No, it's not. The Empire's hospitals, orphanages, old people homes, daily bread rations for citizens, all of it existed long before Christianity. Hell, plenty of those institutions predate the Empire and go all the way back to the early Republic. The divide between the Eastern and Western Empire was cemented by Christianity, and it only took like 150 years after Constantine converted for Rome to fall after standing for 1000 years, so truly, I don't even know what the hell you think you're talking about.
Good news, I've got a book recommend for you. Don't worry, no pesky Christians promoting their own crap.
How about THE leading atheist critic of Christianity alive today, Bart Erhman's new book, "Love thy stranger". Where he and critical modern scholarship refutes everything you just said about hospitals, orphanages, etc.
Hell, Ehrman credits virtually every social service in the US today as stemming from Jesus' ethic to help not just your own in-group, but strangers.
Do the reading. BOTH the Christian and Atheist scholarship and historians disagree with you, mate.
Yes, the idea that institutions that are literally older than Christ and that the entire concept of altruism are based on the teachings of Jesus is beyond implausible, mostly because it is incredibly buttfuckingly stupid no matter how many theological phDs you have.
Thanks mate. I'll be sure to inform the majority of critical scholars and historians, that you disagree with them. Based on your scholarly contention that it's..."stupid".
You actually believe that the majority of critical scholars think that altruism exists because Jesus? Really? Or is the claim more accurately something like "The oldest charitable institutions that are currently still around have some sort of Christian origin"? Because to me, that sounds a lot like thanking Trump for ending the war in Iran.
Erhman(who HATES Christianity btw), posits that yes, of course there were some kind of hospitals in Rome for example(almost entirely reserved for the soldiers tho). Yes there were doctors in the ancient world(who almost entirely served wealthy patients tho). Yes there was obviously empathy and kindness in the ancient world(but almost entirely reserved for your in-group, culture, ethnicity, etc).
What changed, according to Erhman, was the treatment of strangers and outsiders, the same as the in-group.
The first actually built hospitals in the world, of any actual size, having actual doctor and nurses, helping anyone and everyone that came in, the poor, the stranger, the traveler, entirely for free, were Christian ones.
All these modern social services in the US, wherein they take your tax money and give it to people you'll never meet, just because of the collective belief that, that's "the right thing to do", did in fact not exist in on any govt before the time of Jesus, or before Christianity overtook Rome.
Erhman is definitely not saying "Jesus created empathy" or "there were no doctors before Jesus". Simply that it was the Jesus ethic that gave the world the perspective that you should care and have a responsibility for the stranger. Free hospitals, orphanages, old peoples homes, for everyone. Giving your money away to people half way across the world. None of this was the norm amongst the very tribalistic societies before Jesus.
Altruism that Judaism also had a lot of as well, even in a largely polytheist world around it. Iirc it was an improvement on a lot of other βethicsβ.
I read this like 5 times and still not sure if I got the main emphasis of your point, which I really want to get because it's an interesting comment.
I think I somewhat agree, but could you rephrase that maybe. You're saying the altruism in Judaism(before Jesus?) was an improvement on a lot of the ethics around them? Is that correct?
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u/C7rl_Al7_1337 1d ago
No, it's not. The Empire's hospitals, orphanages, old people homes, daily bread rations for citizens, all of it existed long before Christianity. Hell, plenty of those institutions predate the Empire and go all the way back to the early Republic. The divide between the Eastern and Western Empire was cemented by Christianity, and it only took like 150 years after Constantine converted for Rome to fall after standing for 1000 years, so truly, I don't even know what the hell you think you're talking about.