Christianity has been more beneficial than detrimental to mankind.

Fine by me, but I couldn't say anything until you had posted something. Now, we can begin! I have several arguments why Christianity has been more beneficial than detrimental to mankind. What this debate will really be is just each side providing several examples of Christianity helping/hurting humanity and then trying to back up those claims. It will be difficult to get a perfectly objective look at this, so voters will just have to see which side provides the best evidence and the most substantiated claims in terms of benefit or detriment to mankind. Anyway: 1. Christianity played a major role in bringing about the scientific revolution. Christianity caused scientists to search for ways of understanding "God's creation," or the world. The idea of a mechanistic cosmology stemmed from Christian thinking and replaced the rational observation that had been brought in by the Greeks in the time of Aristotle. "Scientists" were convinced that the way to understand the earth was through reason alone. Reasoning could be used to figure out the world. Christianity brought in testing and valued the manual labor involved in experimentation, which the Greeks did not value. The mechanistic cosmology meant the world would be viewed like a machine, and humans can take apart a machine to figure out how it works. This led to the scientific revolution and new way of thinking about science in general. All of this came from Christianity (and more specifically, Protestantism), and undoubtedly the scientific revolution has been extraordinarily beneficial to man in terms of medicine, technology, and knowledge in general. http://www.bede.org.uk... Edward Davis and Michael Winship, "The Scientific Revolution" Excerpt from Gary Ferngren's "Science and Religion" book. 2. Christianity has many charitable outreach programs, both large and small. There are many Christian charities that go to other countries to take care of the poor and less fortunate. Also, many Christian churches have mission work that builds houses, provides money for schools, shelter, health care and more. Christianity has preached mission work to help those who are in need and many, many Christians and their churches take part in such activities that are not recognized nationally. Local churches and schools often do charitable work such as this. This is another way that Christianity has been beneficial. http://www.christianpost.com... 3. Christians, because of their faith, were some of the most outspoken abolitionists in the US during times of slavery. Yes, non-Christian abolitionists existed, but the Christian churches and its members were, many of them, staunchly against slavery. Did Christianity have its pro-slavery counterparts in the South? Sure. But the Christian argument for abolition of slavery was strong and tipped the scales greatly in favor of abolitionism. Christian ideals have been used in other famous movements that fought for civil rights. Gandhi was a Hindu, but he openly talked about the various Christian ideas he used in his fight for justice in India. Martin Luther King Jr. also put forth Christian ideals in his fight for civil rights. Christianity was an influence on both of these men, and their actions have been extremely beneficial to Indians and African Americans, and beyond. http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com... 4. Human rights have been espoused by Christianity and Christianity has played an important role in the recognition of human rights and individual rights. Protestantism especially has been a proponent of individual rights and human rights. American Protestantism in the 20th century has had a strong focus on international human rights and individual rights in the US. Stemming from the Reformation, individual rights have led to people throwing off oppressive governments, multiple uprisings that dethroned monarchies, and ultimately, democracy - a representative form of government where every person has the right to vote and it is arguably the best political system to date, as genocides have never occurred in a democracy and with democracy comes economic growth and personal freedom and gain. E. A. LIVINGSTONE. "Protestantism." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. 2000. Encyclopedia.com. 28 Apr. 2009 5. Christianity encourages many moral actions. Murder, adultery, lying, etc. have all been condemned by Christianity. These are all fairly widely accepted as immoral practices, and yes, other religions have espoused these morals, but Christianity holds a majority population in the world and therefore has reached more people with these messages. Having a set of guidelines for how to live morally that includes "Thou shalt not kill" and "Thou shalt not commit adultery" is easier to take from a religion with a higher power than it is to take from just humans making up rules. Christianity's set of rules and standards for how to live have been beneficial in at least keeping people trying to not do these actions that have negative consequences. These are several of the arguments why Christianity has been more beneficial than detrimental to mankind. I'm sure we can delve into selected topics more so in the next round, as well as delve into my opponent's arguments.