Christianity has been more beneficial than detrimental to mankind.

Thanks for this debate. 1 "If you could give some examples of those seeking to glorify a god/gods before those who tried to glorify the Christian idea of God?" The Parthenon, probably the greatest architectural achievement of the Ancient world, was built to house the gods. Hermes was the god of science and invention, and scientists often times experimented in the name and honor of He. So I hope that fits as an example. " Please, provide some examples of scientists who contributed a lot to science that were trying to glorify some other kind of god (and not just people who were religious and scientific - that is not the same)." you're spinning a pantheistic ideal. "The amount of good that came from Christianity's contributions to the scientific revolution cannot be denied. Why did science not arise in China? Why not in Asia? Or Africa? None of these places had Christianity." PLEASE sir, do not be silly. http://en.wikipedia.org... yes, science in China! And probably more than Europe until the SECULAR Renaissance!! http://en.wikipedia.org... NOOOOO science in non-Christian India?? Make it stop, make it stop! http://en.wikipedia.org... Islamic science? Oh brother. http://www.crystalinks.com... Science in Greece? Wait, Greece was pre-anno Domini. Strange. An excerpt from http://www.nobeliefs.com.... Cannot put it better myself. "Please understand that these kind of Christian apologetic arguments fail for several reasons which fall into the trap of several well known fallacies including: appeal to ignorance (failing to understand the history of Christianity in how it barred scientific thought, and in many cases still does); confusing correlation with causation (just because a scientist accepted a religion doesn't mean his science derived from it); and non sequiturs (it doesn't follow that just because a few scientists believed in God that science resulted from it). The myth also spreads through the bandwagon fallacy (appealing to the popular notion that Christianity began modern science), and confirmation bias (list all the Christian scientists, but exclude their rejection of dogmas that conflicted with their science). Just because some Christians did scientific work or that the Church helped fund scientific research has nothing to do with the founding or even the advancement of science. Not only does it not follow, but the historical record shows that science progressed in spite of Christianity, not because of it. From its very beginning, the Church has served as the largest stumbling block against scientific progress in the history of mankind. When Constantine established orthodox Christianity in 325 CE (at the Council of Nicaea), scientific investigation virtually stopped. Up until that time, Greek and Roman science and medicine stood at the pinnacle of reasoned thought. With the aimed destruction of any thought that went against religious dogma, the Christians tried to destroy every pagan and scientific literature including the great libraries of the world. The destruction of the library of Alexandra (the greatest learning center in the world) and the murder of Hypatia by Christians in 415 CE, marked the beginning of the Dark Ages. As Ruth Hurmence Green once wrote, "There was a time when religion ruled the world. It is known as The Dark Ages." The Priests of Christianity kept the public from education, including the study of their own Bible. Only the hierarchy of the Church allowed education for themselves, and when their thoughts went against their own dogmas (as eventually it would have to) they barred it as heresy. It came from the Church itself that tried to destroy free scientific inquiry, even amongst its priests. When Christianity took over Europe, scientific and engineering advancement virtually stopped. The great Roman aqueducts represented one of the greatest engineering feats of the ancient world and provided clean water to cities and industrial sites for centuries. When the Christians took over they no longer supported these great public services and the aqueducts became ruins -- monuments of the past glory of Rome. Christianity banned the Roman bath houses and bathing itself became an act of sin. The ancient Roman sewers no longer worked. For centuries after, Christians lived in filth, ignorance, and disease." And modern intelligent design, and the refutation of Natural Selection because of religious belief, is a plague to science. I hope you can see you the flaws in your logic 2. since Africa is too much of a mess (partly to due Christianity), it's impossible to get a population census, therefore, no, I do not know exactly how many lives have been lost in Africa, but it is too many regardless. 3. It's been about 50 years since MLK and Ghandi, so I see it as a bit foolish to call their legacies as larger than 9 evil popes. We just hear of them more due to their recent nature. "The Christian ideal of "equality under God's law" DID have an impact on individual rights. You can say it is "dead wrong" all you want - that does not falsify this claim." Oh I agree that it did 'impact' individual rights. But just like the brilliant George Orwell wrote, "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others." And ideally, yes, Christianity enhanced natural rights in the divine sense, but take the sale of indulgences for example. Sure, everyone is "equal" in God's eyes, but after accusing others of witchcraft, heresy, dissent, or paying off the Church, surely in the eyes of the "christian god" some must be more equal than others. 4. "still, is there not the Jefferson Bible? He picked and chose what he wanted, but he was indeed influenced by Christianity" No, he was influenced by Jesus Christ, not Christianity. In fact, the creation of the Jefferson Bible was an attack on Christianity, not a endorsement. As for human rights in Greece, http://library.thinkquest.org... "It was in ancient Greece where the concept of human rights began to take a greater meaning than the prevention of arbitrary persecution. Human rights became synonymous with natural rights, rights that spring from natural law . According to the Greek tradition of Socrates and Plato, natural law is law that reflects the natural order of the universe, essentially the will of the gods who control nature. A classic example of this occurs in Greek literature, when Creon reproaches Antigone for defying his command to not bury her dead brother, and she replies that she acted under the laws of the gods. This idea of natural rights continued in ancient Rome, where the Roman jurist Ulpian believed that natural rights belonged to every person, whether they were a Roman citizen or not." 5. Thank you I am not going to go into a long appeal to why Christianity is more detrimental than beneficial. My arguments stand as they are, as they should. Thank you