Religion’s Role in Shaping Civilizations and Revolutions

What impact does religion have on society, culture, and even revolutions? This episode explores the civilizing influence of religion through history—from the Protestant push to abolish slavery to the unique concept of grace in Christianity. We also examine the evolution of religions from the Indian subcontinent, the Fertile Crescent, and beyond, revealing how they shaped different worldviews, cultures, and societal norms.

But it’s not all theory—discover why the French Revolution turned against religion, how American religious freedom shaped its revolution, and why belief systems influence the value placed on human life. Join us for a deep dive into the influence of religion across civilizations.

Chapters

• 0:00 Religion’s Civilizing Influence Through History
• 1:16 The Human Desire to Worship
• 4:02 Eastern Religions vs. Fertile Crescent Religions
• 7:09 Impact of Christianity and Protestantism
• 10:30 Religion’s Role in Historical Revolutions
• 14:05 The Protestant Work Ethic and Societal Development
• 17:20 Religion and Individual Worth Across Cultures

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Some historians will argue that the spread of the Christian religion was a major civilizing force. Everywhere you see the church, especially the Protestant church, existed historically. You will see better treatment of animals. You will see better treatment of women. You will see better treatment of children. It was the Protestant religions that said, hey, slavery is wrong. I mean, slavery was a thing that existed throughout time. Everyone kind of just accepted as that's just the way it works. But it was the Christian religious, largely William Wilberforce and his team in England that brought light to that.

Speaker 2: 0:44

What is it about religion that is just so natural to us? Wow.

Speaker 1: 0:49

It depends on on what perspective you want to take. If if you take the, the Blaise Pascal, I think as Blaise Pascal said, this is or maybe it was John Calvin there, there is a God shaped box in the heart of every man. And that there's a gap. You know, philosophers have said there's a gap that wants to be filled with, with a god. And if it isn't a supernatural god, we turn, people or activities into demigods or idols and so human beings, You know, it was John. John Calvin said, the human heart is an idol making factory that we humans want to worship. Something. And if it's a supernatural god, it can be that if it's a maserati, it can be that. If it's, you know, a celebrity, it can be that. But we all want to adore something, to look up to something. And the feeling of all, or the sense that I'm a part of a larger thing. This, this, this fantastic big thing is very motivating to people. Now, if you're an evolutionist, you would say, well, there are benefits to that. If you are, a person who's a theist who believes in a god, then you would say, well, God put it there. If you're an evolutionist, you'd say it's, it's a, it's an adaptive, human quality. But if you're a theist, you would say, well, that's just how we're built. You know, God put it there. So. The evolutionists or the modernists would say, well, these primitive people, they believed in those things because they didn't understand how the world works. So they made up a god to fill their to, to to salve their fears and to, alleviate their confusion. My take on that is that is an incredibly arrogant view. The pyramids, the great pyramids, not the little ones. The Great Pyramids were constructed when wooly mammoths walked the earth. Now, put that in your head. They're thinking that some sort of primitive culture walked around like Neanderthals and, you know, Cro-Magnon man with the wooly mammoth. And yet we have we have the remnants of cities that we don't understand how they built. So the arrogance of moderns to to think that people back then were, you know, so stupid that they were so primitive that they invented religion. So, I don't really buy that argument. So whether it was adaptive on an evolutionary path or that's how we're built. All human culture wants to worship. And so religion of its varying types, fills that gap.