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Hitchens is often good for an arresting line, which cannot be said for many in his line of work, and no doubt considers himself a learned fellow. Yet the fact is that Christianity has worked many wonders in the world. It has played a central role in the creation of Western science, the abolition of the slave trade, and in the creation of some of the West's most sublime and lasting works of art. Its devotees have engaged in countless works of charity, including the creation and expansion of hospitals for both the paying and the poor. Indeed, Christianity has also played a seismic role in the creation of a society that pays bloviators fairly good money for fairly meaningless work All of which might be worth remembering at Easter time. Christianity was of course born into a world greatly different from our own. A. C. Crombie, the great historian of Christianity, notes the prevailing "Hebrew cosmology, with its flat earth and domed sky"; Shirley Jackson Case fills in some of the details:
From its earliest days, Christianity set itself to the task of undermining these assumptions. Its antagonism toward the spiritual status quo earned Christians the designation of atheists, and Christians made themselves especially unwelcome by rejecting a belief that exercised a stranglehold on the ancient mind: That man's fate is written in the stars. Ammianus Marcellinus, a historian of the early era, reminds us that devotion to astrology was hardly lukewarm:
The stars invoked an iron determinism over human beings; free will was fleeting even at the highest levels. Plato held that "even God could not oppose necessity." Similarly, a pagan commentary instructed that "Fate has decreed as a law for each person the unalterable consequences of his horoscope." Notes another great historian of religion, Jaroslav Pelikan: "Even the emperor Tiberius stopped paying homage to the gods because everything was already written in the stars." Christians sought to usher humanity out of this intellectual cellblock, as well as the belief that humans were locked into historical cycles, thus echoing a belief central to their Jewish forebears. "With very few exceptions," notes Pelikan, "the apologists for the gospel against Greek and Roman thought made responsibility rather than inevitability the burden of their message." All of which was
both liberating and terrifying — liberating because it freed humans
from the bondage of the stars and historical determinism, and terrifying
because it insisted that individuals faced ultimate judgment according
to the decisions they made. The central place given individual freedom
and will — and responsibility — is among Christianity's greatest
contributions to humanity, and is of incalculable benefit to believers
and nonbelievers alike. Christianity continues to maintain this position
against attacks by contemporary determinists, who also argue against free
will, having replaced the stars with genes, physics, economics, and mysterious
chemical reactions within the brain. Yet there is no serious disputing that Christians were central to the creation of modern science, having been inspired by the "evil" spirit of earlier monotheists. As Nobel laureate Melvin Calvin (a biochemist) has famously stated, science's foundational belief is that the universe was created by a rational power and thus worthy of study.
Brother Hitchens
might want to remember that the next time he partakes of the innumerable
blessings modern science has provided. One suspects he won't, however,
out of devotion to his own household gods.
— Dave
Shiflett is coauthor of Christianity
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aster
finds American Christians in turmoil. Catholics are worried about the
priestly buggery crisis while we Protestants, as always, fret about finding
a parking space for Easter services. Meantime, heavy shelling continues
from the usual sectors, including the telegenic Christopher Hitchens,
who recently listed the major "monotheistic religions" (Christianity,
Judaism, and Islam) as the true "axis of evil." 
