The affect of Christianity has had an positive affect on humankind overall

. . ===================================================== Contention I: The Bible upholds human dignity and has supported the sanctity of life ===================================================== My opponent's first contention is false. He claims that being made in the image of God is the greatest honor, and that somehow it upholds human dignity. My opponent fails to realize that one of the main tenets of Christianity is that we are all born as evil sinners. Every person is responsible for the sins of Adam and Eve, and we now undeservingly carry that burden. Christian doctrine states that everyone is impure, and can only be saved by accepting Jesus Christ and Christian dogma. This is a degrading insult to everyone who is not a Christian. I would also like to point out that the Bible defines the value of human life in dollars and cents, and specifies that babies are utterly worthless. --Verses-- *1.00 Shekel = 0.2621 U. S. Dollar "And thy estimation shall be of the male from twenty years old even unto sixty years old, even thy estimation shall be fifty shekels of silver. " - Leviticus 27:3 "And if it be a female, then thy estimation shall be thirty shekels. " - Leviticus 27:4 -- Males (20 - 60 years old) are worth 50 shekels. -- Females are worth 30 shekels. "And if it be from five years old even unto twenty years old, then thy estimation shall be of the male twenty shekels, and for the female ten shekels. " - Leviticus 27:5 -- Males (5 - 20 years old) are worth 20 shekels. -- Females are worth 10 shekels. "And if it be from a month old even unto five years old, then thy estimation shall be of the male five shekels of silver, and for the female thy estimation shall be three shekels of silver. " - Leviticus 27:6 -- Males (< 5 years old) are worth 5 shekels. -- Females are worth 3 shekels. -- Babies (and fetuses) less than one month old are worth nothing. ----------------- My opponent likes to think that the Bible upholds human dignity and sanctity of life, yet the Bible says my opponent is worth $5.00. ======================================================== Contention 2: The Bible has created a base, from which societies can grow and flourish ======================================================== {*As an example of this I will use America. Granted, It is well known that the Founding Fathers, though not all Christians, understood the inherent good of Biblical principles and used many of them in the creation process of our Constitution. *} This is completely and utterly false. Just look at what the founding fathers had to say about Christianity: --Quotes-- "Christianity neither is, nor ever was a part of the common law" - Thomas Jefferson "We discover [in the gospels] a groundwork of vulgar ignorance, of things impossible, of superstition, fanaticism and fabrication. " - Thomas Jefferson "Christianity is the most perverted system that ever shone on man. " - Thomas Jefferson "All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian, or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit. " - Thomas Paine "The Bible is such a book of lies and contradictions there is no knowing which part to believe or whether any. " - Thomas Paine -------- As you can see, my opponent is sadly mistaken if he thinks this country was founded by and founded on Christian principles. ========================================== Contention 3: Christianity teaches that we should care for the poor ========================================== My opponent says that Christianity teaches that we should care for the poor. However, the Bible also says things contradictory to that: --Verses-- "Surely these are poor; they are foolish: for they know not the way of the LORD" - Jeremiah 5:4 "The poor are ruled by the rich, and those who borrow are slaves to the moneylenders. " - Proverbs 22:7 "You cannot be the slave of two masters! You will like one more than the other or be more loyal to one than the other. You cannot serve both God and money. " - Matthew 6:24 The two verses above state that the poor are slaves of the rich, and therefore more loyal to the rich. People must choose to serve God or money, and the poor have chosen to serve money. ==================================== Contention 4: Christianity teaches peace between people ==================================== My opponent states that the Bible teaches peace, however, this is not true. The Bible is full of violence and continually condones it. --Verses-- "The Lord is a man of war; the Lord is his name. " - Exodus 15:3 "And all the congregation brought him without the camp, and stoned him with stones, and he died; as the LORD commanded Moses. " - Numbers 15:35 "And my wrath shall wax hot, and I will kill you with the sword; and your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless. " - Exodus 22:24 "The LORD smote the Ethiopians (1,000,000 Africans). " 2 Chronicles 14:12 ============= Problems of Religion ============= Even if we were to grant that religion was peaceful and moral, it is opposed to free thought and the pursuit of truth. It holds that blind faith/belief without evidence is a virtue, and any thought or information that contradicts the religious belief system must be false. It's the ultimate prison of the mind. This hinders scientific discovery. Everytime science discovers something that happens to contradict religious dogma, it is opposed violently or otherwise. It condemns those who require evidence to eternal torture. A person is to be constantly watched and judged by big brother in the sky who can convict you of thought crime. It teaches that the natural world is evil (they use insulting words like "materialistic" or "worldly") and something to be loathed, rather than cared for and respected. This is why Christianity fails as a force for good in this world. ======= Conclusion ======= In conclusion, all of my opponent's contentions have been effectively refuted. My opponent tried to tout Christianity as some moral system that positively influenced humanity. However, there is an immense amount of dark and immoral teachings in Christianity that my opponent overlooked. This is generally what happens in religion. They cherry-pick the good verses, and then claim that they have a good influence and provide morals. The problem is that there are an equal amount of bad, immoral verses that they ignore. What is happening here is that there is an internal morality within them that decides what's moral and immoral in the Bible, and thus, proves that religion has no influence on morality. Resolution NEGATED. Sources: [1] . http://skepticsannotatedbible.com... [2] . http://afgen.com...