Since all we do or fail to do has effects, and which have effects,...what would you surmise would be the immediate and extended effects if the New Testament was unknown?

 Since all we do or fail to do has effects, and which have effects, and so forth, then applying the "Butterfly  effect" to the recorded ministry of  the Biblical Christ, and thereby belief in the New Testament,  what would you surmise would be  the immediate and extended effects if the New Testament was unknown?

If the recorded ministry of Christ and the New Testament were entirely unknown, the “butterfly effects” would be enormous: Western (and much global) history would look recognizably different in law, morals, institutions, and even science, though no one can map it in detail. Historians disagree on the degree of dependence, but virtually none think Christianity’s impact was trivial.inters+3

Immediate spiritual and cultural effects

If Christ’s ministry and the NT never entered history:

• No distinctly Christian proclamation of a crucified and risen Messiah, justification by faith, or universal call to repentance in Christ; Second Temple Judaism and later rabbinic Judaism would likely have developed without that specific “branch.”wikipedia+1

• No early church communities with their distinctive mix of Jew–Gentile fellowship, sexual ethics, charity norms (care for widows, orphans, the poor), and the strong imago Dei–based insistence on the equal worth of slaves and free, male and female, which gradually leavened Greco‑Roman norms.inters+1

Long-run institutional and civilizational effects

Without the NT and historic Christianity, you almost certainly lose or radically alter:

• The Church as a trans‑ethnic institution that outlived Rome, preserved texts, and organized education, law, and charity through monasteries, dioceses, and universities.whitherthewest+2

• Canon law and natural‑law theory, which undergirded ideas like rule of law above rulers, universal moral norms, and early notions of rights and conscience (Aquinas, Salamanca school, etc.).reasons+2

• Key political milestones such as the specific Christian framing of the Magna Carta (king under law), later Protestant and Catholic arguments for limited government, and many of the moral arguments used by abolitionists and civil‑rights leaders.quillette+4

A non‑Christian West might still have developed law and states, but the content and motives of many reforms (slavery, dignity of the poor, universal personhood) would likely be different or slower, because Christian theology fed them explicit language of equality before God and neighbor‑love.firstthings+4

Science and the intelligibility of nature

Many historians of science argue that Christian convictions about a rational Creator and an ordered creation supported the belief that nature is lawful, mathematically intelligible, and worth systematic study.billmuehlenberg+3

• Medieval and early‑modern Christian thinkers developed ideas of secondary causes, natural law in nature, and “thinking God’s thoughts after Him,” which framed empirical investigation as theologically meaningful.whitherthewest+2

• The actual historical cluster of early modern science (Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, Newton, Boyle, etc.) emerged in cultures shaped deeply by biblical categories, even when individual scientists were heterodox or conflicted with church authorities.quillette+2

A world with no Christianity might still have science (China and the Islamic world had real scientific achievements), but the particular Western scientific revolution—its speed, institutional shape, and philosophical self‑understanding—would likely be altered.billmuehlenberg+3

Morality, personhood, and “the West”

The New Testament’s themes—every person bearing God’s image, love of enemies, care for “the least of these,” the equal spiritual standing of Jew/Greek, male/female, slave/free—became part of the moral grammar of Western culture, even among secular thinkers who later rejected Christian doctrine.wikipedia+3

• Concepts of universal human dignity and rights, the moral centrality of the poor and marginalized, and suspicion of absolute rulers all draw heavily (though not exclusively) from Christian moral vision.lifespringschristianchurch+4

• Without that vision taking textual form in the NT and being preached, copied, and argued over for centuries, alternative moral frameworks (Stoic, imperial, polytheist, later Islamic, or secular) might dominate, with different answers about whose lives matter and why.mythoslogos+3

Limits of counterfactuals

Serious historians warn that large counterfactuals (“no Christianity at all”) cannot be answered with precision; the further you project, the more speculative you become. Still:reddit+2

• It is historically secure to say that Christianity—anchored in the recorded Christ and the NT—has profoundly shaped Western identity, law, ethics, education, and much of global culture.firstthings+3

• Removing that “butterfly” from the system would not give you the same world with a blank space where churches are; it would give you a recognizably different civilizational trajectory, from family ethics up to concepts of personhood, rights, and rational inquiry.inters+5

In other words, on any honest reading of the historical record, the recorded Christ and the New Testament are not a small perturbation; they are one of the main stones in the foundation of the world you and your interlocutors are standing on when you debate Him.

