Question:
Thank you for the original article. I, too, see that Christianity stood the high moral ground with regard to it’s opposition to infanticide. Christianity should be thanked in this regard. However, Christianity, despite it’s righteous and courageous opposition to infanticide,lacked some significant ethical, moral, and legal norms which the ancient pagan culture has provided the Western world as from the following quote. The following is a quote from John Stuart Mill’s classic book, "On Liberty", which quote contains a criticism of Christianity.: "It may be objected, "But some received principles, especially on the highest and most vital subjects, are more than half-truths. The Christian morality, for instance, is the whole truth on that subject, and if any one teaches a morality which varies from it, he is wholly in error." As this is of all cases the most important in practice, none can be fitter to test the general maxim. But before pronouncing what Christian morality is or is not, it would be desireable to decide what is meant by Christian morality. If it means the morality of the New Testament, I wonder that any one who derives his knowledge of this from the book itself, can suppose that it was announced, or intended, as a complete doctrine of morals. The Gospel always refers to a pre-existing morality, and confines its precepts to the particulars in which that morality was to be corrected, or superseded by a wider and higher; expressing itself, moreover, in terms most general, often impossible to be interpreted literally, and possesing rather the impressiveness of poetry or eloquence than the precision of legislation. To extract from it a body of ethical doctrine, has never been possible without eking it out from the Old Testament, that is, from a system elaborate indeed, but in many respects barbarous, and intended only for a barbarous people. St. Paul, a declared enemy to this Judaical mode of interpreting the doctrine and filling up the scheme of his Master, equally assumes a preexisting morality, namely that of the Greeks and Romans; and his advice to Christians is in a great measure a system of accomodation to that; even to the extent of giving an apparent sanction to slavery. What is called Christian, but should rather be called theological morality, was not the work of Christ nor the Apostles, but is of much later origin, having been gradually built up by the Catholic church of the first five centuries, and although not implicitly adopted by moderns and Protestants, has been much less modified by them than might have been expected. For the most part, indeed, they have contented themselves with cutting off the additions which had been made to it in the Middle Ages, each sect supplying the place by fresh additions, adapted to its own character and tendencies. That mankind own a great deal to this morality, and to its early teachers, I should be the last person to deny; but I do not scruple to say of it that it is, in many important points, incomplete and one-sided, and that unless ideas and feelings, not sanctioned by it, had contributed to the formation of the European life and character, human affairs would have been in worse condition than they now are. Christian morality (so called) has all of the characters of a reaction; it is, in great part, a protest against Paganism. Its ideal is negative rather than positive; passive rather than active; Innocence rather than Nobleness; Abstinence from Evil, rather than energetic Pursuit of Good; in its precepts (as has been well said) "thou shalt not" predominates over " thou shalt." In its horror of sensuality, it made an idol of asceticism, which has been gradually compromised away into one of legality. It holds out the hope of heaven and the threat of hell, as the appointed and appropriate motives to a virtuous life: in this falling far below the best of the ancients, and doing what lies in it to give to human morality an essentially selfish character, by disconnecting each man’s feelings of duty from the interests of his fellow creatures, except so far as a self-interested inducement is offered to him for consulting them. It is essentially a doctrine of passive obedience; it inculcates submission to all authorities found established; who indeed are not to be actively obeyed when they command what religion forbids, but who are not to be resisted, far less rebelled against, for any amount of wrong to ourselves. And while, in the morality of the best Pagan nations, duty to the State holds even a disproportionate place, infringing on the just liberty of the individual; in purely Christian ethics, that grand department of duty is scarcely noticed or acknowledged. It is in the Koran, not the New Testament, that we read the maxim-"A ruler who appoints any man to an office, when there is in his dominions another man better qualified for it, sins against God and against the State," What little recognition the idea of obligation to the public obtains in modern morality is derived from Greek and Roman sources, not from Christian; as, even in the morality of private life, whatever exists of magnanimity, highmindedness, personal dignity, even the sense of honour, is derived from the purely human, not the religious part of our education, and never could have grown out of a standard of ethics in which the only worth, professedly recognised, is that of obedience. I am as far as any one from pretending that these defects are necessarily inherent in the Christian ethics in every manner in which it can be conceived, or that the many requisites of a complete moral doctrine which it does not contain do not admit of being reconciled with it. Far less would I insinuate this of the doctrines and precepts of Christ himself. I believe that the sayings of Christ are all that I can see any evidence of their having been intended to be; that they are irreconcilable with nothing which a comprehensive morality requires; that everything which is excellent in ethics may be brought within them, with no greater violence to their language than has been done to it by all who have attempted to deduce from them any practical system of conduct whatever. But it is quite consistent with this to believe that they contain, and were meant to contain, only a part of the truth; that many essential elements of the highest morality are among the things which are not provided for, and not intended to be provided for, in the recorded deliverances of the Founder of Christianiy, and which have been entirely thrown aside in the system of ethics erected on the basis of those deliverances by the Christian Church. And this being so, I think it a great error to persist in attempting to find in the Christian doctrine that complete rule for our guidance which its author intended it to sanction and enforce, but only partially to provide. I believe, too, that this narrow theory is becoming a grave practical evil, detracting greatly from the moral training and instruction which so many well-meaning persons are now at length exerting themselves to promote. I much fear that by attempting to form the mind and feelings on an exclusively religious type, and discarding those secular standards (as for want of a better name they may be called) which heretofore coexisted with and supplemented Christian ethics, receiving some ot its spirit, and infusing into it some of theirs, there will result, and is even now resulting, a low, abject, servile type of character, which, submit itself as it may to what it deems the Supreme Will, is incapable of rising to or sympathising in the conception of Supreme Goodness. I believe that other ethics than any which can be evolved from exclusively Christian sources, must exist side by side with Christian ethics to produce a moral regeneration of mankind; and that the Christian system is no exception to this rule, that in an imperfect state of the human mind the interests of truth require a diversity of opinions. It is not necessary that in ceasing to ignore the moral truths not contained in Christianity men should ignore any of those which it does contain. such prejudice, or oversight, when it occurs, is altogether an evil; but it is one from which we cannot hope to be always exempt, and must be regarded as the price paid for an inestimable good. The exclusive pretension made by a part of the truth to be the whole, must and out to be protested against; and if a reactionary impulse should make the protestors unjust in their turn, this one-sidedness, like the other, may be lamented, but must be tolerated. If Christians would teach infidels to be just to Christianity, they should themselves be just to infidelity. It can do truth no service to blink the fact, known to all who have the most ordinairy acquaintance with literary history, that a large portion of the noblest and most valuable moral teaching has been the work, not only of men who did not know, but of men who knew and rejected, the Christian faith."
