It seems that humans have an innate need to believe in something larger than themselves, be it a supernatural deity or deities, heaven/hell or teapots.
These days we have a religion disguised as science, a political system disguised as a religion, and scientists and atheists behaving like evangelising missionaries.
Western Civilization is unique in that it appears to be the only one where the debate on the meaning of God and His involvement with human affairs became the central narrative of our civilization. The story of Christianity incorporates the desire of religious power to be the final word in the affairs of man, and the inevitable responses from the State, varying from “No, bugger off” to different flavours of homicide, fratricide, and genocide.
From very early on, Christian authorities realised that to have the freedom to worship, they would have to demonstrate to the powers that be that they were not a threat, and that corporeal power was something best left to princes, whilst they would hold the monopoly to the incorporeal Kingdom. It didn't always go that way; if we were inclined to be generous, you could say it was a guiding principal of Christian doctrine. As Jesus put it “Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's.” (Matthew 22:15-22)
Until around 300AD when the Roman Emperor Claudius I made Christianity the “official state religion”, Christianity was competing with a whole bunch of pagan religions and the Roman State; it has been widely recognised that the success of the Roman Empire was instrumental in spreading Christian beliefs. Like it or not the West is a direct beneficiary of Greco-Roman-Christian civilization. Our world-views, ethics and morals all come from the same source. This is not say it is the final word on all things ever, but it is important to recognise that fact.
“In Islam God is Ceasar, in China and Japan, Caesar is God, in Orthodoxy [Russia] God is Caesar's junior partner.”
-- Samuel P Huntingdon (1996), The Clash of the Civilizaions and the Remaking of the World Order
The history of the West is in many ways, the history of Christianity, the power struggles between the bishops and princes. And as with any other human endeavour, the best and worst of human nature was there in spades . With the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century and the consequent foundation of the Protestant faith, faith became a private matter between the individual and God, as opposed to only being able to hear the message of God through ordained authorities. The recognition of the foibles of human nature and their respective religious (read: very human) institutions was a principle motivator for Enlightenment thinkers advocating the separation of Church and State. As I have previously stated, this is perhaps the defining difference between the West and the Rest.
"However, within Islam's all-encompassing religiopolitical ideology, no dichotomy exists between the civil world of government and the theological world of religion."
--Janet Levy, 1/3/08, "The Fallacy of Shared Values"
In the West we generally view faith as something that you practice privately, or with like minded people. I don't have a problem whatever Space Monkey, God, or Flying Spaghetti Monster you want to believe in. I do have a problem however, should you feel compelled to make me 'respect' those ideas, free of criticism or inquiry.
The Church (or Space Monkey) has no place in the legislative (or jurisdictional) space, and it extremely sad that the British Lord Chief Justice and many others no longer believe this. It is even more depressing that the Archbishop of Canterbury (head of the Church of England) believes that the central aspect of Islamic theology, namely Sharia law, is compatible with western liberal democracy:
"In conclusion, it seems that if we are to think intelligently about the relations between Islam and British law, we need a fair amount of 'deconstruction' of crude oppositions and mythologies, whether of the nature of sharia or the nature of the Enlightenment. "
--Dr Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, 7th Feb,2008
"What the Reverend Doctor has missed, is that the failure of Muslim immigrants to assimilate is not because of our failure to accommodate, but their failure to grasp a rational epistemology. His treason, however, is far worse than betraying English values or the dogmas of his creed, he has betrayed what made both possible, a culture of reason. The English Common Law, nor the Thirty-Nine Articles of Faith, was not the product of men who thought the best way to win an argument was to blow themselves up."
-- http://godscopybook.blogs.com/gpb/2008/02/assorted-link-1.html
If anything, defines the West apart from the other civilizations, it is the principal of individual rights with respect to the State. On this principal alone it is completely and utterly in opposition to the legal and theological precepts of Sharia. Black and White. God and the Devil. Coke and Pepsi.
The Christian ideal of “tolerance” has been taken too far when a clearly intolerant world-view is accepted as valid, principally because it is practiced by the “ever oppressed foreigner.”. This ties in neatly with the idea of “White Guilt”. More on that particular thought later....
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