this post was submitted on 07 Sep 2026
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[–] save_the_humans@leminal.space 3 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (3 children)

Christianity marked a shift in how humanity thought of itself. The earth, nature, and all the animals were made for men, by the one true God, to use and take as they pleased. This line of thinking led to colonialism, slavery, and even capitalism and the patriarchy.

[–] orioler25@lemmy.world 6 points 5 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

I'm going to have to see a big ol'source for that one. You're saying that's a Christian thing exclusively, and not found in any of the cultural or religious influences on Christianity? How could you even begin to draw that line? Even more, you're saying that, despite roughly fifteen hundred years of change, that was a core value that existed in the exact same way from the beginning of Christianity to European colonialism? Not even translations effected something so fundamental? Why would Christian patriarchy do this, but not Greek or Roman or Iranian? Why was it absent in Judaism but present here?

Even beyond that, you just subscribed to a normative construction of humanity and morality by asserting that capitalism emerged through this religion, and not that specific property relations and systems of power influenced how both are understood within our culture over time. For example, domination and objectification of the living world are certainly elements in this, but it's difficult to argue Christianity is why that's so and not that that was so, and Christianity exists as it does as a result of that.

Edit: I'm also just going to add that, though I'm sure this wasn't intentional, this also ends up carrying deeply colonial and white supremacist notions of superiority by attributing that much gravity to the one religion that EuroAmerican imperialists happened to subscribe to. They got to have the religion that was so foundational, so world-changing that it marked a break in the entirety of human self-perception? I get were saying capitalism is bad, but exceptionalizing it in this way reproduces narratives that white supremacists find favourable.

[–] save_the_humans@leminal.space 5 points 4 days ago

https://sceneonradio.org/s5-e1-in-the-beginning/

This podcast is where I first heard the argument. Coming out of Duke University, it's very well researched. You'd have to listen to seasons 5 and 6 to get the whole story. They cover nuances that my blanket statement doesn't.

[–] shawn1122@sh.itjust.works 5 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

Colonialism and capitalism absolutely.

I'd argue patriarchy and slavery already existed with other justifications though Christianity was used to entrench them further.

[–] save_the_humans@leminal.space 2 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Well the transatlantic slave trade specifically and its extent. The argument, by otherering Africans, in their depictions of them, they then fell under the purview of Christianity's dominion over everything. And the patriarchy, influenced by Christianity, helped solidify it in western culture.

[–] TheEighthDoctor@lemmy.zip 3 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Doesn't the book of Genesis come from Judaism?

[–] save_the_humans@leminal.space 2 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

Well Judaism isn't evangelical. It didn't sweep though Europe and have the same kind of power.

[–] SnoopSqueak@lemmy.today 1 points 4 days ago

But it's part of the process. The foundation is "people were allowed to lie with no evidence." And they chose to lie that an abusive god commanded us to abuse all life on earth.