Among the many ways some atheists make a nuisance of themselves on social media is assuming the world 3.000 years ago should be similar to the world today. The assumption isn’t necessarily correct. The description of the ancient world in scriptures is of a very much more cruel and violent place than even the Nazis in the 1940s made the modern world. Whether the ancient world actually was so cruel and violent or not is difficult to say since there are no first hand witnesses left.
It is a matter of the burden of proof then. Should anyone have to prove the world was different or should atheists have to prove where any similarities should apply?
One way the ancient world was different is that nomads who lived in tents had no jails and consequently did a lot of stone throwing. Later Jesus was a carpenter in a world with jails. There was more time to evaluate whether accusers were lying. It is a notable mark of Christianity that it gives more consideration to the possibility that accusers could be lying than other systems do. That can make sense to many people even if they were not first hand witnesses.
An obvious failing of atheism is not understanding free will. Atheists often ask why didn’t God just snap his fingers and make the ancient world more civilized? The longstanding answer is that having a free will in this “fallen” world makes it necessary for humans to persuade others to behave in a civilized manner. It is up to the humans to make the world more civilized. Since humans can’t just snap their fingers it takes time and a people of “God” who have some idea how civilization should work.
Atheists often assume that although the world was perhaps more cruel and violent long ago atheists made the world more civilized, not any people of any god. Why do they assume that? Because no god snapped his fingers?
A formula for the most free humans can be in this world with all its faults is something like The Ten Commandments. Put the emphasis on “something like.” Atheists often complain that requiring loyalty to the “author” of the commandment list is somehow “wrong.” That is because atheists have a distorted notion of what the “author” actually means. It might not have any hands or feet for example.
A more egregious mistake atheists make in understanding the ancient world is their unfounded belief that “God” promoted slavery at any time. Scriptures at one time allowed slavery, but never promoted it. Before there were any employment agencies or large charitable organizations there were people who had nowhere else to turn than to offer to become the “slaves” (similar to the “children”) of some land owner. That slavery was nothing at all like the racial institution in the southern United States millennia later.
Exodus 21:16 “And he that stealeth a man, and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death.” (There is that “stone throwing” again, sorry.)
Another way atheists fail to understand the changing world is in the role of women. As the world became more civilized the necessity of protecting women from it decreased. Even in the Old Testament however there was this. Judges 4:4-5 “Now Deborah, a prophet, the wife of Lappidoth, was leading Israel at that time. She held court under the Palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites went up to her to have their disputes decided.”
Even in the time of Jesus it was becoming more obvious that women could and should participate more in the process of running things. 1 Peter 3:7 “Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers.”
The role of women gradually improved but it was not until 1920 that the XIX amendment was passed giving women across the United States the right to vote. XIX “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.”
Questions and arguments might remain whether the world changed and why it changed, but the notion that religion is to blame for some inglorious past is most doubtful. The “various” religions are typically on the political right. It is the political left that most often challenges longstanding morality.
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