Mark Steyn argues in Todays Telegraph that religion has a positive effect on communities and countries. There are very few countries he points out that have dispensed with religion, and those that have are in decline. He cites Russia as an examples of a non religious country blighted by a lack of morality and leadership from religious groups.
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I accept that there is a need for a spiritual morality in society. The rule of law is too blunt an instrument to @#%$ our consciences into cooperating with our fellow human beings.
Atheism if you think about is as dogmatic and as illogical as many of the more fundamental religions of this world. Just as there is no material evidence to support belief in god, there is also no evedince to support the fact that god does not exist in his spiritual form.
Yes religion is often over zealous in how it is preached and interpreted. Religious extremism is as dangerous as anything in society. Before chico gets too carried away on this I would like to point out that his religion is a selfish religion- too many fellow christians are what I call "self indulgently religious". In other words they are in it because it gives them some sort of moral high ground, a spiritual superiority, in other words they are religious snobs. Why they need to shout from the roof tops about themselves can be answered by looking at their failings and their weaknesses rather than their strengths.
It is a shame really that religion has been hijacked by so many sad laughing stocks because the net effect is that people are turned off by righteous idiots like chico.
I was reminded of our Gloucestershire lad by some remarks Frank Field made at a Centre for Policy Studies seminar last week. The subject under debate was poverty and social disintegration, and pondering the collapse of civility in modern Britain Mr Field gave seven reasons. Number One, he said, was the decline of religion.
At that point, many Britons will simply have tuned out for the remaining six, and the more disapproving ones will be speculating darkly on whether, like yours truly and other uptight squares, he has "casual sex" issues. Religion is all but irrelevant to public discussion in the United Kingdom, and you'd have to search hard for an Anglican churchman prepared to argue in public, as Mr Field does, that material poverty derives from moral poverty.
But the point is: he's not wrong. There aren't many examples of successful post-religious societies. And, if one casts around the world today, one notices the two powers with the worst prospects are the ones most advanced in their post-religiosity. Russia will never recover from seven decades of Communism: its sickly menfolk have a lower life expectancy than Bangladeshis; its population shrinks by 100 every hour, and by 0.4 per cent every year, a rate certain to escalate as the smarter folks figure it's better to emigrate than get sucked down in the demograp
At that point, many Britons will simply have tuned out for the remaining six, and the more disapproving ones will be speculating darkly on whether, like yours truly and other uptight squares, he has "casual sex" issues. Religion is all but irrelevant to public discussion in the United Kingdom, and you'd have to search hard for an Anglican churchman prepared to argue in public, as Mr Field does, that material poverty derives from moral poverty.
But the point is: he's not wrong. There aren't many examples of successful post-religious societies. And, if one casts around the world today, one notices the two powers with the worst prospects are the ones most advanced in their post-religiosity. Russia will never recover from seven decades of Communism: its sickly menfolk have a lower life expectancy than Bangladeshis; its population shrinks by 100 every hour, and by 0.4 per cent every year, a rate certain to escalate as the smarter folks figure it's better to emigrate than get sucked down in the demograp
I accept that there is a need for a spiritual morality in society. The rule of law is too blunt an instrument to @#%$ our consciences into cooperating with our fellow human beings.
Atheism if you think about is as dogmatic and as illogical as many of the more fundamental religions of this world. Just as there is no material evidence to support belief in god, there is also no evedince to support the fact that god does not exist in his spiritual form.
Yes religion is often over zealous in how it is preached and interpreted. Religious extremism is as dangerous as anything in society. Before chico gets too carried away on this I would like to point out that his religion is a selfish religion- too many fellow christians are what I call "self indulgently religious". In other words they are in it because it gives them some sort of moral high ground, a spiritual superiority, in other words they are religious snobs. Why they need to shout from the roof tops about themselves can be answered by looking at their failings and their weaknesses rather than their strengths.
It is a shame really that religion has been hijacked by so many sad laughing stocks because the net effect is that people are turned off by righteous idiots like chico.
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