Response:
- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Dear Posters: One of the most common methods of infanticide in America during the 18th & early 19th c was called ‘lying on’ where mothers would ‘accidentally’ roll over on the infant sleeping with them and smothering it. Average family size was high in the 17th c. Many were puzzled by the sudden fall in the 18th. One might have been abortion (the first abortion ruling in the 1820s? was not to save the life of the child but the life of the mother because poison was used but could not be measured accurately and often killed the mother); the other appears to have been smothering, intentionally or not. Rather than being an exception, infanticide has been the rule. Statistically, the US ranks high on the list of countries whose citizens practice it. The American homicide rate is 11th in the world for those under 1 year, for those up to age 4 it is first, and for those 5 to 14 it is fourth. Infanticide is over 3% of all homicides in America. It is nice to know how influential Christianity has been! China and India may be in the news but we have no pride of place. Cheers Hubbard C. Goodrich You’ve posted quite a bit of statistical data here. What is your source for this? For the first paragraph see Reed, James, "From Private Vice to Public Virtue: The Birth Control Movement; and Wertz & Wertz; Lying-in: a History of Childbirth.
Thank you
Response:
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Dear Posters: One of the most common methods of infanticide in America during the 18th & early 19th c was called ‘lying on’ where mothers would ‘accidentally’ roll over on the infant sleeping with them and smothering it. Average family size was high in the 17th c. Many were puzzled by the sudden fall in the 18th. One might have been abortion (the first abortion ruling in the 1820s? was not to save the life of the child but the life of the mother because poison was used but could not be measured accurately and often killed the mother); the other appears to have been smothering, intentionally or not. Rather than being an exception, infanticide has been the rule. Statistically, the US ranks high on the list of countries whose citizens practice it. The American homicide rate is 11th in the world for those under 1 year, for those up to age 4 it is first, and for those 5 to 14 it is fourth. Infanticide is over 3% of all homicides in America. It is nice to know how influential Christianity has been! China and India may be in the news but we have no pride of place. Cheers Hubbard C. Goodrich You’ve posted quite a bit of statistical data here. What is your source for this? For the first paragraph see Reed, James, "From Private Vice to Public Virtue: The Birth Control Movement; and Wertz & Wertz; Lying-in: a History of Childbirth. For the second paragraph see the statistics available at the Bureau of Justice Statistics (they may be online through Michigan Univ Web (search for Statistical Resources on the Web – Sociology). The UN also provides stats for the world in general though I got my info from the library and don’t recall the name of the text. I was surprised to learn that in the US more boys are killed than girls: in 1995 139 to 110 girls. I believe female infanticide in India and China has much to do with poverty, not choice. Throughout their history, children were sold into slavery to avoid starvation of the family. Girls were thought to have little economic value as a means of Social Security (the sons stayed the girls went to another family), so the more children you had the better your old age would be. When periodic crop failures accured, you kept the important children and rid the family of those of less survival value. When the Chinese government limited the number of children you could have, families were forced to make a choice: the child that would support you, or the one that couldn’t. The choice to sell or kill your child is not welcome, but the survival of the family is thought of greater value – like putting the elderly non-productive member outside to freeze. With limited resources and few options in hard times, what choice would you make? I remember reading about the turn of the century 1900 (plus/minus 20 y) where large families lived in one-room tenaments. When a new child came along, the oldest child would be forced out onto the streets to fend for him/herself. Thus, the childrens gangs of that period and the round up of children to be sent off in trains to families in need of child labor. Same idea – economic necessity. Cheers (actually gloom), Hubbard C. Goodrich
I am not sure if I would make. — Lady Chatterly "OK, I know I’ve been away for a while, so maybe I missed something. Is Lady Chatterly a bot?" — oldami
Response:
- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Dear Posters: One of the most common methods of infanticide in America during the 18th & early 19th c was called ‘lying on’ where mothers would ‘accidentally’ roll over on the infant sleeping with them and smothering it. Average family size was high in the 17th c. Many were puzzled by the sudden fall in the 18th. One might have been abortion (the first abortion ruling in the 1820s? was not to save the life of the child but the life of the mother because poison was used but could not be measured accurately and often killed the mother); the other appears to have been smothering, intentionally or not. Rather than being an exception, infanticide has been the rule. Statistically, the US ranks high on the list of countries whose citizens practice it. The American homicide rate is 11th in the world for those under 1 year, for those up to age 4 it is first, and for those 5 to 14 it is fourth. Infanticide is over 3% of all homicides in America. It is nice to know how influential Christianity has been! China and India may be in the news but we have no pride of place. Cheers Hubbard C. Goodrich You’ve posted quite a bit of statistical data here. What is your source for this?
For the first paragraph see Reed, James, "From Private Vice to Public Virtue: The Birth Control Movement; and Wertz & Wertz; Lying-in: a History of Childbirth. For the second paragraph see the statistics available at the Bureau of Justice Statistics (they may be online through Michigan Univ Web (search for Statistical Resources on the Web – Sociology). The UN also provides stats for the world in general though I got my info from the library and don’t recall the name of the text. I was surprised to learn that in the US more boys are killed than girls: in 1995 139 to 110 girls. I believe female infanticide in India and China has much to do with poverty, not choice. Throughout their history, children were sold into slavery to avoid starvation of the family. Girls were thought to have little economic value as a means of Social Security (the sons stayed the girls went to another family), so the more children you had the better your old age would be. When periodic crop failures accured, you kept the important children and rid the family of those of less survival value. When the Chinese government limited the number of children you could have, families were forced to make a choice: the child that would support you, or the one that couldn’t. The choice to sell or kill your child is not welcome, but the survival of the family is thought of greater value – like putting the elderly non-productive member outside to freeze. With limited resources and few options in hard times, what choice would you make? I remember reading about the turn of the century 1900 (plus/minus 20 y) where large families lived in one-room tenaments. When a new child came along, the oldest child would be forced out onto the streets to fend for him/herself. Thus, the childrens gangs of that period and the round up of children to be sent off in trains to families in need of child labor. Same idea – economic necessity. Cheers (actually gloom), Hubbard C. Goodrich
Response:
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Pagans, Christianity, and Infanticide By Christopher Price "Infanticide was one of the deepest stains of the ancient civilization." Introduction The history of infanticide is gruesome. As hard as it may be to imagine today, throughout history infanticide was a common and endorsed practice. While it undoubtedly still occurs today, all governments outlaw it. And in the West at least, society and culture condemn it. So how did we get from there to here? From having Western societies that condoned and encouraged infanticide to having a Western society that condemns and discourages infanticide? The short answer is: Christianity.
No… Most ppl seem to forget the times the pagans lived in. The pagans were survivors. They had no choice but to kill babies that either wouldn’t survive, or wouldn’t be productive. In a girls case, *too* productive. They needed, first and foremost, to make sure they had enough food and shelter for any child born. Second, whether that child would, or could, turn out to be productive to their tribe. It was a practical thing to do, to give up a child, rather than it be a detriment to the whole of the society. A warrior or hard worker, a hunter, was immensely more valued than a girl was. I truly doubt that it was done with no tears at all. In the 1800’s I imagine a lot of women were just so worn out from having so many children, that they may well have ‘accidentally’ smothered them. Remember, the average age for a woman that died was between 30 and 40. Men too. Who’d support so many? Down through all the ages in fact. I see some ppl that are allowed to live with deformities, or criminals that are not ‘curable’, that I’m for euthanasia in some instances. Both are suffering. Some may believe that they chose that path before they were born. I do, but in any case, still feel that they’re nonproductive , dangerous (not unlovable in some cases) and something should be done. There are So Many unwanted children that suffer abuse and death in all countries. Why not take the time to mercifully put them and their parents ‘out of their misery’? Drive by shooters, since someone mentioned that. Why not? An eye for an eye. What about terrorists? Are they exempt from death or sacrifice because they’re fighting for a so-called ’cause’? Anyone caught in a violent act, murder, rape, child killing, an act of perversion that’s so unbelievable as to be numbing? Why do we, in this country, pamper them, give them three meals a day and a roof over their heads? Why not just make the sacrifice? We’re in a day, or entering a day, where this earth can no longer support all of us…. BTW, people in Communist China were under threat of death or imprisonment, maybe still are, for having more than one child. THAT is their government.
