The values that allowed for the flourishing of Western civilization are Judeo-Christian values. Whether we call ourselves Christians or not, all of us in the West have grown up immersed in these values. Most of us take them for granted, as if they are natural and inevitable, but they are not. They were radical at the time Jesus walked the earth and they remain unique and unusual historically and geographically. I would argue that the decline of faith in God in the West is the reason that the fundamental values we cherish seem to be crumbling around us. It's very hard to defend ideas that have lost the connection to their source. I wrote about this on our Substack last month: https://pairodocs.substack.com/p/in-defence-of-the-christians
“Professional bodies revoke licenses, school boards fire teachers who speak the truth, and our schools implicitly, and at times explicitly, not only deceive parents but also teach children to do the same.”
“Say this ain’t so Joe.”
Truth is a casualty of the culture war that woke insurrectionists have unleashed, especially in schools.
Roman administrators, to a man, were uncompromisingly ruthless with anyone who challenged Rome's authority. However, any other matter of Roman administration had a price, because all political office involved substantial financial 'investment' that needed to be recovered by the 'perks' provided by that office.
When Pontius Pilate ceremoniously 'washed his hands' of the Nazarene, he was not just disowning the the case against him, so much as advertising that he might be persuaded to 'influence matters' if enough coin changed hands. He could do that because the Romans would be in charge of the execution business end.
Crucifixion was a notorious process designed to make death as slow and painful as possible. The Romans in this case conducted the 'execution' to make the victim collapse into unconsciousess as quickly as possible without breaking his legs (which was the usual way of having a short version crucifixion), having him put in a tomb rather than buried and then allowing him to quietly disappear during the night, presumably to get some medical attention and then sent on his way to somewhere extremely obscure... and not be heard of again.
His last appearance to his disciples revealed a man who had never been dead, and had recovered quite nicely from his 'superficial wounds' (still nasty but) sufficient to be able to walk.
I am speculating of course, but for me, that is a much more compelling narrative than the extremely unlikely resurrection one.
I say that because in seeking meaning and salvation, one has to have a plausible faith narrative in order for reason to suspend disbelief, which it always has to do make the dance with faith work.
At least in the heavily secularized West, the Christological trope just isn't going gain much traction. It has been in steady decline since the nineteenth century, and was clearly in trouble in the wake of the devastation of WW1. Over a hundred years later, it is game over for all but a shrinking minority, as the locus of Christianity moves decisively into the underdeveloped world, and particularly in Africa.
Invictus is dead right about the absolutely necessary nature of a working relationship between faith and reason. If the dance between them fails, faith becomes blind and subject to bouts of inchoate rage. And reason becomes anyone's, having lost its anchorage and moral compass.
Fixing this is much bigger than it looks and is unlikely to be accomplished until a lot of the props that rationalize an increasingly chaotic and dysfunctional status quo are pulled out by disruptive events made inevitable by the loss of fundamental existential drivers essential to stabilize and secure any society.
The following narrative is just as speculative as the one earlier in this missive, but what it may do is point in the general direction we have to go in to re-establish and resecuritize our all but bankrupted existential and reproductive heartlands.
And then there are some like me who believe religion is the heart of all evil and why would I think this knowing that religion has been at the forefront of nearly all wars as well as genocide. Please explain to me why I should believe in any religion, you all hate each other and want to eradicate every other religion but the one true one which of course is YOUR particular brand of religion. Hypocrite,s.
As for anyone such as teachers who are teaching this awful disgusting perverted nonsense in schools as well as those selling out our country by using hate and dissention if you are right slinging your BS and there is indeed a higher power tough luck because you have sold your soul to the devil and you are going to hell.
Then how do you explain the Nazis? Or the communists, who are explicitly atheist and are responsible for over 100 million dead--and counting? Of course people can twist subvert the message of a religious creed for their own tribal purposes, but the fundamental underlying message of Christianity is "do unto others as you would have others do unto you." This is based on the idea that all human beings are sacred and created in God's image. Jesus even told people to love their enemies. Hardly the stuff of genocide. We all worship something--that is just the way humans are wired. Some people worship money or power or sex. Some have adopted the new "Woke" religion. Personally I think a tradition that preaches love and truth-telling and has 2000+ years of wisdom behind it is not a bad way to go. Happy Easter.