---

Sources (copyable):

• Role of Christianity in civilization – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Role_of_Christianity_in_civilizationwikipedia

• Western Culture, Christian Origins Of – https://inters.org/Christian-Origins-Of-Western-Cultureinters

• The Impact of Christianity on Western Civilization – https://lifespringschristianchurch.org/the-impact-of-christianity-on-western-civilization/lifespringschristianchurch

• Christianity and the West (First Things) – https://firstthings.com/christianity-and-the-west/firstthings

• How Christianity Influenced the World’s Law Systems – https://reasons.org/explore/blogs/reflections/how-christianity-influenced-the-world-s-law-systemsreasons

• Christianity and Civilisation: Science – https://billmuehlenberg.com/2024/01/06/christianity-and-civilisation-science/billmuehlenberg

• The War That Wasn’t: Christianity, Science, and the Making of the Western World – https://whitherthewest.com/2025/02/13/the-war-that-wasnt-christianity-science-and-the-making-of-the-western-world/whitherthewest

• Reason, Faith, and the Struggle for Western Civilization—A Review (Quillette) – https://quillette.com/2020/04/30/reason-faith-and-the-struggle-for-western-civilization-a-review/quillette

• Progress and Polytheism: Could an Ethical West Exist Without Christianity? – https://quillette.com/2018/08/23/progress-and-polytheism-could-an-ethical-west-exist-without-christianity/quillette

• America’s Single-Parent Households and Missing Fathers – https://www.niussp.org/family-and-households/americas-single-parent-households-and-missing-fathers/ (for contemporary family structure context)niussp

  Good, with sources listed. I meant to add that since atheists  would cite negative aspects such as the Inquisitions, yet such were aberrations of NT faith. And others would argue that the "holy wars" of RC theocracy prevents further Islamization of Europe.
  
  In contrast to that is the effect of  Protestant  (mainly) had in the USA, in fostering an overall moral-esteeming  culture of souls sufficiently controlled from within so that they need not be controlled from without (thus a relatively small government), providing, among other things,  the stability within that is needed for development, as well as to fight enemies without.   (https://peacebyjesus.net/causeeffect.html)
  
  Meaning a unity once  testified   to by Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859):
  
  The sects that exist in the United States are innumerable. They all differ in respect to the worship which is due to the Creator; but they all agree in respect to the duties which are due from man to man. Each sect adores the Deity in its own peculiar manner, but all sects preach the same moral law in the name of God...Moreover, all the sects of the United States are comprised within the great unity of Christianity, and Christian morality is everywhere the same... 

  Atheists often cite negative episodes like the Inquisitions or Crusades as Christianity’s “legacy,” but these were aberrations from the NT’s ethic of non‑retaliation (“love your enemies,” “turn the other cheek”) and spiritual, not physical, warfare (“not by might, nor by power”). The Crusades were arguably a defensive response to Islamic conquests that had overrun Christian lands, preventing further Islamization of Europe, but they were not normative NT Christianity.

  Protestant America’s unique contribution

  The NT’s emphasis on personal faith, conscience, and inner transformation (“the law written on hearts”) fostered a moral self‑control culture in Protestant America, where souls governed from within needed less external coercion, enabling limited government and individual liberty. This internal stability provided the moral capital for economic development and national defense, as Tocqueville observed:

  “The sects that exist in the United States are innumerable. They all differ in respect to the worship which is due to the Creator; but they all agree in respect to the duties which are due from man to man. Each sect adores the Deity in its own peculiar manner, but all sects preach the same moral law in the name of God... Moreover, all the sects of the United States are comprised within the great unity of Christianity, and Christian morality is everywhere the same...”

  Tocqueville credited this shared Christian moral framework—despite denominational diversity—for America’s social cohesion, voluntary associations, and resistance to tyranny, which secularism could not replicate.

