31 (More) Days of #BIF7 - Day 29

31 (More) Days of #BIF7 - Day 29 - Jim Mellado

What are the greatest innovations and accomplishments from organized religion?

I ask this question as a response to Jim Mellado, who in his BIF-7 story talked about how the church can be a contributor and innovator to society. Jim's claim was fascinating and foreign to me, as I've always equated the church and organized religion with the status quo (at its best) and repression (at its worst).

My intent with this post was to list out the most commonly agreed upon innovations/accomplishments of religion from a number of sources. Unfortunately, my searches turned up very little about this topic. I've reproduced the best items I could find, but I welcome additions to this list:

Preservation of historical documents
Preserving writing and intellectual inquiry in Western Europe after the collapse of Roman administration
Revived interest in Classical Greek and Latin from the lead up to the Protestant Reformation
Islam: the notion and push for universal education, algebra, the mathematical concept of zero
China: orderly civil administration via Confucianism

Note: This list was summarized from this extended Reddit thread about the Accomplishments of Religion.

Additional information:

BIF Profile Page
http://businessinnovationfactory.com/iss/innovators/jim-mellado

This is part of my 31 (More) Days of #BIF7 blog series.

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