Respectfully, while there is some truth to what you state, I would not dismiss the value of spiritual belief in our lives, which provides a sense of meaning and purpose beyond serving ourselves. Our moral and cultural values, which have sustained us through thick and thin, owe much of their foundation to these beliefs.
I understand the frustration, doubt, and potentially the anger caused by the historical and current abuse of such beliefs. However, such occurrences are commonplace within any power-hungry group, whether religious, ideological, or any other entity that people become consumed by or possessed with.
Finally, considering your stance on this issue, I find your use of the words "soul," "devil," and "hell" contradictory.
Chiming in with Julie of the Pairodocs below. Your comment shows a deep ignorance of history. The major genocides of recent history - Hitler's extermination of the Jews, Pol Pot's cleansing of society, Lenin, Mao - all were expressly anti-religious. Scientifically speaking, it might make perfect sense to kill all the handicapped people in your society. From there, it is a baby step to eliminating other "problematic" subpopulations (Jews, gypsies, the unvaccinated, or more).
I remember when I was about 12 or 13 reading about the Crusades and thinking how evil religion was, and how destructive it could be. The New Atheists like Dawkins and Hitchens and Harris were so appealing because they pushed the idea that goes something like "I don't need the accumulated wisdom of thousands of generations that is distilled into religion, because I am so smart I can figure everything out on my own and make my own morality on-the-spot".
It took me years of thinking and reading to realize how wrong and arrogant The New Atheists are. Their message is a trap for narcissists.
The best example of how far off the rails they are is just how wrong Harris and Dawkins were about COVID. Dawkins thought that unvaccinated people should be locked up or jailed. Harris felt the same, and continues to double and quadruple down.
Harris and Dawkins are clever idiots. But Pope Frank was and is just as wrong about corona as the atheists. Anyway, that's neither here nor there so far as any kind of serious interest in investigating or establishing the truth of anything goes. For anyone interested in serious theological thinking about the times we are living in, Douglas Farrow is excellent (he's on substack).
The difference with Pope Francis is he said "you should get vaccinated to be a good person". I'm fine with that, even though I think it's wrong. He never said "we should exclude people from society and deny them healthcare if they don't get vaccinated".
There is a subtle but important difference between "you should help the less fortunate because that is a moral imperative" (ie: the Christan message) versus "we will define who is less fortunate, take all your money, and distribute it as we EXPERTS think is best" (the New Atheist/Nanny-State message - essentially that which empowers Pharoahs).
I can (and do) often think that Pope Francis is an idiot, and I don't care very much as he doesn't control my life or forcibly take my money. OTOH, I can think that politicians/MOH's/Sam Harris is/are idiots, but it affects me GREATLY, as they take more than 60% of my money and do with it as they see fit, because they are "the experts".
I just love hypocrites who get off on calling others hypocrites, and liars who get off on calling others liars, and ignoramuses who get off on calling others ignoramuses. You might say the human heart is the heart of all evil, and religion is essential to the human heart, so there's bound to be some association there, between religion and evil. But believing simply that "religion is the heart of all evil" is hopelessly ignorant and simplistic. As for why anyone should believe in my religion? Because God almighty, creator of the heavens and the earth, has revealed it and it is true and essential for your eternal fulfillment and well-being (i.e., happiness, blessedness). It's a pretty good reason, actually, as you'll realize if you just think about it for three seconds.
Atheists also believe in miracles, they just don't like to admit it. If you ask an atheist what existed before the big bang, or how quantum entanglement works, it turns out they believe in miracles just as much as those humans who are religious. They just don't like to admit it.
The replies show exactly how right I am, ie My statement is the only true one, he is wrong, he is ignorant, he does not know history. The Nazis did have their own religion, honestly how stupid can you be.
yada yada yada look how smart I am, funny how when the truth hurts people go on the attack, teachers I would bet.
On a final note I had a wonderful Easter with my close family and friends thank you.
Unfortunately for the non-committal admirer of Jesus, his gospel is that his kingdom is not of this world. If you follow him in telling the truth, he promises you will be treated as he was. If the hope of truth-tellers is for this world only, then that hope is in vain. (Do it anyway! But if this world is all there is, that's the bad news.)
