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Part 2
Christianity's impact has been perhaps most insidious upon
the modern world. By terrifying people into believing that there
was no divine supernatural assistance in the physical world,
orthodox Christians created the environment where people
believed the universe to be pre-determined, mechanical, and
devoid of consciousness. But instead of attributing such an
understanding to religious belief, people now credited science as
having objectively proven such a world. Most people came to
think that struggle, domination and authoritarian control were—
perhaps not divinely ordained—but natural and necessary
qualities of life in such an impersonal universe. Interestingly, the
very science that once verified orthodox Christian concepts is
now discovering the limitations of a mechanistic view of the
universe.
Ignoring the dark side of Christian history perpetuates the
idea that oppression and atrocity are the inevitable results of an
inherently evil or savage human nature. There have been—
especially during the neolithic age—peaceful cultures and
civilizations, however, which functioned without oppressive
hierarchical structures. It is clearly not human nature that causes
people to hurt one another. People of gentler cultures share the
same human nature as we of Western civilization; it is our
beliefs that differ. Tolerant and more peaceful cultures have
respected both masculine and feminine faces of God, both
heavenly and earthly representations of divinity. It is the limited
belief in a singular supremacy and only one face of God that has
resulted in tyranny and brutality.
Ignoring the dark side of Christian history allows the beliefs
which have motivated cruelty to go unexamined. The belief in a
singular face of God who reigns at the pinnacle of a hierarchy
CONCLUSION 187
sustained by fear has devastating consequences. People must
constantly determine who is superior to whom. Every aspect
which differentiates people whether it be gender, race, belief,
sexual preference, or socio-economic status, becomes a criterion
by which to rank an individual as either better than or less than
another. And it is the ranking and subordination of a person's
humanity and value that comprises sexism, racism, and the
intolerance of difference.
Unity and oneness within an orthodox Christian belief system
are perceived to come from sameness and conformity, not from
the synergy and harmony of difference. A society's diversity is
most often understood to be a liability rather than an asset. A
peaceful society is thought to be one where everyone is the
same. Within such a belief system, an end to sexism or racism
is misunderstood to mean simply a change of roles. Instead of
men dominating women, women would dominate men. Instead
of whites dominating blacks, blacks would dominate whites.
There is no understanding of shared authority, cooperation and
support.