Response:
- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Dear Posters: One of the most common methods of infanticide in America during the 18th & early 19th c was called ‘lying on’ where mothers would ‘accidentally’ roll over on the infant sleeping with them and smothering it. Average family size was high in the 17th c. Many were puzzled by the sudden fall in the 18th. One might have been abortion (the first abortion ruling in the 1820s? was not to save the life of the child but the life of the mother because poison was used but could not be measured accurately and often killed the mother); the other appears to have been smothering, intentionally or not. Rather than being an exception, infanticide has been the rule. Statistically, the US ranks high on the list of countries whose citizens practice it. The American homicide rate is 11th in the world for those under 1 year, for those up to age 4 it is first, and for those 5 to 14 it is fourth. Infanticide is over 3% of all homicides in America. It is nice to know how influential Christianity has been! China and India may be in the news but we have no pride of place. Cheers Hubbard C. Goodrich
You’ve posted quite a bit of statistical data here. What is your source for this?
Response:
…and started killing everone else instead — Dr. Smartass — BAAWA Knight of Heckling — a.a. #1939 The Fundamentalist == Knows no greater joy than the sound of his own voice. == Knows no greater terror than the god he creates in his own image. == Knows no greater evil than an unfettered mind. == Knows no greater blasphemy than being told "NO."
Response:
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Pagans, Christianity, and Infanticide By Christopher Price "Infanticide was one of the deepest stains of the ancient civilization." Introduction The history of infanticide is gruesome. As hard as it may be to imagine today, throughout history infanticide was a common and endorsed practice. While it undoubtedly still occurs today, all governments outlaw it. And in the West at least, society and culture condemn it. So how did we get from there to here? From having Western societies that condoned and encouraged infanticide to having a Western society that condemns and discourages infanticide? The short answer is: Christianity. Paganism and Infanticide Pagans in the Roman Empire had a very different view about the value of human life than we do today. Infanticide was legal and encouraged in ancient Greece and Rome. Other pagan societies, such as the Carthaginians, went so far as to kill their children as religious sacrifices to their gods. According to Plutarch, the Carthaginians "offered up their own children, and those who had no children would buy little ones from poor people and cut their throats as if they were so many lambs of young birds; meanwhile the mothers stood by without a tear or moan." Moralia 2.17. Indeed, "Infanticide was common in all well studied ancient cultures, including those of ancient Greece, Rome, India, China, and Japan." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infanticide Some forms of infanticide involved a parent directly killing the child, usually by drowning. The infant was simply held underwater until it was dead. Relatively quick, inexpensive, and the water muffled the cries. In other cases, the family would simply take the child out beyond the city and abandon it to die from exposure to the elements. In both approaches, those that should have been protecting the helpless, were the ones who were killing them. Hence, in this discussion I will speak both of infanticide and abandonment as one. "Infanticide was infamously universal" in ancient Greece and Rome. Frederic Farrar, The Early Days of Christianity, page 71. As Will Durant stated, infanticide was so common in ancient Rome that "birth itself was an adventure." Caesar and Christ, page 56. Indeed, so common was infanticide in ancient Greece that Polybius (205-118 BCE) blamed the decline of ancient Greece on it. (Histories, 6). It was "decimating pagan society," Durant, op. cit. 698, and was the leading cause of the tremendous gender gap of men to women in the ancient world. Rodney Stark, The Rise of Christianity, pages 97-98. Female infants were particularly vulnerable to infanticide. It was very uncommon for even wealthy, upper-class families to have more than one daughter in ancient Greece and Rome. An inscription found in Delphi illustrates this quite well. Of more than 600 second-century families, only one percent had raised two daughters. Susan Scrimshaw, "Infanticide in Human Populations: Societal and Individual Concerns," in Infanticide: Comparative and Evolutionary Perspectives, eds. Glenn Hausfater and Sarah Hardy, page 439. In sum, there is no dispute among historians and informed laypersons: Infanticide was incredibly widespread in the ancient pagan world. But what is most chilling is that it was openly practiced. Pagan society approved of the practice and encouraged it. "Not only was the exposure of infants a very common practice, it was justified by law and advocated by philosophers." Rodney Stark, The Rise of Christianity, at 118. See also Durant, op. cit., page 56. In Greece and ancient Rome a child was virtually its father’s chattel-e.g., in Roman law, the Patria Protestas granted the father the right to dispose of his offspring as he saw fit. In Sparta, the decision was made by a public official. The Twelve Tables of Roman Law held: "Deformed infants shall be killed" De Legibus, 3.8. Of course, deformed was broadly construed and often meant no more than the baby appeared "weakly." The Twelve Tables also explicitly permitted a father to expose any female infant. Stark, op. cit., page 118. Leading pagan leaders and philosophers also encouraged the practice. Cicero defended infanticide by referring to the Twelve Tables. Plato and Aristotle recommended infanticide as legitimate state policy. Cornelius Tacitus went so far as to condemn the Jews for their opposition to infanticide. He stated that the Jewish view that "it was a deadly sin to kill an unwanted child" was just another of the many "sinister and revolting practices" of the Jews. Histories 5.5. Even Seneca, otherwise known for his relatively high moral standards, stated, "we drown children at birth who are weakly and abnormal." De Ira 1.15. A chilling letter from a pagan husband to his wife captures the casual nature of this practice among the pagans: "Know that I am still in Alexandria…. I ask and beg you to take good care of our baby son, and as soon as I received payment I shall send it up to you. If you are delivered (before I come home), if it is a boy keep it, if a girl, discard it." Naphtali Lewis, Life in Egypt Under Roman Rule, at 54. According to Stark, "this letter dates from the year 1 BCE, but these patterns persisted among pagans far into the Christian era." Stark, op. cit., page 97-98. In sum, pagans practiced infanticide almost universally. Nor can it be said to be simply a practice to preserve few resources to save the whole culture. Infanticide was practiced by rich and poor alike. By Romans and Greeks. By citizens and slaves. Christianity and Infanticide Into this pagan world stepped Christianity. Starting in Jerusalem, and with an undisputed Jewish influence, Christianity quickly spread throughout the Roman Empire. But rather than being restricted to one racial or cultural group, Christianity spread throughout the Roman Empire’s diverse ethnicities, including the Greeks and Romans. Beginning in about 30-33 CE, Christianity reached some level of primacy when the Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity in the Fourth Century. By 350 CE, Rodney Stark estimates that 56.5 percent of the Roman Empire had converted to Christianity. A. Early Christian Opposition to Infanticide From its earliest creeds, Christians "absolutely prohibited" infanticide as "murder." Stark, at 124. To Christians, the infant had value. Whereas pagans placed no value on infant life, Christians treated them as human beings. They viewed infanticide as the murder of a human being, not a convenient tool to rid society of excess females and perceived weaklings. The baby, whether male, female, perfect, or imperfect, was created in the image of God and therefore had value. Early Christian documents reveal that there was a clash of cultures as Christianity converted previously pagan Romans and Greeks. Whereas Judaism prohibited infanticide by Jews, Christianity was converting pagans and instructing them that infanticide was immoral and murder. The