It still seems to me, that faith and faith-based worldview are at the heart of things

Submitted by Michael S (United States), Oct 28, 2015 at 21:10

Hi, Moh. Our exchange:

"".The big connection, is the fact that the whole conflict in the Middle East is not based on any physical or territorial issues: It is based on opposing world-views based on faith, "

"For muslims it's power more than faith.

Honestly, Moh, I'm having a hard time, lately, seeing the Muslims as anything but animals. They were kept caged up by dictators for years; and now that they've been set free, they are streaming into Europe like a horde of Zombies, pounding on the fence and crying "Alahu Akhabar!" In Israel, meanwhile, they are going around randomly stabbing Jews. Are these humans? I don"t think so.

I don't think God made these people inherently defective. After all, they are kinsmen to the Jews and to the rest of us. The only difference is their faith: That's what makes them act irrationally. Power? Power belongs to God; and He gives it to whoever He will. Does the quest for "power" cause a people to destroy their own country, then wander through the fields to neighboring countries, seeking to destroy them?

I guess an analogy could be drawn to Europeans; but in the most despicable circumstances. What comes to mind is the French masses during the Revolution, crying out for blood and watching heads roll for entertainment while their soldiers marched into neighboring countries like a fairy ring: They had to keep advancing, because they had no supply train, and they had to devour as they went like locusts. Those Frenchmen had abandoned Christianity and embraced the "Temples of Reason" -- which turned them into beasts of the field. Eventually, they were brought under control, first by a dictator and then by a king, and put back into their cages.

I suppose the atheist Communist mob in Russia in 1917 is also similar. In every case, what turned these people into animals was their faiths: Islam and Atheism.

""..including the Mohammedan, Jewish and Western worldviews based on Qur'an, Torah and atheism, respectively."

"Western worldview is post-Christian scientific rationalism. If science was the observation of truth it wouldn't be such a bad thing. But clever fools think that they are able to use 'science' as an excuse to continue in or rationalise bad behaviour. It's not all bad - you have to say that the 'West' is now very diverse and very interesting. It's an mazing life we have - and as the sayng goes 'I wouldn't be dead for quids'."

The Western worldview is, as you say, post-Christian. That means it's built upon a Christian basis of respect and decency. It's been a creeping situation, with thos "clever fools", as you say, creeping around and propagating their rotteness. Instead of turning into irrational mobs like the Muslims, Westerners are abandoning their wives, husbands and children and pursuing a life of pleasure. They continue to enjoy the fruits of the labors of their Christian parents, who were inspired by the Protestant work ethic. What they're left with is something of a hollow edifice: The ancient walls provide strength; but within, it's empty and rotten. Far from wanting to raise families and work hard, in many countries, such as Germany and Hungary, we don't even have enough young people to work and provide for their parents. Those countries have become dependent on immigrant labor; but things may be getting out of control.

The essence of Judaism and Christianity, is a trust in God's existence, and a confidence that He will reward self-sacrifice and good behavior -- if not in this life, then in the resurrection. This faith causes believers to work to accomplish things beyond what would give them short-term reward. As much as our great so-called "thinkers" would like to deny it, human nature devoid of faith in God and hope in the resurrection does not tend toward accomplishment.

I'm trying to think of cultures that have "bucked the trend". Certainly, the ancient Western Pagan society achieved great things. Their period of accomplishment, though, in the Roman case, was a time when farmers raised monogomous families on four-acre plots of land, toiling with their own hands. As they became first a military power and then an empire, they began importing slaves to do most of their work, and the farmers were forced off their land into Rome because they could not compet with the cheap labor. As they became more and more idle, their morals declined; so that the masses began to live like animals and their leaders became raving lunatics. Ultimately, the empire collapsed upon itself, and a new structure based on Christianity picked up the pieces.

Another example I can think of, of a non-Christian/Jewish country that enjoyed prosperity like Christian world and like the early Roman Republicans, are the Japanese and Taiwanese (The Koreans are half Christian, so it's hard to base a theory on them). The Japanese, during the middle of the 19th Century, purposely copied Western ways, without accepting their religion; and the Taiwanese and Hong Kongese, etc., followed suit. They are now part of the "West", and seem to be on track to follow their fate.

Many Christian countries seem to have never gotten very far out of the mire of their ancient, unproductive, pagan past. Examples are The DR Congo and Liberia. Another is Rwanda, where not just Christians but Christian clerics engaged in gratuitously hacking up their neighbors with machetes. They certainly weren't inspired by the Bible to such actions; but neither did the Muslims and Atheists somehow creep in and cause them to do it. While the spiritually dead European are leading hollow lives in Christian superstructures built by their parents, these Africans and others seem to be trying to build lives based on Biblical faith, with the still-strong influence of Paganism pulling them down.

Now, another example which has always caused me to marvel: India. India is a democracy, not a cauldron of chaos like the Muslim world. The people work hard and submit themselves to one another, definitely defering gratification. They are very unequal, with a sizeable middle class living much like Europeans; but with the vast majority living in what I would consider squalor. Of course, this seems like the fruit of a caste system based on accepting one's place. The scary thing to me, is that the Western world if careening headlong into a system far more unequal than the Indian caste system. India is living with a way of life that they have had for centuries. When our own unequal pursuit of immediate pleasure catches up with us, though, we will likely collapse into something far worse than the poverty now seen in India.

In all the above cases, I see the effects of faith -- both of the current generation, as well as the generations of the ancestors, shaping the lives of the people.

God bless and keep you and yours.

Michael :-)

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