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Is modern secular society headed down the path to Sodom and Gomorrah.

Hans Blaster

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Then you did not end up having a belief which forms your worldview. I don't believe in atheism so I don't know the worldview that goes with it. Actually I do when I didn't believe in God. But the point is I know the two different worldview. Or rather difference it makes to a persons worldview.

I'm not sure you are getting this Steve -- I didn't build my "worldview" on God/Belief/Religion. It was just a thing "that was" and there was no use putting much thought into it. Likewise my "worldview" is not built on not-god/no-belief/no-religion currently.
You may through experience have developed a belief that there is no gods or supernaturalism. A worldview also consists of your personal experiences how others and conditions shaped you or how personal experiences instill in a person certain personality dispositions or even biases towards certain views of the world and reality.
Not having experienced anything "supernatural" sure helped as did a curiosity to find out what weird things actually were.

Your missing the point. Religious belief fills a void, following sports and all that goes with it fills a void of belonging to a groups of similar beliefs and outlooks on life as a supporter. It may not be footy, but any interest that fills your life. People choose those interests to give meaning and they are based on their beliefs about the world. If the person did not believe in footy it would be something else that gives meaning.
If religion is just a "void filler" then what real value does it have over alternatives? None that I can think of. Any old filler would do.
Its not what I think, its basic human cognition.

This is getting so fragmented that what you refer to "basic human cognition" that I think is not so obvious as you claimed was " So obviously the void that religion and Christianity filled needs to be replaced by something."

That doesn't have anything to do with cognition.

Why, you don't think this is the case. Identity politics, Wokism, cancel culture, PC,. People being cancelled and shamed for saying the wrong thing ect. You don't think this prevades society now as a form of religion thats replaced Christianity. It has all the same hallmarks njust no religious garb.
Like religion, but no religious garb? Do you even read what you write? It doesn't make any sense.
Good for you, at least on the Woke part. But none of this negates the fact that society has gone from Christian beliefs to Woke ideological beliefs. No empty void was left like you say. If society can exist without religious belief then we would have gone from Christianity to 'No religious belief in anything' as that is what rejecting God was about, having no belief at all in any religion.

This shows as I said humans are inherently religious, and believe in supernatural entities and divine concepts, in metaphysics beyond the material.

Perhaps its the other way around where you just don't like Christianity and you see me pointing out how society is abandoning Gods order and the repercussions of that.
I've seen some possible repercussions of societal secularization and, frankly, it looks pretty good to me.
Personally I am not bothered what people believe except if that belief will lead to harm or chaos for others and society.
Which is why I no longer find Christianity to be a benefit to society.
Then I will say something on that matter. But thats not about personal dislike but rather just giving some well founded critiques of whats going on. Notice I backed what I said with science.
About pagan/satanic ritual in art? That's what you made this thread about. I haven't seen any "science" here.
 
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stevevw

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I'm not sure you are getting this Steve -- I didn't build my "worldview" on God/Belief/Religion. It was just a thing "that was" and there was no use putting much thought into it.
Yes thats what I said. You obviously had experiences where belief in God didn't mean much. But it didn't mean much due to the worldview that you ended up developing due to your experiences. The same as if I didn't experience what its like growing up a Mormon or a Jew.

These beliefs don't cross my mind as something I connect with or relate to that give me meaning. They are just categories to investigate or not. But everyone develops a worldview based on their experiences which will determine their thinking, feelings and beliefs about the world and reality metaphysically speaking.
Likewise my "worldview" is not built on not-god/no-belief/no-religion currently.
A worldview contains our beliefs or at least dictates our beliefs. So everyone will have beliefs about something metaphysically whether they realise it or not. Its often subconscious anyway as our experiences can be deeply embeded into our thinking and influence our feelings and perceptions of things.
Not having experienced anything "supernatural" sure helped as did a curiosity to find out what weird things actually were.
You can not experience the supernatural and be interested in discovering things and still hold beliefs in the supernatural or transcendent realism. Belief isn't that simple and doesn't boil down to experiencing the supernatural or not. Or having objective evidence.

