The Big Questions About ChristianitySample

Is Christianity responsible for holding back education throughout history?

I’ve heard some say Christianity has been responsible for holding back knowledge and learning throughout history. It’s a rather recent complaint against Christianity because, in the past, people knew their history better. No single group in human history has contributed more to education than Christians.

The university is generally regarded as an institution with its origins in Christianity. All the universities in Europe were Christian institutions until modern times. One hundred of the first universities founded in the USA had Christian foundations.

One of the reasons why Christianity has led in the area of education has been its emphasis on the written word of the Bible. Christians invented the idea of the book as we know it today, and that’s why Christianity has, from its beginnings, emphasized the importance of literacy. This, together with the Protestant Reformation, were key factors in the invention of the printing press.

Many of the world’s languages were first set to writing by Christian missionaries for people to read the Bible. Christians have also been responsible for the development of both private and public libraries in Western society, which had a huge impact on the development of learning and culture.

Today, there are all sorts of debates about whether religion should have any role in public schools. The idea of universal education and the public school system was a Christian idea in the beginning. Christians were also responsible for championing women’s education at a time when education was usually only for men.

You might also be surprised to know Christianity has been the inspiration and even the source of modern science from its beginning. Why? Because Christians believed God created the universe (Genesis 1:1) according to natural laws, in an orderly and rational way, and so to study the natural world was to admire the work of God, and this was close to a religious duty!

That’s why it was this Christian faith that led Copernicus to conclude that the sun, and not the earth, was at the center of the universe; that led Johannes Kepler to discover the nature of the solar system, and that resulted in James Clerk Maxwell reducing electromagnetism to a set of elegant equations.

I’d recommend some more education in the history of Christianity and its influences on western civilization. Then people might not be so quick to say Christianity is responsible for holding back knowledge.

– Eliezer Gonzalez