The values that allowed for the flourishing of Western civilization are Judeo-Christian values. Whether we call ourselves Christians or not, all of us in the West have grown up immersed in these values. Most of us take them for granted, as if they are natural and inevitable, but they are not. They were radical at the time Jesus walked the earth and they remain unique and unusual historically and geographically. I would argue that the decline of faith in God in the West is the reason that the fundamental values we cherish seem to be crumbling around us. It's very hard to defend ideas that have lost the connection to their source. I wrote about this on our Substack last month: https://pairodocs.substack.com/p/in-defence-of-the-christians
Nice. The truth will set you free. We must always prioritize truth.
“Professional bodies revoke licenses, school boards fire teachers who speak the truth, and our schools implicitly, and at times explicitly, not only deceive parents but also teach children to do the same.”
“Say this ain’t so Joe.”
Truth is a casualty of the culture war that woke insurrectionists have unleashed, especially in schools.
Roman administrators, to a man, were uncompromisingly ruthless with anyone who challenged Rome's authority. However, any other matter of Roman administration had a price, because all political office involved substantial financial 'investment' that needed to be recovered by the 'perks' provided by that office.
When Pontius Pilate ceremoniously 'washed his hands' of the Nazarene, he was not just disowning the the case against him, so much as advertising that he might be persuaded to 'influence matters' if enough coin changed hands. He could do that because the Romans would be in charge of the execution business end.
Crucifixion was a notorious process designed to make death as slow and painful as possible. The Romans in this case conducted the 'execution' to make the victim collapse into unconsciousess as quickly as possible without breaking his legs (which was the usual way of having a short version crucifixion), having him put in a tomb rather than buried and then allowing him to quietly disappear during the night, presumably to get some medical attention and then sent on his way to somewhere extremely obscure... and not be heard of again.
His last appearance to his disciples revealed a man who had never been dead, and had recovered quite nicely from his 'superficial wounds' (still nasty but) sufficient to be able to walk.
I am speculating of course, but for me, that is a much more compelling narrative than the extremely unlikely resurrection one.
I say that because in seeking meaning and salvation, one has to have a plausible faith narrative in order for reason to suspend disbelief, which it always has to do make the dance with faith work.
At least in the heavily secularized West, the Christological trope just isn't going gain much traction. It has been in steady decline since the nineteenth century, and was clearly in trouble in the wake of the devastation of WW1. Over a hundred years later, it is game over for all but a shrinking minority, as the locus of Christianity moves decisively into the underdeveloped world, and particularly in Africa.
Invictus is dead right about the absolutely necessary nature of a working relationship between faith and reason. If the dance between them fails, faith becomes blind and subject to bouts of inchoate rage. And reason becomes anyone's, having lost its anchorage and moral compass.
Fixing this is much bigger than it looks and is unlikely to be accomplished until a lot of the props that rationalize an increasingly chaotic and dysfunctional status quo are pulled out by disruptive events made inevitable by the loss of fundamental existential drivers essential to stabilize and secure any society.
The following narrative is just as speculative as the one earlier in this missive, but what it may do is point in the general direction we have to go in to re-establish and resecuritize our all but bankrupted existential and reproductive heartlands.
https://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/1810745-Post-Modern-Heroes-Michael-and-Giordana
Amen.
And then there are some like me who believe religion is the heart of all evil and why would I think this knowing that religion has been at the forefront of nearly all wars as well as genocide. Please explain to me why I should believe in any religion, you all hate each other and want to eradicate every other religion but the one true one which of course is YOUR particular brand of religion. Hypocrite,s.
As for anyone such as teachers who are teaching this awful disgusting perverted nonsense in schools as well as those selling out our country by using hate and dissention if you are right slinging your BS and there is indeed a higher power tough luck because you have sold your soul to the devil and you are going to hell.
Then how do you explain the Nazis? Or the communists, who are explicitly atheist and are responsible for over 100 million dead--and counting? Of course people can twist subvert the message of a religious creed for their own tribal purposes, but the fundamental underlying message of Christianity is "do unto others as you would have others do unto you." This is based on the idea that all human beings are sacred and created in God's image. Jesus even told people to love their enemies. Hardly the stuff of genocide. We all worship something--that is just the way humans are wired. Some people worship money or power or sex. Some have adopted the new "Woke" religion. Personally I think a tradition that preaches love and truth-telling and has 2000+ years of wisdom behind it is not a bad way to go. Happy Easter.
