Judaeo-Christian values

[Wertbag]

I’ve heard several commentators use the phrase “Judaeo-Christian values” recently, most prominently Ben Sharpio, but no one seems to define what exactly this term is referring to.  By leaving it vague they are giving the impression that all that is good in the world has come from religion, while all that is bad is due to holding the wrong beliefs.

 

Sometimes it is used as a legal suggestion, that somehow the commandments in the bible are laws that were in some way revolutionary and all of our laws stem from that.  This ignores the obvious problem that the bible was not the first place to codify laws.  We have examples from 2000BC of written laws, many of which say the same things as the bible thousands of years before it was written. 

We also don’t follow the biblical laws.  No one is being stoned to death for working the sabbath, there is no punishment for taking the lords name in vain, we are not putting people to death for believing in the wrong god and we don’t follow an eye for an eye anywhere in the western world.

 

So perhaps it is not legal but moral and ethical codes that we have taken from their teachings?  Such as slavery is fine as long as it is not one of your own people, sex slaves are fine to take as long as you kill their family first and women shouldn’t dare speak.  At least it gives us clear rules on how we should be treating our slaves, so that’s an improvement…

 

Perhaps it is cultural, in that we follow the Christian stolen pagan festivals, follow monogamous marriages (which existed throughout the ancient world pre-dating Christianity), or chose our democratic government style (which doesn’t appear in the bible, it only ever mentioning monarchies or theocracy).  In America the founding fathers were very careful to avoid a theocracy, putting religious freedom and secular government into law.

 

I would not deny that religion has left its mark across history, the question is whether the success of the western world is due to this or in spite of it?   

I see democracy, capitalism, technology, wealth and human empathy having shaped our countries more than anything religion has done.  Of course I have a strong bias against religion, but I just can’t see this link that the religious are trying to make.

[mwc]

     Wikipedia has an entry here.  You might be surprised, utterly shocked, that there's no clear-cut definition.

 

          mwc

 

[MOHO]

43 minutes ago, mwc said:

     Wikipedia has an entry here.  You might be surprised, utterly shocked, that there's no clear-cut definition.

 

          mwc

 

 

[Derek]

I believe religion plays more of a part in smaller towns and rural areas, for some reason...maybe it's because there's very little ethnic diversity in such places, and the people there are scared shitless of anything they consider different...I dunno, just throwing it out there. The place I'm from is all whiter than rice...no diversity at all, and they're religious "to the backbone", as the saying goes around here. I moved away from town and now I live in the country...felt many eyes on me when I lived in town. Maybe that's why people are leaving small towns...To get away from the nosey religious people.

[Lerk]

When I hear someone say "Judeo-Christian" rather than just "Christian," I assume that they're a pre-millennialist. Unless they think Jesus is going to land in Israel to rule the world in the very near future, they aren't going to say it that way.