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Religion and Human Rights
September 20, 2019 at 9:57 pm
Hello!
Some people claim that christianity is at the core of the concept of human rights. Others argue that religion has rather been an inhibiting force regarding the development of these ethical notions.
What are the historical roots of human rights and which part did religion play in their development?
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RE: Religion and Human Rights
September 20, 2019 at 10:16 pm
I don’t know exactly what has been the role of the church regarding the the establishment of human rights, but I know for sure humans rights were born because of the miserable lives people used to have. The roots would be oppression by evil people?
I would say the church used to oppose the human rights movement.
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RE: Religion and Human Rights
September 20, 2019 at 11:06 pm
Just take a skim over the Inquisition and the Crusades if you want Christianity's (in specific, the Roman Catholic Church's) take on human rights. The rest of those (Protestant) apples fell in extremely near proximity to that tree.
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RE: Religion and Human Rights
September 20, 2019 at 11:17 pm
(September 20, 2019 at 9:57 pm)Kurtchen Wrote: What are the historical roots of human rights and which part did religion play in their development?
Human rights as human morality is something that is developing and refining over time by society itself all the time. Religion doesn't play any role in it because religion is based on a notion that thousands of years ago some guy on some mountain told people how to behave and that is how it should be forever - so religion is static and inert about, as you call it, development of human rights and morality.
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
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RE: Religion and Human Rights
September 21, 2019 at 2:43 am
(This post was last modified: September 21, 2019 at 2:45 am by paulpablo.)
I think there's probably some link between the very early ideas of human rights and a religious idea that all human life is sacred.
I imagine in ancient times the begining of a lot of concepts started from a religious view point because I'd guess politics was even more closely related to religion than It is now.
Religion would have been, and still is an inhibiting force though. In terms of human rights for people who aren't straight mainstream religion has been inhibiting, especially in Islamic culture.
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