Didache (90 -110 CE), an instruction manual for Christian converts, commanded "You shall not commit infanticide." Another early Christian document, the Epistle of Barnabas (130 CE), also explicitly condemned infanticide and prohibited its practices as necessary parts of the "way of light." Moreover, by the end of the second century, "Christians were not only proclaiming their rejection of abortion and infanticide, but had begun direct attacks on pagans, and especially pagan religions for sustaining such crimes." Stark, op. cit., page 125. Robin L. Fox also notes this activity: "Christians opposed much in the accepted practice of the pagan world. They vigorously attacked infanticide and the exposure of children." Fox, op. cit., page 350. Callistus, the Bishop of Rome–a onetime slave– in 222 CE strongly voiced his condemnation of infanticide to the pagan public. Justin Martyr’s First Apology (250 CE) stated, "We have been taught that it is wicked to expose even newly-born children." Also in the second century, Athengoras, a Christian leader, wrote in his Plea to the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, that "[we do not expose] an infant, because those who expose them are chargeable with child murder." Another Christian writer, Minucius Felix, wrote to Emperor Claudius, "And I see that you at one time expose your begotten children to wild beasts and to the birds; at another that you crush when strangled with a miserable kind of death. . . . And these things assuredly come down from your gods. For Saturn did not expose his children but devoured them." But so long as Christianity remained a disfavored–and sometimes persecuted–religion, their appeals to the pagan government to act against infanticide were ineffectual in changing government policy. Even so, Christians worked against infanticide by prohibiting its members from practicing it, voicing their moral view on infanticide to the pagan world, and by providing for the relief of the poor and actually taking in and supporting babies which had been left to die by exposure by their pagan parents. As Fox explains, "to the poor, the widows and orphans, Christians gave alms and support, like the synagogue communities, their forerunners. This ‘brotherly love’ has been minimized as a reason for turning to the Church, as if only those who were members could know of it. In fact, it was widely recognized." Fox, op. cit., page 324. According to Durant, "in many instances Christians rescued exposed infant, baptized them, and brought them up with the aid of community funds." Durant, op. cit., page 598. Through these efforts, Christians worked to diminish some of the causes of
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Response:
- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Pagans, Christianity, and Infanticide By Christopher Price "Infanticide was one of the deepest stains of the ancient civilization." Introduction The history of infanticide is gruesome. As hard as it may be to imagine today, throughout history infanticide was a common and endorsed practice. While it undoubtedly still occurs today, all governments outlaw it. And in the West at least, society and culture condemn it. So how did we get from there to here? From having Western societies that condoned and encouraged infanticide to having a Western society that condemns and discourages infanticide? The short answer is: Christianity. Paganism and Infanticide Pagans in the Roman Empire had a very different view about the value of human life than we do today. Infanticide was legal and encouraged in ancient Greece and Rome. Other pagan societies, such as the Carthaginians, went so far as to kill their children as religious sacrifices to their gods. According to Plutarch, the Carthaginians "offered up their own children, and those who had no children would buy little ones from poor people and cut their throats as if they were so many lambs of young birds; meanwhile the mothers stood by without a tear or moan." Moralia 2.17. Indeed, "Infanticide was common in all well studied ancient cultures, including those of ancient Greece, Rome, India, China, and Japan." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infanticide Some forms of infanticide involved a parent directly killing the child, usually by drowning. The infant was simply held underwater until it was dead. Relatively quick, inexpensive, and the water muffled the cries. In other cases, the family would simply take the child out beyond the city and abandon it to die from exposure to the elements. In both approaches, those that should have been protecting the helpless, were the ones who were killing them. Hence, in this discussion I will speak both of infanticide and abandonment as one. "Infanticide was infamously universal" in ancient Greece and Rome. Frederic Farrar, The Early Days of Christianity, page 71. As Will Durant stated, infanticide was so common in ancient Rome that "birth itself was an adventure." Caesar and Christ, page 56. Indeed, so common was infanticide in ancient Greece that Polybius (205-118 BCE) blamed the decline of ancient Greece on it. (Histories, 6). It was "decimating pagan society," Durant, op. cit. 698, and was the leading cause of the tremendous gender gap of men to women in the ancient world. Rodney Stark, The Rise of Christianity, pages 97-98. Female infants were particularly vulnerable to infanticide. It was very uncommon for even wealthy, upper-class families to have more than one daughter in ancient Greece and Rome. An inscription found in Delphi illustrates this quite well. Of more than 600 second-century families, only one percent had raised two daughters. Susan Scrimshaw, "Infanticide in Human Populations: Societal and Individual Concerns," in Infanticide: Comparative and Evolutionary Perspectives, eds. Glenn Hausfater and Sarah Hardy, page 439. In sum, there is no dispute among historians and informed laypersons: Infanticide was incredibly widespread in the ancient pagan world. But what is most chilling is that it was openly practiced. Pagan society approved of the practice and encouraged it. "Not only was the exposure of infants a very common practice, it was justified by law and advocated by philosophers." Rodney Stark, The Rise of Christianity, at 118. See also Durant, op. cit., page 56. In Greece and ancient Rome a child was virtually its father’s chattel-e.g., in Roman law, the Patria Protestas granted the father the right to dispose of his offspring as he saw fit. In Sparta, the decision was made by a public official. The Twelve Tables of Roman Law held: "Deformed infants shall be killed" De Legibus, 3.8. Of course, deformed was broadly construed and often meant no more than the baby appeared "weakly." The Twelve Tables also explicitly permitted a father to expose any female infant. Stark, op. cit., page 118. Leading pagan leaders and philosophers also encouraged the practice. Cicero defended infanticide by referring to the Twelve Tables. Plato and Aristotle recommended infanticide as legitimate state policy. Cornelius Tacitus went so far as to condemn the Jews for their opposition to infanticide. He stated that the Jewish view that "it was a deadly sin to kill an unwanted child" was just another of the many "sinister and revolting practices" of the Jews. Histories 5.5. Even Seneca, otherwise known for his relatively high moral standards, stated, "we drown children at birth who are weakly and abnormal." De Ira 1.15. A chilling letter from a pagan husband to his wife captures the casual nature of this practice among the pagans: "Know that I am still in Alexandria…. I ask and beg you to take good care of our baby son, and as soon as I received payment I shall send it up to you. If you are delivered (before I come home), if it is a boy keep it, if a girl, discard it." Naphtali Lewis, Life in Egypt Under Roman Rule, at 54. According to Stark, "this letter dates from the year 1 BCE, but these patterns persisted among pagans far into the Christian era." Stark, op. cit., page 97-98. In sum, pagans practiced infanticide almost universally. Nor can it be said to be simply a practice to preserve few resources to save the whole culture. Infanticide was practiced by rich and poor alike. By Romans and Greeks. By citizens and slaves. Christianity and Infanticide Into this pagan world stepped Christianity. Starting in Jerusalem, and with an undisputed Jewish influence, Christianity quickly spread throughout the Roman Empire. But rather than being restricted to one racial or cultural group, Christianity spread throughout