Quote:
Originally Posted by nguirado
What do soldiers, slaves, and gladiators have in common? They're all property, useful to their masters in some way. There wasn't widespread charity or places of care for the common person.
However, perhaps I was too absolute. How's this: Charity and care for those not useful increased many fold with Christianity. Some of the concepts, like a duty to care for people (on account of them being created in the image of God) even without compensation, were so rare in the pagan world that it may be said that Christians "invented" it.
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thos classes of people existed BEFORE christianity and were taken care of. the mere symbol for "Doctor" comes from Greek mythology.
Quote:
Originally Posted by nguirado
I will contend that it was ideals of the three Abrahamic religions that spawned the idea of selfless charity. Specifically, the view that all people, from the leper to the king, are equal in some fundamental way. This is one of the ideas that hasn't gone away with secularization.
Knowledge and science is more complex so I won't get into it now. It would certainly be a long slog.
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many MANY other religions pre chritianity were very charitably oriented. once again, the Greeks and Romans, the Celts, the Egyptians, the First Nations
you're not going to win this one