(cont'd from yesterday's post)
In the ancient cultures that Tom Holland so admired, "rights" belonged to winners of battles, to powerful masters, to the ruthless - not to the weak, suffering, powerless, deformed. The idea of "Human Rights" being inherent in all people is a modern idea. It developed over two thousand years of developing the Bible's concept that all human beings bear the image of God.
Christians have owned slaves, though, as recently as the 1800's in America's South. But the opposition which finally ended slavery in America came - also - through Christianity. Think of Dr. King's famous speech.
In the words of author and atheist Tom Holland:
"So profound has been the impact of Christianity on the development of Western civilisation that it has come to be hidden from view . . . [I]n a West that is often doubtful of religion's claims, so many of its instincts remain . . thoroughly Christian.
"It is--to coin a phrase--the greatest story ever told."
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