the Roman Empire’s diverse ethnicities, including the Greeks and Romans. Beginning in about 30-33 CE, Christianity reached some level of primacy when the Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity in the Fourth Century. By 350 CE, Rodney Stark estimates that 56.5 percent of the Roman Empire had converted to Christianity. A. Early Christian Opposition to Infanticide From its earliest creeds, Christians "absolutely prohibited" infanticide as "murder." Stark, at 124. To Christians, the infant had value. Whereas pagans placed no value on infant life, Christians treated them as human beings. They viewed infanticide as the murder of a human being, not a convenient tool to rid society of excess females and perceived weaklings. The baby, whether male, female, perfect, or imperfect, was created in the image of God and therefore had value. Early Christian documents reveal that there was a clash of cultures as Christianity converted previously pagan Romans and Greeks. Whereas Judaism prohibited infanticide by Jews, Christianity was converting pagans and instructing them that infanticide was immoral and murder. The Didache (90 -110 CE), an instruction manual for Christian converts, commanded "You shall not commit infanticide." Another early Christian document, the Epistle of Barnabas (130 CE), also explicitly condemned infanticide and prohibited its practices as necessary parts of the "way of light." Moreover, by the end of the second century, "Christians were not only proclaiming their rejection of abortion and infanticide, but had begun direct attacks on pagans, and especially pagan religions for sustaining such crimes." Stark, op. cit., page 125. Robin L. Fox also notes this activity: "Christians opposed much in the accepted practice of the pagan world. They vigorously attacked infanticide and the exposure of children." Fox, op. cit., page 350. Callistus, the Bishop of Rome–a onetime slave– in 222 CE strongly voiced his condemnation of infanticide to the pagan public. Justin Martyr’s First Apology (250 CE) stated, "We have been taught that it is wicked to expose even newly-born children." Also in the second century, Athengoras, a Christian leader, wrote in his Plea to the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, that "[we do not expose] an infant, because those who expose them are chargeable with child murder." Another Christian writer, Minucius Felix, wrote to Emperor Claudius, "And I see that you at one time expose your begotten children to wild beasts and to the birds; at another that you crush when strangled with a miserable kind of death. . . . And these things assuredly come down from your gods. For Saturn did not expose his children but devoured them." But so long as Christianity remained a disfavored–and sometimes persecuted–religion, their appeals to the pagan government to act against infanticide were ineffectual in changing government policy. Even so, Christians worked against infanticide by prohibiting its members from practicing it, voicing their moral view on infanticide to the pagan world, and by providing for the relief of the poor and actually taking in and supporting babies which had been left to die by exposure by their pagan parents. As Fox explains, "to the poor, the widows and orphans, Christians gave alms and support, like the synagogue communities, their forerunners. This ‘brotherly
… read more »
Response:
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Pagans, Christianity, and Infanticide By Christopher Price "Infanticide was one of the deepest stains of the ancient civilization." Introduction The history of infanticide is gruesome. As hard as it may be to imagine today, throughout history infanticide was a common and endorsed practice. While it undoubtedly still occurs today, all governments outlaw it. And in the West at least, society and culture condemn it. So how did we get from there to here? From having Western societies that condoned and encouraged infanticide to having a Western society that condemns and discourages infanticide? The short answer is: Christianity. Paganism and Infanticide Pagans in the Roman Empire had a very different view about the value of human life than we do today. Infanticide was legal and encouraged in ancient Greece and Rome. Other pagan societies, such as the Carthaginians, went so far as to kill their children as religious sacrifices to their gods. According to Plutarch, the Carthaginians "offered up their own children, and those who had no children would buy little ones from poor people and cut their throats as if they were so many lambs of young birds; meanwhile the mothers stood by without a tear or moan." Moralia 2.17. Well, that’s according to Plutarch, and frankly it sounds a little far fetched…
Others such as Kleitarchos stated something similar too. Although some scholars have argued that children were not sacrificed in large numbers at Carthage, the evidence seems to be against them. We have unearthed the temple of Tanit. Large numbers of sacrifices of children have been found. Indeed, "Infanticide was common in all well studied ancient cultures, including those of ancient Greece, Rome, India, China, and Japan." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infanticide I have a feeling that thousand years ago wikipedia is going to say "Drive by shootings were common in the United States in the 20th Century… " when in fact if you started walking from one end of this country to the other asking people virtually every one you talked to would never have actually witnessed one.
So! Infanticide was practiced by many of these cultures. A useful rule is to compare the ratio of the number of boys to girls. Today in China its about 120 boys for each 100 girls. What happened to the other twenty girls? In parts of India today, its almost the same story. – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Some forms of infanticide involved a parent directly killing the child, usually by drowning. The infant was simply held underwater until it was dead. Relatively quick, inexpensive, and the water muffled the cries. The only point of that last sentence is that you are giving this waaay too much thought. In other cases, the family would simply take the child out beyond the city and abandon it to die from exposure to the elements. In both approaches, those that should have been protecting the helpless, were the ones who were killing them. Hence, in this discussion I will speak both of infanticide and abandonment as one. "Infanticide was infamously universal" in ancient Greece and Rome. Frederic Farrar, The Early Days of Christianity, page 71. Again, a broad accusation is being adopted as fact when common sense and basic human experience would suggest it’s kind of unlikely. As Will Durant stated, infanticide was so common in ancient Rome that "birth itself was an adventure." Caesar and Christ, page 56. see above Indeed, so common was infanticide in ancient Greece that Polybius (205-118 BCE) blamed the decline of ancient Greece on it. (Histories, 6). It was "decimating pagan society," Durant, op. cit. 698, and was the leading cause of the tremendous gender gap of men to women in the ancient world. Rodney Stark, The Rise of Christianity, pages 97-98. Female infants were particularly vulnerable to infanticide. It was very uncommon for even wealthy, upper-class families to have more than one daughter in ancient Greece and Rome. An inscription found in Delphi illustrates this quite well. Of more than 600 second-century families, only one percent had raised two daughters. Susan Scrimshaw, "Infanticide in Human Populations: Societal and Individual Concerns," in Infanticide: Comparative and Evolutionary Perspectives, eds. Glenn Hausfater and Sarah Hardy, page 439. In sum, there is no dispute among historians and informed laypersons: Infanticide was incredibly widespread in the ancient pagan world. In sum, long discussions about how shocking topics aren’t up for debate among the "informed" is the basic tactic of hucksters and UFO apologists since time immemorial. But what is most chilling is that it was openly practiced. See "drive by shootings"…also openly practiced Pagan society approved of the practice and encouraged it. Yeah, riiiight. "Not only was the exposure of infants a very common practice, it was justified by law and advocated by philosophers." Rodney Stark, The Rise of Christianity, at 118. See also Durant, op. cit., page 56. In Greece and ancient Rome a child was virtually its father’s chattel-e.g., in Roman law, the Patria Protestas granted