Our Best Hope?
Are we any worse or better off than at any other time of cultural conflict, war and human tragedy, when the poor suffer most? The first decade of the 21st century gives promise of only the continuing human suffering and tragedies of the 20th century, the bloodiest on record. We refuse to learn.
So what is there in the future?
I see this century as the war of monotheisms and the decline of western modernism. The only bright spot is the rise ofPlease let me know what you think.
Merle
posted by Merle F. Allshouse at 3:58 PM
2 Comments:
Some think that ethics and religion are two separate matters, others that divorcing ethics from the framework of religion the road to disaster. Quite a lot of Americans seem to oppose Darwinian evolution in the belief that if the account of Creation in Genesis is discredited, the morality of the Bible will fall, with catastrophic consequences. Darwin's apostle, T.H. Huxley, however, thought the Ten Commandments an excellent guide to life, regardless of divine revelation.
The ancient Romans, though not perhaps the philosophers, viewed monotheism as a superstition. Josephus, the Jewish historian, considered Plato and Aristotle monotheists, only Moses had come before them.
The leaders of China used to speak of Communism with Chinese characteristics. Recently, at least one of them has been stressing the country's Confucian heritage. Whether Confucius will leaven Communism or even change it beyond recognition remains to be seen. (I wonder what Sam Macgill, who had a keen interest in China, would have thought).
In my second paragraph, I should have referred not to Josephus but to Philo, the thoroughly hellenized Jewish writer.
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