Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
No, I actually didn't mean that at all. What I was meaning was that if you look at the history of western Europe for the last 1500 years or so, it has been extraordinarily affected by the mere existance of Christianity. A Europe without Christianity would be a very different Europe than the one we have today. The institutions of the Christian Church, religious wars, religious influence on legal frameworks, etc; all these have had a tremendous influence. If you were to look at western European history while knowing nothing at all about the corresponding history of Christianity, you'd have a much harder job trying to make sense of it all.
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Harry, with this I agree. But to look at the history of Christianity one doesn't have to read a Christian bible. One can understand the Spanish Inquisition or the Children's Crusade without ever having opened a Bible. And we mustn't forget that many of the things done in the name of Christianity were really done in the name of unChristian greed and despotism, again not requiring one to have read the bible.