Respectfully, while there is some truth to what you state, I would not dismiss the value of spiritual belief in our lives, which provides a sense of meaning and purpose beyond serving ourselves. Our moral and cultural values, which have sustained us through thick and thin, owe much of their foundation to these beliefs.
I understand the frustration, doubt, and potentially the anger caused by the historical and current abuse of such beliefs. However, such occurrences are commonplace within any power-hungry group, whether religious, ideological, or any other entity that people become consumed by or possessed with.
Finally, considering your stance on this issue, I find your use of the words "soul," "devil," and "hell" contradictory.
Chiming in with Julie of the Pairodocs below. Your comment shows a deep ignorance of history. The major genocides of recent history - Hitler's extermination of the Jews, Pol Pot's cleansing of society, Lenin, Mao - all were expressly anti-religious. Scientifically speaking, it might make perfect sense to kill all the handicapped people in your society. From there, it is a baby step to eliminating other "problematic" subpopulations (Jews, gypsies, the unvaccinated, or more).
I remember when I was about 12 or 13 reading about the Crusades and thinking how evil religion was, and how destructive it could be. The New Atheists like Dawkins and Hitchens and Harris were so appealing because they pushed the idea that goes something like "I don't need the accumulated wisdom of thousands of generations that is distilled into religion, because I am so smart I can figure everything out on my own and make my own morality on-the-spot".
It took me years of thinking and reading to realize how wrong and arrogant The New Atheists are. Their message is a trap for narcissists.
The best example of how far off the rails they are is just how wrong Harris and Dawkins were about COVID. Dawkins thought that unvaccinated people should be locked up or jailed. Harris felt the same, and continues to double and quadruple down.
https://pairodocs.substack.com/p/the-unravelling-of-sam-harris
Harris and Dawkins are clever idiots. But Pope Frank was and is just as wrong about corona as the atheists. Anyway, that's neither here nor there so far as any kind of serious interest in investigating or establishing the truth of anything goes. For anyone interested in serious theological thinking about the times we are living in, Douglas Farrow is excellent (he's on substack).
The difference with Pope Francis is he said "you should get vaccinated to be a good person". I'm fine with that, even though I think it's wrong. He never said "we should exclude people from society and deny them healthcare if they don't get vaccinated".
There is a subtle but important difference between "you should help the less fortunate because that is a moral imperative" (ie: the Christan message) versus "we will define who is less fortunate, take all your money, and distribute it as we EXPERTS think is best" (the New Atheist/Nanny-State message - essentially that which empowers Pharoahs).
I can (and do) often think that Pope Francis is an idiot, and I don't care very much as he doesn't control my life or forcibly take my money. OTOH, I can think that politicians/MOH's/Sam Harris is/are idiots, but it affects me GREATLY, as they take more than 60% of my money and do with it as they see fit, because they are "the experts".
I just love hypocrites who get off on calling others hypocrites, and liars who get off on calling others liars, and ignoramuses who get off on calling others ignoramuses. You might say the human heart is the heart of all evil, and religion is essential to the human heart, so there's bound to be some association there, between religion and evil. But believing simply that "religion is the heart of all evil" is hopelessly ignorant and simplistic. As for why anyone should believe in my religion? Because God almighty, creator of the heavens and the earth, has revealed it and it is true and essential for your eternal fulfillment and well-being (i.e., happiness, blessedness). It's a pretty good reason, actually, as you'll realize if you just think about it for three seconds.
Atheists also believe in miracles, they just don't like to admit it. If you ask an atheist what existed before the big bang, or how quantum entanglement works, it turns out they believe in miracles just as much as those humans who are religious. They just don't like to admit it.
The replies show exactly how right I am, ie My statement is the only true one, he is wrong, he is ignorant, he does not know history. The Nazis did have their own religion, honestly how stupid can you be.
yada yada yada look how smart I am, funny how when the truth hurts people go on the attack, teachers I would bet.
On a final note I had a wonderful Easter with my close family and friends thank you.
Unfortunately for the non-committal admirer of Jesus, his gospel is that his kingdom is not of this world. If you follow him in telling the truth, he promises you will be treated as he was. If the hope of truth-tellers is for this world only, then that hope is in vain. (Do it anyway! But if this world is all there is, that's the bad news.)