LogFAQs > #947938967

Josiah_Is_Back posted...

Why Christianity has such a foothold on Western civilization. I am an atheist, so I do not believe in God or in the divinity of Jesus. And although the rise of Christianity can largely be attributed to political forces, I still feel that there must be something inherently special or unique about it for it to be so entrenched in society. Prior belief systems centered on animism (spirits inhabiting everyday objects and animals), polytheism, henotheism (many gods, but only one was supreme), etc., so perhaps Christianity hit the sweet spot where there is a supreme god, yet he has an emissary that was human, so it bridged the gap within the human psyche between the mortal and the divine.

there was a theory I read about how Christianity remained popular over the centuries.

Political movements like the Roman Empire adopting it is one big factor for sure. However, it's also Christianity at its core that makes it so preserving. The religion teaches of only monotheism ,meaning anyone wishing to become Christianity needed to disavow their prior religions. Other religions allowed for multiple god worship so Christinity being the only one that required only one god worship could have helped slowly eradicate other comepting religions.

The other thing is how broad the Christian god is. This god is basically omnipotent and well, impossbile to prove nor disprove. It just teaches God is all powerful and all mighty. There's no way to disprove that. In comparison religions that say God is the sun or God is the sky,water or whatever... like in greek mythology will inevitably die out due to science disproving it. But science can't disprove omnipotence.

Last thing is the Bible allowing flexibility of intepretation. Even though science may now disprove Noah's Ark or Genesis, there are many educated Christians who can turn tails and say these parts of the Bible are not meant to be intepreted literally.

It's these three factors that allow Christianity to be a mainstay (albeit we see the religion declining too in today's world. I find it mainly due to the LGBT issues, not so much science because let's be real, not many people are even knowledgeable about science)