The very idea of belief is a confidence or assurance of something unseen. So it would be similar in phenomena to the belief in the everyday things in the objective world except applied to unseen things, ideas, realities. Like phenomenological realism the idea that there are real non physical phenomena in the world based on experience.
If religion is just a "void filler" then what real value does it have over alternatives? None that I can think of. Any old filler would do.
If humans have this natural void to fill then whatever fills that void is of importance as this will be what gives meaning and morality to the world. So obviously as most religions are about giving meaning and morality they are an ideal basis for filling that void as opposed to negative ideas and beliefs.

Basically you are, the society is whatever they fill the void up with. So its important to have some sort of positive, life valuing, fullfilling meaning whatever it may be as this will determine how individuals or a society through its culture will be, how they will order people and society and see reality.
This is getting so fragmented that what you refer to "basic human cognition" that I think is not so obvious as you claimed was " So obviously the void that religion and Christianity filled needs to be replaced by something."

That doesn't have anything to do with cognition.
Of course it does. Belief comes from our mind and emotions which also comes from mind or cognitions. There is ample research and evidence from independent sources and from different fields that belief in supernatural enities and divine concepts like the soul and life after death are natural and normal human cognitions.

We don't have to fill that natural inclination with religion or Gods as we have done. But it takes some sort of conditioning to put a particular belief or to remove beliefs altogether which I don't think we actually remove that need to believe but rather replace it whether that be in secular ideas or the belief about no belief.
Like religion, but no religious garb? Do you even read what you write? It doesn't make any sense.
Do you not understand that to be religious about something you don't have to actually act and have all the ceremony that thiestic religions have. You can be religious about anything. Its just the ceremony and behaviour is expressed differently.

I remember getting involved in a pyramid scheme when I was young. It was an organisation that acted like a religion with gatherings, a hierarchy of reps and administrators that acted as the icons of success and the gurus who knew the way to success that everyone looks up to. You had to live the life of whatever you were selling and convert all your friends and family lol.

There are many cult like groups and organisations that profess a belief in a way of life that everyone buys into. Even sport can be followed religiously, work can become a religion.

Wokism happens to fit this bill perfectly and thats why I guess it has been able to infiltrate into politics, institutions, corporations and society. Just look at all the Woke corporations pushing Woke and often going bust as a result lol. People getting shamed and cancelled because they are not Woke. That is exactly what the church use to do, cancelling people because they held the wrong beliefs and committed heresay lol.
I've seen some possible repercussions of societal secularization and, frankly, it looks pretty good to me.
Hum thats debatable. Any society that allows anti semetism to flourish is not in good health. Thats a red flag for something fundementally wrong. There are good and bad repercussions but it depends what your calling secular. If its human rights or stuff like that this is not necessarily the case as Christianity was central to this.

In fact you could say secularism is responsible for identity politics which is actually undermining society and creating division and violence.
Which is why I no longer find Christianity to be a benefit to society.
Well whatever they replaced Christianity with it ain't working and its making things worse. Christianity was and is one of the greatest assests to a society in the form of its ideology that people sacrifice themselves for the betterment of others and society as a whole. If it wasn't for the Churches and Charities we would have been in a much worse place. So I find your claim unreal.
About pagan/satanic ritual in art? That's what you made this thread about. I haven't seen any "science" here.
How did you derive that out of what I said. I said that Woke was a perfect fit for replacing God and Christianity as the meaning and morals for society. You said I am just whinging. I said I am only casting a critical eye over the state of affairs in society and expressing what I see factually.

Obviously of the thread is about whether society is on the road to S&G evdience for this is needed. The Pagan stuff creeping back into society within the entertainment industry is only one aspect of Woke and I linked some info on that.

Here is some more to be clear I am not speaking off the top of my head or making this stuff up even though some of it seems like you could only make it up lol. Lets just say I am a Woke athiest so I feel the same way athiests feel about Christianity lol.

