Hey people . . . I know this blog is about no arguments, but . . . *whispering* - Sam Harris is wrong.

Yes, the Sam Harris that says that following God brings the world's evils.  

Now, it is true that hypocrites and fakers ruin people's lives and cause evil havoc on this earth in the name of Jesus (see http://www.phila.gov/districtattorney/PDFs/clergyAbuse2-finalReport.pdf for a nauseating account of what priests did to young children in Philadelphia) if you aren't sure.  But those are not Christians . . . they are pretenders.  

But when you look up the deeds of people who take their faith seriously, it is refreshing to find people that are capable of changing the world.  This is a story of that kind of integrity . . . prompted by a talk from Andy Stanley.

Essentially, the story is about how between the 2nd - 4th century there were a series of plagues that had invaded ancient Europe.  These plagues had eliminated up to a third of the population of Europe - the normal citizens had learned long ago to just leave town.  In fact the most noted physician of Europe at that time, Galen, had left Rome for several years until it all blew over.  So how did people try to treat the infected?  "Victims were thrown out into the streets where the dead and the dying lay in piles." (Stark, 300)  Bishop Dionysius, writing in a letter at this time said that they "treated the unburied corpses as dirt." 

So what did the Christians in these cultures do?  Remember, this is a time in which Christians were not acceptable - they were irreligious weirdos (because they didn't worship the gods of the mainstream).  Did they skip town like everyone else?  No.  This marginal sect of Jesus-followers took care of the sick.  Dionysius notes that "in nursing and curing others transferred their death to themselves and died in their stead."  (Stark, 301)

In fact, it is likely that by taking care of the ill, Christianity grew during this time.  These early Christians nursed non-Christians back to health and these appreciative 'patients' became Christian and supplanted the previous population (Stark, 302; McNeill,108)  

This kind of others-centered altruism was typical of early Christians.  In the latter parts of the 4th century, pagan emperor Julian hated Christians, whom he called "impious Galileans."  Julian was involved in a campaign to get pagan priests back in popular demand. In a letter to one of these pagan priests, he compared pagans to what Christians do: "I think that when the poor happened to be neglected and overlooked by the priests, the impious Galileans observed this and devoted themselves to benevolence . . . the impious Galileans support not only their poor, but ours as well."

This and other efforts by the Christians created a "miniature welfare state in the empire which for the most part lacked social services."  (Johnson, 75)   Even 'pagan' emperors note what Harris can't - genuine followers of Jesus, though far from perfect, are good and can be a force for good in the world.

Notes:

Johnson, Paul. 1976.  A History of Christianity. New York: Atheneum.

McNeill, William G. 1978. Revivals, Awakenings and Reform. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Stark, Rodney. 2000. Religious Effects: In Praise of 'Idealistic Humbug.'" Review of Religious Research. Washington: University of Washington

#2 What you should doubt about your doubt:Belief in God has only messed things up in the world.

Why would you want to be a Christian? 

Christians are racist Republican homophobes who care more about their churches, Bibles and teaching creation in schools than they do about the things that really matter in the world.  In fact, it seems that everything Christianity touches wreaks of havoc . . . those big-haired preachers are all liars and hypocrites, Hitler rose to power using scripture, the church put us in the dark ages, teenage girls were burned at the stake for being 'witches' and of course the crusades . . . Christianity leaves a trail of disaster!

Alright, come on now . . . I hope we are all savvy enough to know how things can be manipulated.  Yes, these things are all true about people that claimed to be Christian and did horrible things.  But consider these facts just from six countries and only from the 20th century:

* 61 million Soviet citizens were killed under the atheistic communist regime of the USSR.

* Over 9 million people were murdered by the atheists under Joseph Stalin.  

* Pol Pots regime in Cambodia was atheistic and slaughtered almost 2 million people underneath him.  

* Some people estimate that almost 76 million have been killed because of their political and religious beliefs by Chinese rulers.

* The 20 year Ethiopian atheistic regime claimed the lives of almost 1.5 million innocent citizens.

* North Korea, an atheistic state, has killed over 3 million of its citizens.

Wouldn't we conclude from this alone that all atheists are murderous and treacherous little beasts?  Of course we conclude that communism is intellectually bankrupt, right?  In fact, we should probably come to the conclusion that atheism doesn't exist because the people who practice it are so morally reprehensible.  If atheism was really credible, there wouldn't be so many evil atheists.

Now of course these stats don't change the depth and inspiration of the Communist Manifesto.   The idea still has wonderful merit (everyone sharing with each other - property redefined as belonging to those who are in need).  It just tends to not work very well with humans.  In principle, it is a beautiful thought.  But I am not going to condemn Marx and Engels because a guy named Brezhnev used the Communist structure to murder innocent people.  

 . . . and neither should we judge the Christian faith because of the ignorant and evil acts of some who called themselves Christian.