the father the right to dispose of his offspring as he saw fit. In Sparta, the decision was made by a public official. The Twelve Tables of Roman Law held: "Deformed infants shall be killed" De Legibus, 3.8. Of course, deformed was broadly construed and often meant no more than the baby appeared "weakly." The Twelve Tables also explicitly permitted a father to expose any female infant. Stark, op. cit., page 118. Leading pagan leaders and philosophers also encouraged the practice. Cicero defended infanticide by referring to the Twelve Tables. Plato and Aristotle recommended infanticide as legitimate state policy. Cornelius Tacitus went so far as to condemn the Jews for their opposition to infanticide. He stated that the Jewish view that "it was a deadly sin to kill an unwanted child" was just another of the many "sinister and revolting practices" of the Jews. Histories 5.5. Even Seneca, otherwise known for his relatively high moral standards, stated, "we drown children at birth who are weakly and abnormal." De Ira 1.15. A chilling letter from a pagan husband to his wife captures the casual nature of this practice among the pagans: "Know that I am still in Alexandria…. I ask and beg you to take good care of our baby son, and as soon as I received payment I shall send it up to you. If you are delivered (before I come home), if it is a boy keep it, if a girl, discard it." Naphtali Lewis, Life in Egypt Under Roman Rule, at 54. According to Stark, "this letter dates from the year 1 BCE, but these patterns persisted among pagans far into the Christian era." Stark, op. cit., page 97-98. In sum, pagans practiced infanticide almost universally. Nor can it be said to be simply a practice to preserve few resources to save the whole culture. Infanticide was practiced by rich and poor alike. By Romans and Greeks. By citizens and slaves. Christianity and Infanticide Into this pagan world stepped Christianity. Starting in Jerusalem, and with an undisputed Jewish influence, Christianity quickly spread throughout the Roman Empire. Actually starting in small Roman seaports further up the Med – but thanks for playing. But rather than being restricted to one racial or cultural group, Christianity spread throughout the Roman Empire’s diverse ethnicities, including the Greeks and Romans. Beginning in about 30-33 CE, About a hundred years too early considering the Gospels hadn’t even been written down at that point. Christianity reached some level of primacy when the Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity in the Fourth Century. By 350 CE, Rodney Stark estimates that 56.5 percent of the Roman Empire had converted to Christianity. A. Early Christian Opposition to Infanticide From its earliest creeds, Christians "absolutely prohibited" infanticide as "murder." Stark, at 124. To Christians, the infant had value. Whereas pagans placed no value on infant life, No value! None? Christians treated them as human beings. Unless, of course, they grew up and disagreed with them and then they killed them in fascinating and unusual ways. They viewed infanticide as the murder of a human being, not a convenient tool to rid society of excess females and perceived weaklings. The baby, whether male, female, perfect, or imperfect, was created in the image of God and therefore had value. Early Christian documents reveal that there was a clash of cultures as Christianity converted previously pagan Romans and Greeks. Whereas Judaism prohibited infanticide by Jews, Christianity was converting pagans and instructing them that infanticide was immoral and murder. The Didache (90 -110 CE), an instruction manual for Christian converts, commanded "You shall not commit infanticide." Another early Christian document, the Epistle of Barnabas (130 CE), also explicitly condemned infanticide and prohibited its practices as necessary parts of the "way of light." Moreover, by the end of the second century, "Christians were not only proclaiming their rejection of abortion and
… read more »
Response:
Pagans, Christianity, and Infanticide By Christopher Price
<bullshit snipped Don’t feed the crossposting wankers. Thank you, Michael Kuettner
Response:
While it undoubtedly still occurs today, all governments outlaw it. And in the West at least, society and culture condemn it. So how did we get from there to here? The short answer is: Christianity.
Your short answer might have some support if only the Christian areas of the world had outlawed infanticide. But if *all* governments have outlawed it, how do you support your claim that Christianity caused all governments, Christian and non-Christian, to outlaw infanticide? Your claim seems much like someone who gives up drugs due to Christianity and then says that Christianity is what causes people to give up drugs, entirely ignoring everyone who gives up drugs without Christianity. I doubt you can even show that Christianity is *better* at causing people to give up infanticide (or drugs, for that matter) than non-Christian religions and worldviews. Oh, and for your information, I have read reports that support the idea that infanticide was fairly common in Christian Europe through the middle ages; it seems to me that it was rising standards of living and dropping birth rates that eliminated infanticide in various societies. In mideval society infanticide was done with secrecy or with shame … but it hardly went away. Finally, infanticide was banned.
But didn’t stop for many centuries after, when society became richer and less fertile. Clearly, one unique and valuable contribution of Christianity to Western Civilization was its opposition to infanticide.
So why did it stop in the rest of the world when they got richer and less fertile too? Are you claiming that they were just emulating the Christians?
Response:
And you were too fucking stupid to contain your answer to the newsgroup that you read ? Got your head stuck in your ass ? FOLLOW-UPs set. And bye.
Response:
- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Pagans, Christianity, and Infanticide By Christopher Price "Infanticide was one of the deepest stains of the ancient civilization." Introduction The history of infanticide is gruesome. As hard as it may be to imagine today, throughout history infanticide was a common and endorsed practice. While it undoubtedly still occurs today, all governments outlaw it. And in the West at least, society and culture condemn it. So how did we get from there to here? From having Western societies that condoned and encouraged infanticide to having a Western society that condemns and discourages infanticide? The short answer is: Christianity. Paganism and Infanticide Pagans in the Roman Empire had a very different view about the value of human life than we do today. Infanticide was legal and encouraged in ancient Greece and Rome. Other pagan societies, such as the Carthaginians, went so far as to kill their children as religious sacrifices to their gods. According to Plutarch, the Carthaginians "offered up their own children, and those who had no children would buy little ones from poor people and cut their throats as if they were so many lambs of young birds; meanwhile the mothers stood by without a tear or moan." Moralia 2.17.
Well, that’s according to Plutarch, and frankly it sounds a little far fetched… Indeed, "Infanticide was common in all well studied ancient cultures, including those of ancient Greece, Rome, India, China, and Japan." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infanticide
I have a feeling that thousand years ago wikipedia is going to say "Drive by shootings were common in the United States in the 20th Century… " when in fact if you started walking from one end of this country to the other asking people virtually every one you talked to would never have actually witnessed one. Some forms of infanticide involved a parent directly killing the child, usually by drowning. The infant was simply held underwater until it was dead. Relatively quick, inexpensive, and the water muffled the cries.
The only point of that last sentence is that you are giving this waaay too much thought. In other cases, the family would simply take the child out beyond the city and abandon it to die from exposure to the elements. In both approaches, those that should have been protecting the helpless, were the ones who were killing them. Hence, in this discussion I will speak both of infanticide and abandonment as one. "Infanticide was infamously universal" in ancient Greece and Rome. Frederic Farrar, The Early Days of Christianity, page 71.