Wokeism Is a Cruel and Dangerous Cult
How Wokeists are Working to Destroy the Family
What if wokeness really is the new Christianity?
When we look at Woke, we are seeing something more like the birth of Christianity, in the latter centuries of the Roman Empire. But enormously speeded up.

And I have to throw in at least one conservative jab at Woke but its all true lol. But the article does explain how Woks came about.

Woke identity politics is a radical attempt by the cultural left to remake Western society in their image
Critical theory's long march through the institutions has led to even the West's most long-held and accepted beliefs being attacked and undermined.
 
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Psalm 27

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I am interested in this as I was speaking to some friends the other day about how especially in the media, Hollywood, Music and entertainment there seems to be this pagan or even Satanic ritualistism going on. Things like wearing these head dresses with goat horns and other pagan symbols. Its alwats very provocative and sexual as well. Almost a celebration of our animalistic side.

I think I know what is happening. Just loike in the days when people defied God they turned to nature, to animals and nature itself like Stone idols. Now that modern society is rejecting God this same belief is coming back. It may seem natural for people to worship nature as god. But primarily when this happens its not really about gods in nature but the self as god.

Also in those times people were made gods when theres no transcendent God. As self is god desires and feelings and self experience becomes the god. Therefore pleasure and all the good feelings are moral and the aweful feeling ones are sin.

So are we seeing a repeat of the down fall of society like Sodom and Gormorrah or like with how Empires have fallen where sexxual immorality and pleasure and where the created is worshipped and not the Creator.
I started noticing 'paganism' about a decade ago, (its always been there). I do think its becoming more 'en vogue'. I loath it!
Don't get me started on a rant. Pm me if you want to rant aswell ;)
 
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stevevw

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I started noticing 'paganism' about a decade ago, (its always been there). I do think its becoming more 'en vogue'. I loath it!
Don't get me started on a rant. Pm me if you want to rant aswell ;)
Lol ok fair enough.
 
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BCP1928

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Well whatever they replaced Christianity with it ain't working and its making things worse. Christianity was and is one of the greatest assests to a society in the form of its ideology that people sacrifice themselves for the betterment of others and society as a whole. If it wasn't for the Churches and Charities we would have been in a much worse place. So I find your claim unreal.
What they replaced Christianity with is MAGA pseudo-religious right-wing populism and that is definitely making things worse. I don't know how it is in Australia, but in this country, conservative Evangelical Protestant clergy are beginning to preach against the Sermon on the Mount. Christians have created a "cultural Marxist" bogeyman to explain their failure but they have only themselves to blame.
 
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stevevw

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What they replaced Christianity with is MAGA pseudo-religious right-wing populism and that is definitely making things worse. I don't know how it is in Australia, but in this country, conservative Evangelical Protestant clergy are beginning to preach against the Sermon on the Mount. Christians have created a "cultural Marxist" bogeyman to explain their failure but they have only themselves to blame.
Actually I think the MAGA or whatever the movement is sweeping the Right is a reaction to the progressive politics of the Left. But overall this is identity politics and Wokism is a real phenomena that has rapidly risn its ugly head in modern society.

I think though extreme much of the Right is about the same values and beliefs most people had not too long ago and are are rapidly been eroded.

The progressive Lefts Woke ideology reflected in laws and policies and permeating in society, in corporations doing the States bidding through identity politics is creating divisions and those divisions become polarized and more extreme on the fringes for both sides.

As our different identities are exentuated and pitted against each other things become more 'us and them', in groups and outgroups, conflicts over rights, language, cancelling, which turns to violence.

We see the extreme coming out in the Militant groups that have been increasing in recent times and the protestors that push a certain ideology and any disagreement is met with backlash. Even to the point of supporting terrorist and anti semetism which we thought we eradicated after the horrors of WW2.

Whereas in the past there was no identity groups and political parties shared a fairly big middle ground and agreed on many things. People could at least express their views and agree to disagree in the public square without being attacked. People are now afraid to express their views and beliefs in fear of getting cancelled.

