For nearly two millenia the Faith that sustained the West has been Christianity.
This Faith saw the rise of what was a backward part of the World to that of preeminence, not only in technology but also in the realm of human rights and respect for human dignity.
The West is now abandoning the Faith of its fathers, and replacing it with a new religion called Secular Humanism.
But as history tells us every time a Nation's leaders has turned against the Christian Faith that formed it disaster has surely followed.
Tell me I wrong - I dare you.
This Faith saw the rise of what was a backward part of the World to that of preeminence, not only in technology but also in the realm of human rights and respect for human dignity.
The West is now abandoning the Faith of its fathers, and replacing it with a new religion called Secular Humanism.
But as history tells us every time a Nation's leaders has turned against the Christian Faith that formed it disaster has surely followed.
Tell me I wrong - I dare you.
This is hardly news, Andrei. The process has been happening for over 100 years, though it has accelerated over the past 40 years or so. This is also not the first time it has happened. The only difference being that Christianity is discriminated against, rather than persecuted by, secular humanists.
ReplyDeleteYou're wrong, Andrei. You're wrong.
ReplyDeleteHere are just a few concepts that we benefit from, none of which are mentioned in the bible:
1. Democracy
2. Trail by Jury
3. Due process at law.
4. Universal education
5. The scientific method.
Nor does the bible mention concepts such as humanity or compromise.
We have also prohibited
1. Owning of slaves
2. Infancticide
Both of which are clearly endorsed in the bible.
Throughout human history it is the courageous who have led us to new ways of living, grand discoveries and improvement in the human condition. And always, tugging at us, trying to hold us back, is a priest and an ignorant mob.
I know it is not news Macd - it is the consequences that are appearing that I am alluding to.
ReplyDeleteLRO
All you concepts except the very first originated in Christian societies.
The first as a concept predates Christianity and is Greek. The Greeks also gave Europe Christianity.
Slavery is with us still - the Rich man tells the poor man what to do. How much control the Rich man has over the poor is determined by law. It was Christians who passed laws that people could not be traded like cattle.
2 Secularists claim a fundamental right to early infanticide it is called abortion or termination to disguise the uglyness of what it really is.
It is Christians who stand against this abhorrent practice
LRO,
ReplyDeleteWhile not specifically mentioned in the bible,why would they be?
Christians have never maintained that the bible is a political treatise. It is the revealed word of God.
Democracy was advanced by Christian men and taken by them to the New world.
Trial by jury is a Norman concept brought to Britain by the Catholic William the Conquerer and thence to the rest of the Anglo world,including here.
The Inquisition actually aided the process of defended trials .
Education. We wouldn't have it if it weren't for the monastic tradition in the west ,also aided by the fall of Constantinople and the wealth of information that Eastern Christian scholars brought to the west following that catastrophe.
Scientific method,thank the Greeks for that,
Slavery,Again it was the Christian tradition that brought an end to that in the British Empire.
"Trial by jury is a Norman concept brought to Britain by the Catholic William the Conquerer and thence to the rest of the Anglo world,including here."
ReplyDeleteNo, it's a Norse concept taken to Normandy and Britain by the Vikings. The Vikings and the Anglos Saxons also had their own nacsent forms of democracy (Folk moots etc).
The roots of the West go a lot deeper than Christianity, which is really just a phase we've been going through.
And the Normans were descendants of the Norsemen......same thing, pedantic. The Normans took trial by jury to Britain and thence to the world.
ReplyDeleteA one thousand six hundred year tradition is hardly a "phase", the more you say the sillier you sound.
Non-Christians took trial by jury to Britain at the same time as they took it to the area of France that became known as Normandy, that's not pedantry however much you want to assign some credit to your faith.
ReplyDeleteThe Bronze age lasted 1700 years in the British Isles. Just a phase.
I will assign some credit to my faith however much you insist in ignoring the role of Christianity in the civilisation of the west.
ReplyDeleteJames
ReplyDeletethen why did the Anglo-Saxons not use trial by jury if the Norse bought it there? Your thesis is wrong and doesn't hold up.
The Bronze Age was a period of technological advancement, not a cultural/spiritual advancement.
The proper analogy would be the industrial revolution.
ChrisP
ChrisP - the evidence shows that towns in the Danelaw used a version of trial by a panel of 12 "free men" and that in "England" they had a system where a panel of 12 were tasked with investigating, rather than just sitting in judgement.
ReplyDeleteI'm arguing that Christianity was simply the first evangelical, monotheistic religion to arrive in Europe and that the development of ideas such as trial by jury and eventually capitalism (the force that has done more than any other to improve quality of peoples' lives) is down to cultural roots much deeper than religion.
"But as history tells us every time a Nation's leaders has turned against the Christian Faith that formed it disaster has surely followed."
ReplyDeleteAndrei, perhaps. But it's a complicated situation. The U.S is home to a vibrant and influential Christian community, but the majority of its founders and first presidents were "deists" or simply sceptics. The U.K is officially Christian (unlike the U.S), but far more secular.
To some extent the seperation of Church and state can benefit the Church, purifying it, and clarifying its mission.
As these argue the reason for our demise, it is progressing.
ReplyDeleteAlthough as believers, we are to resist to onset of captivity, it is prophetic.
Take comfort in knowing: EVERY knee will bow, EVERY tounge confess.