[mlo]

"Christians, and the Jews and other non-believers living and working within the Christian milieu of Europe and North America in the past 500 years, gave the world the notions of inherent human rights. They forced the abolition of human sacrifice, slavery, infanticide, and cannibalism wherever they had influence. They drove the criminalization of pedophilia, rape, and torture. They invented universities, hospitals, modern banks, universal literacy, education degrees, academic accreditation, property rights, mass production, intellectual property rights, separation of church and state, freedom of speech, and many more benefits and “rights” that we take for granted. They developed the foundation for virtually every invention that we enjoy today (cell phones, cars, planes, computers, air conditioners, televisions, and tens of thousands of other inventions)."

Only one of those things actually comes from Christianity. Universities were invented by the church in order to train clergy. The rest does not come from religion but from it's opposite. They stem from the Enlightenment values of free inquiry, science, and individual freedom, all of which had to be fought for against fierce opposition from religion.

[Raymond Pamintuan]

But that misses the point - WHY did they emerge only within the environment of Christianity and not within the environments of Islam, Hinduism, or Buddhism?

You’re right - the church fought against a lot of these things, but those who proposed them used Christ’s teachings for justification, whether the Golden Rule, or another virtue found in the NT.

Also, where did those who gave the world free speech, and other rights get their education? Who protected them, supported them, financed them, and got their message out? Again, from those influenced by Christ’s message, not from those influenced by Islam, Hinduism, or Buddhism.

We should make a distinction between the opposition from the “establishment” - i.e., church leadership, and the “Enlightenment” outsiders who used Christian teachings to give freedom and rights to the masses.