It has the hallmarks of a Communist Russia where thinking and language was policed and people were taken away for speaking and thinking the wrong way and re-educated into the right way to think.

Which is Totalitarianism or at least heading that way. That is not a good state of affairs for a free and democractics society. Something is deeply wrong and if not haulted will bring more problems like uprisings and extreme acts. It will bring terrorism to our own shores but committed by our own people against ourselves which is crazy and the total opposite of the promised Woke DEI Utopia.
 
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Whyayeman

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The progressive Lefts Woke ideology reflected in laws and policies and permeating in society, in corporations doing the States bidding through identity politics is creating divisions and those divisions become polarized and more extreme on the fringes for both sides.
I have been doing my best to follow this thread and I am struggling to get to the bottom of the issues. The question of whether modern society is becoming less moral (which is what I think the reference to Sodom and Gomorrah means) has been answered. Modern societies face the same moral issues as ancient civilisations. I have seen no argument to show a decline.

Just what does the phrase progressive Lefts Woke ideology really mean? To me it seems to be a cobbling together of right-wing buzz-words, as if there were a concerted attempt to undermine society. Every instance of the use of 'Woke' evokes intolerance of people with a different world view to the user.

Though I do not accept the divinity of Christ I do acknowledge the wisdom and compassion of the Gospels. I frequently find myself scratching my head over professed Christians' lack of insight into what I was always taught was the central message of the New Testament, that loving ones fellow human beings was a necessary attribute to living a good life.

There is surprisingly little evidence of that on this thread!
 
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Hans Blaster

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How did you derive that out of what I said.
I read your OP. Perhaps you have forgotten what the thread was about.
I said that Woke was a perfect fit for replacing God and Christianity as the meaning and morals for society. You said I am just whinging.
You are. That's all I see in the whole thread from OP forward.
I said I am only casting a critical eye over the state of affairs in society and expressing what I see factually.

Obviously of the thread is about whether society is on the road to S&G evdience for this is needed. The Pagan stuff creeping back into society within the entertainment industry is only one aspect of Woke and I linked some info on that.
It's like you don't understand the transgressive nature of art. It can't be transgressive if it doesn't tweak someone's opinion.
Here is some more to be clear I am not speaking off the top of my head or making this stuff up even though some of it seems like you could only make it up lol. Lets just say I am a Woke athiest so I feel the same way athiests feel about Christianity lol.

Wokeism Is a Cruel and Dangerous Cult
How Wokeists are Working to Destroy the Family
What if wokeness really is the new Christianity?
When we look at Woke, we are seeing something more like the birth of Christianity, in the latter centuries of the Roman Empire. But enormously speeded up.
And I have to throw in at least one conservative jab at Woke but its all true lol. But the article does explain how Woks came about.

Woke identity politics is a radical attempt by the cultural left to remake Western society in their image
Critical theory's long march through the institutions has led to even the West's most long-held and accepted beliefs being attacked and undermined.
https://www.skynews.com.au/opinion/...e/news-story/1eb071c20d14e1a28d659d6f8d70466a
It's weird how "wokism" became a religion/cult so quickly when you can't find any practitioners talking about it. It's like it's a phantom generated by the RW American culture warriors that combines all of the things that they hate and fear about modern culture. (It was creative of you to add paganism/satanism to the mix. Kudos.)

The term "woke" has been around in American *politics* for more than a half century where it meant for a very long time awareness of the political situtation and was primarily used in the American Black community. Several years ago (during the peak of "cancel culture") the term "woke" began being used in the very online millennial and Gen-Z communities on social media and elsewhere as a self-descriptive political state of being fully up-to-date on anti-discrimination terminology. But before the RW media/pundit class could turn "woke" into a "cult" a few things had to happen first, and that thing was CRT.

