Devil's advocate, pun intended, but I don't see how that's the core issue. Science is also supposed to be secular, and yet with leftism dominating academia, here we have leftists using "female" to describe a man. Leftist dehumanization campaigns against political opponents allow them to justify not sticking to their alleged principles. The problem is that weak and/or malicious leftists in charge put politics ahead of principles in whatever form those principles take. As a result, they engage us and other dissidents with hypocrisy, a lack of fairness, contempt, and complete insincerity. Religious people can behave that way too -- look at the pope.
I think that what we're seeing is that it turns out it's not as easy to create an irreligious society as Dawkins may have hoped. In fact, it may even be impossible. You root out the trappings of religion, and something else that doesn't call itself a religion takes its place... but it turns out the new thing sure behaves a lot like a religion, and now it's what's shaping your society's mores. Christianity, whether you believe in it or not, mostly produced a reasonable, well-ordered society. Leftism... not so much.
Let me ask you this -- has everyone and everything who's called themselves Christian been good and not evil? Has every nation founded on Christianity been a success?
The USA is an extreme rarity. I also think it's impossible to tease out whether its success is ultimately due to Christianity or due to its extremely robust constitutional protections over individual liberty. And while the two are related, they are unmistakably distinct.
Also, if adherence to Christianity is the perfect antidote to leftism, why deviate from its commandments at all? Should Christians denounce the incredible power of the American constitution in favour of the lessons in the Bible? If Christianity is the perfect answer, then any deviation from it is anti-God, including virtually all American law. Sticking to those laws is a tacit admission that the Bible doesn't have all the answers.
That isn't really what I said. I said Christianity produced a mostly functional society, not that it was perfect or immune to leftism or any of the other stuff you said.
Not really. Plenty of nations and powerful empires have lasted for 250 years, just fine, on both more stable and on shakier grounds than the USA.
Don't get me wrong, a nation lasting more than one leader's lifetime is impressive, for sure, but that's like living past the infant mortality rate: Once you account for and ignore that part, there's a real long lifespan period afterwards where the failure rate is pretty low.
How's that uprooted atheist society working out for you Mr. Dawkins?
/Do the church bells still ring?
Devil's advocate, pun intended, but I don't see how that's the core issue. Science is also supposed to be secular, and yet with leftism dominating academia, here we have leftists using "female" to describe a man. Leftist dehumanization campaigns against political opponents allow them to justify not sticking to their alleged principles. The problem is that weak and/or malicious leftists in charge put politics ahead of principles in whatever form those principles take. As a result, they engage us and other dissidents with hypocrisy, a lack of fairness, contempt, and complete insincerity. Religious people can behave that way too -- look at the pope.
I think that what we're seeing is that it turns out it's not as easy to create an irreligious society as Dawkins may have hoped. In fact, it may even be impossible. You root out the trappings of religion, and something else that doesn't call itself a religion takes its place... but it turns out the new thing sure behaves a lot like a religion, and now it's what's shaping your society's mores. Christianity, whether you believe in it or not, mostly produced a reasonable, well-ordered society. Leftism... not so much.
Let me ask you this -- has everyone and everything who's called themselves Christian been good and not evil? Has every nation founded on Christianity been a success?
The USA is an extreme rarity. I also think it's impossible to tease out whether its success is ultimately due to Christianity or due to its extremely robust constitutional protections over individual liberty. And while the two are related, they are unmistakably distinct.
Also, if adherence to Christianity is the perfect antidote to leftism, why deviate from its commandments at all? Should Christians denounce the incredible power of the American constitution in favour of the lessons in the Bible? If Christianity is the perfect answer, then any deviation from it is anti-God, including virtually all American law. Sticking to those laws is a tacit admission that the Bible doesn't have all the answers.
That isn't really what I said. I said Christianity produced a mostly functional society, not that it was perfect or immune to leftism or any of the other stuff you said.
Not really. Plenty of nations and powerful empires have lasted for 250 years, just fine, on both more stable and on shakier grounds than the USA.
Don't get me wrong, a nation lasting more than one leader's lifetime is impressive, for sure, but that's like living past the infant mortality rate: Once you account for and ignore that part, there's a real long lifespan period afterwards where the failure rate is pretty low.
Mark 10:18