Friday, August 09, 2013

Just a thought...

Judge a tree by its fruit.

While I struggle with skepticism, it just occurred to me to notice what philosophy built the best societies and cultures on earth.

And it wasn't "Americans".  Or at least not "Americans" without benefit of their underlying philosophy—Christianity.

For a long time, I've questioned the odd notion of "Jesus died for our sins".  And frankly, still can't see the logic in it. Bloody human sacrifice and all that.

But it's hard to argue with the results.

Obviously, Christianity has created the most enlightened, civilized, advanced, peaceful cultures in the history of the world.

I'm not pretending there were never wars or killings over religion, or that there weren't witch hunts or a thousand other nasties. Just that in the final analysis, when people follow the precepts of Christianity properly...the world is a pretty good place and led to amazing freedom and happiness and opportunity and advancement and abundance for generations of people.

It was Christians, and their understanding of the New Testament that insisted that "all men are created equal" in the sight of God. And that we had rights just because we are children of God, that no man had a right to take away.

Can you imagine how revolutionary that is??

Now, this is not meant to be a serious, deep analysis...just a record of another little epiphany...

Judge the philosophy by how it flowers.

And if you have to choose, maybe it's better to sign up with one that produced what Christianity produced—which seems to speak to some (to me, mysterious) underlying truth, rather than all the others that have been tried so far.

Just sayin'...

/gun

4 comments:

  1. Would that be the Christianity that during it's early years was as violent as Islam? Perhaps the Christianity that is just as vindictive and petty, just less powerful today? Maybe the Christianity that supports the drug dealers and criminals across America because it allows them to feel morally superior?

    Those good things you mentioned were the result of the Enlightenment, when rational people adopted Judeo-Christian ideas as a good thing, but did not necessarily follow the Church. The age that spawned these ideas was the age of the Deist, not the age of the Christian. Franklin was a member of the Hellfire club.

    You claim that Christianity has created the most advanced civilization. If you looked at the Greeks and Romans you would see the same sentiment echoed, and they were correct.

    The civilization you desire is what happens when rational people accept a code of moral guidance. What you are seeing now is what happens when rational people are held in contempt and the masses give power to an all powerful one. It doesn't matter whether you call the all powerful one God, Allah, or Obama. The result is the same.

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  2. Oh my...The exact argument every anti-Christian uses with depressing regularity. Rationalism and reason are not enough for a truly great society.

    And it certainly does matter if you call the all powerful one God or Allah...or haven't you noticed?

    (And if you call him Obama—or any man—you become a fascist/communist state that deifies humans to the obvious and horrifying detriment of all!)

    The "enlightenment" did not happen in a vacuum. It happened in the Christian West. Surely just a coincidence...nothing to see here, no connection...just an accident of fate that it did not happen in any Hindu, Buddhist, Moslem, Shinto, tribal, pagan, or Confusianist state.

    Yep...it had absolutely nothing to do with the culture in which it was conceived, born, developed, matured and flowered—which just happened to be saturated with Christianity.

    Just an accident.

    Seriously??

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    Replies
    1. The enlightenment didn't happen in a vacuum and it was steeped in Judeo-Christian values. Of course there were also enlightenments in Hindu, Pagan, and even Muslim cultures. They just don't fit your world view. A lot of cultures have risen and fallen. The fall usually coincides with moral relativism, not the underlying morals.

      That's the thing about tribal units. You can call them liberals, or conservatives, or Christians, they are the same. Xenophobic groups huddled about the fire screaming at the night for safety; their existence benefiting only the oligarchs who use their fears to keep them productive.

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  3. Well...I'm not sure I'd call the Muslim culture "enlightened"... or the Hindu practice of throwing living wives onto the funeral pyres of their husbands which was still happening while the British ruled India...rather after the Western "enlightenment".

    So, I'm not exactly sure what your definition of an "enlightenment" is.

    All tribes are not equal.

    See, the funny thing is, I'm not a Christian...so my "world view" is not colored by my "religion"...just by my powers of observation and a little knowledge of history.

    And my "tribe" is the one that wrote the Constitution of the United States of America - and believed in God, most, by far, professing Christians. And if you can name one that created a better document to found a nation, respect individuals, secure liberty, and encourage virtue and peace, I'd sure like to hear about it.

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