Posted on by wrote in History, Other Religions, Philosophy, Q & A.

Question:

I was having a conversation with a friend about how Christianity overall makes positive impacts in the world/society. His rebuttal was that Finland and Denmark are consistently ranked the happiest countries in the world and less than a quarter of their population even believes in a god. They also have much lower crime rates and homelessness than the United States. How would you respond to this?

Answer:

An interesting question.  Actually, this is a fairly easy question to answer, in my opinion.  I have been in Denmark, but not Finland.  For this reason, I will answer the question with regard to Denmark, and assume that the answer regarding Finland would be similar.  The culture in Denmark is very much derived from the deep Christian history of Denmark.  There are abandoned churches everywhere.  True.  Yet, most people still baptize their children at the Christian churches which they no longer attend, and Lutheranism is still the state religion.  Nearly every cultural norm in Denmark is received from its Christian roots.  If we go back to the Middle Ages and the time of the Reformation, as well as the Enlightenment, Denmark was a thoroughly Christianized society. This explains much of the cultural and ethical heritage of the place.  Specifically, Denmark (or more precisely the geographic area we now call Denmark) was one of the earliest territories to adopt Lutheranism.  If we consider the Danish monarchy, even today, it has deep roots in Lutheran religion, culture and ethics.

A feature of Western skepticism, agnosticism and atheism is that nearly all of its ethical beliefs are hijacked from Christianity.  Denmark’s culture of hard work, honesty, respect for individual rights, its commitment to human rights and dignity all find their roots in Denmark’s deep Christian past.  Look at Denmark in its pre-Christian days, when the Danes ran rampant around Northern Europe, pillaging, conquering, treating the locals in very brutal ways. The Norsemen/Vikings were transformed by the acceptance of Christianity by the Danes. This explains so much of the root of the Danish success, their commitment to social justice, to peace and to human rights.  Your friend’s point seems convincing at first, but when you consider the history of Denmark, it actually leads to the opposite conclusion of that proposed.
As for why the US is in such a mess compared to Denmark, that is another question. I propose that the pervasive individualism, the gun culture and the historical roots of chattel slavery, as well as other causes are the explanation.  The US has a higher proportion of believers in its population, but the history of the country is not more Christian than Denmark.
John Oakes

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