Christian Rath

Mrs. Lucarelli
Honors History
4 November 2016
Influence of Christianity in America
The belief of the New and Old Testament, and the belief in Jesus are some basic parts of
being Christian. Christianity started when Jesus was born and when followers believed in Jesus
when he performed miracles and spoke words from God. Jesus went around performing good
miracles such as healing the sick and making people who couldnt walk once again walk. He also
spoke the word of God and passed on good ways to live life by. It is easy to see how these things
can effect people. It effected people and even countries back then and it still does now. One
country it effects is my own, America. It effects and influences America in many ways some are
progress in science and another is the way communities act with Christianity and a Church in
their community.
Christianity has lots of effects but one of the biggest effects is the progress of science.
From teachings of Christianity, some science advancements and experiments can be seen as not
humane or not correct to God. As Arnold Toynbee says in Horizon magazine in 1973, "Mans
greedy impulse to exploit nature used to be held in check by his awe, his pious worship of
nature" (Toynbee). This means that the people who are trying to figure out more about science
are being held back by people who respect God by not investigating and questioning what he
created. Because of this people are holding back for experiments like creating a human kid but
not inside a human. There are also some people who believe that Christianity influenced the

progress of science. In an article written by James Hannam it states, "The church even insisted
that science and mathematics should be a compulsory part of the syllabus. And after some
debate, it accepted that Greek and Arabic natural philosophy were essential tools for defending
the faith" (Hannam). This shows that Christianity really did influence and push people to go and
practice science investigations. So if you think Christianity pushed or held back science it can
still be proven that Christianity influenced the progress of science in America.
Another very large and impactful part of Christianity in America is the large Christian
influence in communities in most of the US. It is very hard to drive around towns and
communities and not find a church. It seems like every where you go, there is a church. Churches
in America are strong and are held by their communities and if they weren't then there wouldn't
be many. As it is said by William B. Bradshaw in an article about churches in America, "It is
important that the church stays strong" (Bradshaw). This shows that a church has to be strong
and this means it has to also be strong in communities. Because churches are strong in
communities many things are known about the religion, Christianity. According to Ray Suarez,
"The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life worked with the producers of God in America to
give thousands of people a quiz on religious knowledge and religious history. Maybe youve
read about it in the papers. We didnt do so hot. The average respondent got roughly 50 percent
right and of 3,400 test-takers a measly eight got all the answers right" (Suarez). This shows that
because of strong churches in many communities, knowledge of Christianity is widely known.
Both of these reasons are more than enough information to come to the conclusion that
Christianity effects the communities of America greatly.
Christianity has really influenced and it still influences the progress of science and the
communities in America. To sum it up, science has been changed and influenced by Christianity

and its teaching. Also, Christianity has effected the communities and how they view and interact
with Christianity and the church. One religion, belief in God, can influence a country and even a
world and it is very transparent how.

Works Cited

@Wintery_Knight. "Has Christianity Held Back the Progress of Science? What about Galileo?"
WINTERY KNIGHT. N.p., 20 Sept. 2012. Web. 01 Nov. 2016.

Bradshaw, William B. "Waning Influence of Religion in America." The Huffington Post.

TheHuffingtonPost.com, n.d. Web. 01 Nov. 2016.

Https://www.probe.org/author/jimmywilliams/. "The Social and Historical Impact of

Christianity." Probe Ministries. N.p., 08 Dec. 2014. Web. 01 Nov. 2016.

Suarez, Ray. "A Closer Look at the Influence of Religion in America." PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 01
Nov. 2016.