, with monasteries and later cathedrals being symbols of learning. If it hadn’t been for Christian monks being the champions of culture that they were, much of our knowledge of the ancient world would’ve been lost to the ages and who knows what Europe would look like today.

The establishment of the Catholic church in Europe admittedly also brought problems as feuds between the closely entwined church and state often led to wars, political instability, and confusion. Kings who believed that they were specially appointed by God wanted to do their own thing, the church didn’t like that, and problems arose. However, it was also mainly Christians who helped bring an end to that. In fact, the Provisions of Oxford, which were a sort of expansion of the Magna Carta and would later heavily influence our Constitution, was backed by quite a few members of the church. They were even so influential that a marble relief portrait of Simon de Montfort is carved over the House Chamber in the U.S. Capital.

From there, as the church split, the Americas were discovered, and so on and so forth, Western Civilization began to grow and get better, especially as more philosophers and others reflected on the state of man, his purpose, etc. from that Christian worldview. When America was founded, the Founding Fathers, though many of them deists, were looking at government from a Christian worldview while studying the mistakes of the Greek and Romans, finally coming up with a constitution that, while not perfect, recognizes the state of man and his right to life and liberty.

So, this Independance Day, if you’re about to say that Western Civilization doesn’t need Christianity and was just the result of some random series of events unrelated to a divine figure, just read a history book and you’ll see that that claim is demonstrably wrong.

Until next time,

M.J.