Fluke of History: Disease Helped Spread Christianity





Ancient peoples of the Middle East and Europe settled into agriculture long before native people in North and South America. Stable populations of farmers needed to either live in cities for protection or needed cities as places of commerce. Cities brought humans in close contact. Humans lived in close contact not only with other humans but with their domesticated animals who passed on some of their diseases.

Agriculture and its unclean ancient cities, as opposed to nomadic existence of hunting and gathering, meant the spread of diseases. Wave after wave of disease swept though these humans of the Middle East and Europe. Those individual lucky enough to be born with resistance survived as did their descendants.

It is thought the great societies of native people in the Americas, the Mayans, Aztecs, Incas and Mayans did not form their spectacular "lost cities" with pyramids until 500 or so CE. They did not live with animals nor have a long history of surviving the same epidemics diseases as Europeans.

When Europeans invaded North and South America, bringing with them Christianity, they brought diseases they themselves held resistance to but natives did not. There is no disagreement the colonization of both Americas was facilitated by widespread death of native people from these new diseases. Christianity, then, rode on the back of disease across both Americas. Had there been diseases in the Americas that attacked Europeans our religious history might have been different.

The best known killer of natives was small pox but measles and others were brutal too. 

Historians point to the Philippines for a somewhat different outcome. Natives of the Philippines had resistance to diseases brought by Spanish invaders. Natives put up more resistance. To an arm chair observer, there were two flukes of history that propelled Christianity's growth.

One was the conversion of the dictator Constantine in the 300's, the other the diseases spread to native Americans in the 1500's.

Comments

  1. Matt NoahDecember 15, 2019 at 10:05 AM

    Flukes or Divine Providence, among other options. Regardless, you clearly don't claim the diseases were intentional acts of murder, as some left-wing wackos claim.

    ReplyDelete

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