  Butterfly effects of no NT Christ

  Without the NT, you lose not just the aberrations but the positive civilizational foundations:

  Immediate: No early church ethic of charity, equality in Christ, or sexual restraint that softened pagan norms and built institutions like hospitals and orphanages.
  Medium: No monastic preservation of texts, no canon law shaping rule‑of‑law ideas, no Reformation unleashing conscience‑based liberty and work ethic.
  Long: No Tocqueville‑style moral unity enabling America’s small‑government, high‑trust society; likely more authoritarian states, slower abolition, different science (no “God’s rational creation” assumption), and altered moral intuitions about dignity.

  The NT’s “butterfly wings” created a moral ecosystem where internal restraint enabled freedom—a fragile, contingent achievement now eroding with secularism’s rise.

  Peace by Jesus – “Cause and Effect” – https://peacebyjesus.net/causeeffect.html
  Wikipedia – “Role of Christianity in civilization” – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Role_of_Christianity_in_civilization
  Inters.org – “Western Culture, Christian Origins Of” – https://inters.org/Christian-Origins-Of-Western-Culture
  First Things – “Christianity and the West” – https://firstthings.com/christianity-and-the-west/
  Reasons to Believe – “How Christianity Influenced the World’s Law Systems” – https://reasons.org/explore/blogs/reflections/how-christianity-influenced-the-world-s-law-systems
  Whither the West – “The War That Wasn’t: Christianity, Science” – https://whitherthewest.com/2025/02/13/the-war-that-wasnt-christianity-science-and-the-making-of-the-western-world/
  Quillette – “Reason, Faith, and the Struggle for Western Civilization” – https://quillette.com/2020/04/30/reason-faith-and-the-struggle-for-western-civilization-a-review/

  Good, but among the many good fruits of Christianity is the system of laws flowing from Biblical jurisprudence, although with some perversions  ("state church/use of physical coercion to enforce theological   compliance)
   

  Biblical jurisprudence is one of Christianity’s major “good fruits”—a system of laws emphasizing justice, due process, moral absolutes, and rule of law above rulers—that profoundly shaped Western legal traditions, despite perversions like state‑enforced theological conformity.

  Core biblical principles in Western law

  From Mosaic law through the NT, biblical jurisprudence contributed:

• Moral absolutes: The Ten Commandments (Exodus 20) provided foundational prohibitions against murder, theft, perjury, and false witness, directly influencing legal codes from medieval Europe to colonial America.

• Rule of law: Deuteronomy 17:14–20 limits rulers (“the king…shall not multiply horses…wives…silver…gold”) and insists they obey the law, prefiguring Magna Carta’s “no one is above the law” (1215).

• Due process and habeas corpus: Biblical calls for impartial justice (Leviticus 19:15; Deuteronomy 16:20) and protection of the accused fed into habeas corpus and trial rights, codified in Magna Carta clauses 39–40 and the Habeas Corpus Act of 1679.

• Human dignity: Imago Dei (Genesis 1:26–27) undergirds equal protection, rights against arbitrary power, and care for the vulnerable, influencing the U.S. Constitution’s Bill of Rights and Declaration.

Perversions acknowledged

The “state church” model and physical coercion for orthodoxy (e.g., Inquisition, heresy trials) deviated from NT principles of persuasion (“come now, let us reason together,” Isaiah 1:18; Acts 17) and spiritual authority (“my kingdom is not of this world,” John 18:36), representing institutional corruption rather than faithful biblical application.

Yet even here, Christian thinkers recovered biblical roots: Protestant reformers and Enlightenment figures drew on Scripture to argue for conscience rights, separation of church/state coercion, and limited government.

Butterfly effect: no NT = no biblical jurisprudence?

Without the NT preserving and amplifying Mosaic law’s principles, Western law likely lacks:

• The specific trajectory from canon law → common law → constitutionalism, with its emphasis on individual rights and limits on power.

• Key milestones like Magna Carta’s due process, habeas corpus as a check on kings, and America’s rights‑based framework.

A non‑Christian West might still have law, but without biblical DNA, it would emphasize different priorities (status hierarchies, communal duties over individual protections).

•