Again, a broad accusation is being adopted as fact when common sense and basic human experience would suggest it’s kind of unlikely. As Will Durant stated, infanticide was so common in ancient Rome that "birth itself was an adventure." Caesar and Christ, page 56.
see above – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Indeed, so common was infanticide in ancient Greece that Polybius (205-118 BCE) blamed the decline of ancient Greece on it. (Histories, 6). It was "decimating pagan society," Durant, op. cit. 698, and was the leading cause of the tremendous gender gap of men to women in the ancient world. Rodney Stark, The Rise of Christianity, pages 97-98. Female infants were particularly vulnerable to infanticide. It was very uncommon for even wealthy, upper-class families to have more than one daughter in ancient Greece and Rome. An inscription found in Delphi illustrates this quite well. Of more than 600 second-century families, only one percent had raised two daughters. Susan Scrimshaw, "Infanticide in Human Populations: Societal and Individual Concerns," in Infanticide: Comparative and Evolutionary Perspectives, eds. Glenn Hausfater and Sarah Hardy, page 439. In sum, there is no dispute among historians and informed laypersons: Infanticide was incredibly widespread in the ancient pagan world.
In sum, long discussions about how shocking topics aren’t up for debate among the "informed" is the basic tactic of hucksters and UFO apologists since time immemorial. But what is most chilling is that it was openly practiced.
See "drive by shootings"…also openly practiced Pagan society approved of the practice and encouraged it.
Yeah, riiiight. – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – "Not only was the exposure of infants a very common practice, it was justified by law and advocated by philosophers." Rodney Stark, The Rise of Christianity, at 118. See also Durant, op. cit., page 56. In Greece and ancient Rome a child was virtually its father’s chattel-e.g., in Roman law, the Patria Protestas granted the father the right to dispose of his offspring as he saw fit. In Sparta, the decision was made by a public official. The Twelve Tables of Roman Law held: "Deformed infants shall be killed" De Legibus, 3.8. Of course, deformed was broadly construed and often meant no more than the baby appeared "weakly." The Twelve Tables also explicitly permitted a father to expose any female infant. Stark, op. cit., page 118. Leading pagan leaders and philosophers also encouraged the practice. Cicero defended infanticide by referring to the Twelve Tables. Plato and Aristotle recommended infanticide as legitimate state policy. Cornelius Tacitus went so far as to condemn the Jews for their opposition to infanticide. He stated that the Jewish view that "it was a deadly sin to kill an unwanted child" was just another of the many "sinister and revolting practices" of the Jews. Histories 5.5. Even Seneca, otherwise known for his relatively high moral standards, stated, "we drown children at birth who are weakly and abnormal." De Ira 1.15. A chilling letter from a pagan husband to his wife captures the casual nature of this practice among the pagans: "Know that I am still in Alexandria…. I ask and beg you to take good care of our baby son, and as soon as I received payment I shall send it up to you. If you are delivered (before I come home), if it is a boy keep it, if a girl, discard it." Naphtali Lewis, Life in Egypt Under Roman Rule, at 54. According to Stark, "this letter dates from the year 1 BCE, but these patterns persisted among pagans far into the Christian era." Stark, op. cit., page 97-98. In sum, pagans practiced infanticide almost universally. Nor can it be said to be simply a practice to preserve few resources to save the whole culture. Infanticide was practiced by rich and poor alike. By Romans and Greeks. By citizens and slaves. Christianity and Infanticide Into this pagan world stepped Christianity. Starting in Jerusalem, and with an undisputed Jewish influence, Christianity quickly spread throughout the Roman Empire.
Actually starting in small Roman seaports further up the Med – but thanks for playing. But rather than being restricted to one racial or cultural group, Christianity spread throughout the Roman Empire’s diverse ethnicities, including the Greeks and Romans. Beginning in about 30-33 CE,
About a hundred years too early considering the Gospels hadn’t even been written down at that point. Christianity reached some level of primacy when the Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity in the Fourth Century. By 350 CE, Rodney Stark estimates that 56.5 percent of the Roman Empire had converted to Christianity. A. Early Christian Opposition to Infanticide From its earliest creeds, Christians "absolutely prohibited" infanticide as "murder." Stark, at 124. To Christians, the infant had value. Whereas pagans placed no value on infant life,
No value! None? Christians treated them as human beings.
Unless, of course, they grew up and disagreed with them and then they killed them in fascinating and unusual ways. – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – They viewed infanticide as the murder of a human being, not a convenient tool to rid society of excess females and perceived weaklings. The baby, whether male, female, perfect, or imperfect, was created in the image of God and therefore had value. Early Christian documents reveal that there was a clash of cultures as Christianity converted previously pagan Romans and Greeks. Whereas Judaism prohibited infanticide by Jews, Christianity was converting pagans and instructing them that infanticide was immoral and murder. The Didache (90 -110 CE), an instruction manual for Christian converts, commanded "You shall not commit infanticide." Another early Christian document, the Epistle of Barnabas (130 CE), also explicitly condemned infanticide and prohibited its practices as necessary parts of the "way of light." Moreover, by the end of the second century, "Christians were not only proclaiming their rejection of abortion and infanticide, but had begun direct attacks on pagans, and especially pagan religions for sustaining such crimes." Stark, op. cit., page 125. Robin L. Fox also notes this activity: "Christians opposed much in the accepted practice of the pagan world. They vigorously attacked infanticide and the exposure of children." Fox, op. cit., page 350. Callistus, the Bishop of Rome–a onetime slave– in 222 CE strongly voiced his condemnation of infanticide to the pagan public. Justin Martyr’s First Apology (250 CE) stated, "We have been taught that it is wicked to expose even newly-born children." Also in the second century, Athengoras, a Christian leader, wrote in his Plea to the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, that "[we do not expose] an infant, because those who expose them are chargeable with child murder." Another Christian writer, Minucius Felix, wrote to Emperor Claudius, "And I see that you at one time expose your begotten children to wild beasts and to the birds; at another that you crush when strangled with a miserable kind of death. . . . And
… read more »
Response:
Pagans, Christianity, and Infanticide By Christopher Price "Infanticide was one of the deepest stains of the ancient civilization." Introduction The history of infanticide is gruesome. As hard as it may be to imagine today, throughout history infanticide was a common and endorsed practice. While it undoubtedly still occurs today, all governments outlaw it. And in the West at least, society and culture condemn it. So how did we get from there to here? From having Western societies that condoned and encouraged infanticide to having a Western society that condemns and discourages infanticide? The short answer is: Christianity. Paganism and Infanticide Pagans in the Roman Empire had a very different view about the value of human life than we do today. Infanticide was legal and encouraged in ancient Greece and Rome. Other pagan societies, such as the Carthaginians, went so far as to kill their children as religious sacrifices to their gods. According to Plutarch, the Carthaginians "offered up their own children, and those who had no children would buy little ones from poor people and cut their throats as if they were so many lambs of young birds; meanwhile the mothers stood by without a tear or moan." Moralia 2.17. Indeed, "Infanticide was common in all well studied ancient cultures, including those of ancient Greece, Rome, India, China, and Japan." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infanticide Some forms of infanticide involved a parent directly killing the child, usually by drowning. The infant was simply held underwater until it was dead. Relatively quick, inexpensive, and the water muffled the cries. In other cases, the family would simply take the child out beyond the city and abandon it to die from exposure to the elements. In both approaches, those that should have been protecting the helpless, were the ones who were killing them. Hence, in this discussion I will speak both of infanticide and abandonment as one. "Infanticide was infamously universal" in ancient Greece and Rome. Frederic Farrar, The Early Days of Christianity, page 71. As Will Durant stated, infanticide was so common in ancient Rome that "birth itself was an adventure." Caesar and Christ, page 56. Indeed, so common was infanticide in ancient Greece that Polybius (205-118 BCE) blamed the decline of ancient Greece on it. (Histories, 6). It was "decimating pagan society," Durant, op. cit. 698, and was the leading cause of the tremendous gender gap of men to women in the ancient world. Rodney Stark, The Rise of Christianity, pages 97-98. Female infants were particularly vulnerable to infanticide. It was very uncommon for even wealthy, upper-class families to have more than one daughter in ancient Greece and Rome. An inscription found in Delphi illustrates this quite well. Of more than 600 second-century families, only one percent had raised two daughters. Susan Scrimshaw, "Infanticide in Human Populations: Societal and Individual Concerns," in Infanticide: Comparative and Evolutionary Perspectives, eds. Glenn Hausfater and Sarah Hardy, page 439. In sum, there is no dispute among historians and informed laypersons: Infanticide was incredibly widespread in the ancient pagan world. But what is most chilling is that it was openly practiced. Pagan society approved of the practice and encouraged it. "Not only was the exposure of infants a very common practice, it was justified by law and advocated by philosophers." Rodney Stark, The Rise of Christianity, at 118. See also Durant, op. cit., page 56. In Greece and ancient Rome a child was virtually its father’s chattel-e.g., in Roman law, the Patria Protestas granted the father the right to dispose of his offspring as he saw fit. In Sparta, the decision was made by a public official. The Twelve Tables of Roman Law held: "Deformed infants shall be killed" De Legibus, 3.8. Of course, deformed was broadly construed and often meant no more than the baby appeared "weakly." The Twelve Tables also explicitly permitted a father to expose any female infant. Stark, op. cit., page 118. Leading pagan leaders and philosophers also encouraged the practice. Cicero defended infanticide by referring to the Twelve Tables. Plato and Aristotle recommended infanticide as legitimate state policy. Cornelius Tacitus went so far as to condemn the Jews for their opposition to infanticide. He stated that the Jewish view that "it was a deadly sin to kill an unwanted child" was just another of the many "sinister and revolting practices" of the Jews. Histories 5.5. Even Seneca, otherwise known for his relatively high moral standards, stated, "we drown children at birth who are weakly and abnormal." De Ira 1.15. A chilling letter from a pagan husband to his wife captures the casual nature of this practice among the pagans: "Know that I am still in Alexandria…. I ask and beg you to take good care of our baby son, and as soon as I received payment I shall send it up to you. If you are delivered (before I come home), if it is a boy keep it, if a girl, discard it." Naphtali Lewis, Life in Egypt Under Roman Rule, at 54. According to Stark, "this letter dates from the year 1 BCE, but these patterns persisted among pagans far into the Christian era." Stark, op. cit., page 97-98. In sum, pagans practiced infanticide almost universally. Nor can it be said to be simply a practice to preserve few resources to save the whole culture. Infanticide was practiced by rich and poor alike. By Romans and Greeks. By citizens and slaves. Christianity and Infanticide Into this pagan world stepped Christianity. Starting in Jerusalem, and with an undisputed Jewish influence, Christianity quickly spread throughout the Roman Empire. But rather than being restricted to one racial or cultural group, Christianity spread throughout the Roman Empire’s diverse ethnicities, including the Greeks and Romans. Beginning in about 30-33 CE, Christianity reached some level of primacy when the Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity in the Fourth Century. By 350 CE, Rodney Stark estimates that 56.5 percent of the Roman Empire had converted to Christianity. A. Early Christian Opposition to Infanticide From its earliest creeds, Christians "absolutely prohibited" infanticide as "murder." Stark, at 124. To Christians, the infant had value. Whereas pagans placed no value on infant life, Christians treated them as human beings. They viewed infanticide as the murder of a human being, not a convenient tool to rid society of excess females and perceived weaklings. The baby, whether male, female, perfect, or imperfect, was created in the image of God and therefore had value. Early Christian documents reveal that there was a clash of cultures as Christianity converted previously pagan Romans and Greeks. Whereas Judaism prohibited infanticide by Jews, Christianity was converting pagans and instructing them that infanticide was immoral and murder. The Didache (90 -110 CE), an instruction manual for Christian converts, commanded "You shall not commit infanticide." Another early Christian document, the Epistle of Barnabas (130 CE), also explicitly condemned infanticide and prohibited its practices as necessary parts of the "way of light." Moreover, by the end of the second century, "Christians were not only proclaiming their rejection of abortion and infanticide, but had begun direct attacks on pagans, and especially pagan religions for sustaining such crimes." Stark, op. cit., page 125. Robin L. Fox also notes this activity: "Christians opposed much in the accepted practice of the pagan world. They vigorously attacked infanticide and the exposure of children." Fox, op. cit., page 350. Callistus, the Bishop of Rome–a onetime slave– in 222 CE strongly voiced his condemnation of infanticide to the pagan public. Justin Martyr’s First Apology (250 CE) stated, "We have been taught that it is wicked to expose even newly-born children." Also in the second century, Athengoras, a Christian leader, wrote in his Plea to the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, that "[we do not expose] an infant, because those who expose them are chargeable with child murder." Another Christian writer, Minucius Felix, wrote to Emperor Claudius, "And I see that you at one time expose your begotten children to wild beasts and to the birds; at another that you crush when strangled with a miserable kind of death. . . . And these things assuredly come down from your gods. For Saturn did not expose his children but devoured them." But so long as Christianity remained a disfavored–and sometimes persecuted–religion, their appeals to the pagan government to act against infanticide were ineffectual in changing government policy. Even so, Christians worked against infanticide by prohibiting its members from practicing it, voicing their moral view on infanticide to the pagan world, and by providing for the relief of the poor and actually taking in and supporting babies which had been left to die by exposure by their pagan parents. As Fox explains, "to the poor, the widows and orphans, Christians gave alms and support, like the synagogue communities, their forerunners. This ‘brotherly love’ has been minimized as a reason for turning to the Church, as if only those who were members could know of it. In fact, it was widely recognized." Fox, op. cit., page 324. According to Durant, "in many instances Christians rescued exposed infant, baptized them, and brought them up with the aid of community funds." Durant, op. cit., page 598. Through these efforts, Christians worked to diminish some of the causes of infanticide. B. Christianity’s Rise to Preeminence Yet so long as Christianity was an illegal religion, persecuted by the same culture that murdered their own babies, it had little chance of enacting policies against infanticide. Finally, however, with the Edict of Milan–which legalized the practice of Christianity–Christian leaders began to exert their influence on the Roman emperors regarding infanticide. … read more »
Response:
(( ah well, bullshit always comes in 6-packs. or any other "way" 
-Tony — "If the grass appears to be greener on the other side of the fence, it’s time to fertilize your lawn!" Want to jump start your marriage? Consider a Marriage Encounter weekend. Check out http://www.wwme.org for more information. 
1 Book is a common motif in Middle-Eastern and, by expansion, Western religion