Remember that brief CRT panic a couple years ago? Critical Race Theory was an social science framework for understanding the impact of non-targeted policies on people by race in the US. It was fairly obscure until some cultural warrior at the Manhattan Institute* decided to apply CRT to updated school curricula that changed the balance of teaching about American racial history. (Some of this was inspired by the "1619 project" and the recent "George Floyd/BLM 2020" protests each of which had a backlash.) The rebranding of CRT claimed that schools were teaching all white people were bad, or similar things.

CRT "worked" as a bugaboo for a while, but it played itself out. Part of the problem was that the some of the things the "anti-CRT" crusaders were arguing against were actually true things about US history. It made the "anti-CRT" movement look racist (it was) and limited the appeal of the cultural counter-movement. Thus comes the return of "woke" with a whole new (negative) nebulous definition as a grab bag of everything about modernity (well, except perhaps satanism/paganism). Smash "CRT" with anti-LGBT stuff and throw in a few other weird outrages to blame on "liberalism/tolerance/identity" and brand it "woke" so you can call anyone on the other side a "wokist" or a practitioner of "wokism".

It's a clever strategy for the cultural reactionaries (lump and denounce). It makes any crazy thing by any activist in any area lumped together reflect badly on "the wokists", but that's all it is -- a reactionary strategy. The sources you list are just part of the reactionary cultural movement.



*The Manhattan Institute is a conservative "think tank" with a long history of covering racist policies and ideas in academic disguise.
 
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Tropical Wilds

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I am interested in this as I was speaking to some friends the other day about how especially in the media, Hollywood, Music and entertainment there seems to be this pagan or even Satanic ritualistism going on. Things like wearing these head dresses with goat horns and other pagan symbols. Its alwats very provocative and sexual as well. Almost a celebration of our animalistic side.

I think I know what is happening. Just loike in the days when people defied God they turned to nature, to animals and nature itself like Stone idols. Now that modern society is rejecting God this same belief is coming back. It may seem natural for people to worship nature as god. But primarily when this happens its not really about gods in nature but the self as god.

Also in those times people were made gods when theres no transcendent God. As self is god desires and feelings and self experience becomes the god. Therefore pleasure and all the good feelings are moral and the aweful feeling ones are sin.

So are we seeing a repeat of the down fall of society like Sodom and Gormorrah or like with how Empires have fallen where sexxual immorality and pleasure and where the created is worshipped and not the Creator.
No, we aren’t.
 
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Hans Blaster

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I have been doing my best to follow this thread and I am struggling to get to the bottom of the issues. The question of whether modern society is becoming less moral (which is what I think the reference to Sodom and Gomorrah means) has been answered. Modern societies face the same moral issues as ancient civilisations. I have seen no argument to show a decline.

I thought it was about destruction fantasies...
 
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ViaCrucis

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I could go to any of these nations and relate to the core Christian beliefs regardless of their unique cultural expressions. They are just expressing the same core beliefs in various ways. For example the traditional Catholic nations place more empahsis on traditional rituals as opposed to others who are more liberal in therir expression.

But they are expressing the same thing of a belief in Christ being Saviour and of sin, reprentence, being born again in the spirit, on God Creator ect.

Which has nothing to do with a culture, or anything western.

You're talking about religion. The central tenets of the Christian religion, as found in the Niceno-Constantinoplian Creed, will be expressed in Christian traditions, communities, and denominations across the spectrum.

I was talking about the idea of a "Western Christian Culture" which is, as I said, a nonsense concept--and nothing you've said here contradicts that point.

-CryptoLutheran
 
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ViaCrucis

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I think in this case it means something very like "white anglo-Protestant complacency."

I'd use the word hegemony. It's about white Anglo-American Protestant cultural hegemony. And it has far more to do with the social construct of whiteness than anything else. Of course, talking about very real historical forces and ideas like this now means we're both advocating "wokeism"; because "wokeism" is anything which challenges white Anglo-American Protestant cultural hegemony and its various mythic narratives.

And even here "Protestant" doesn't really mean Protestant, but is just an identifier, it's just a kind of nominalism.

-CryptoLutheran
 
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ViaCrucis

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Isn't replacing the western Christian culture with Woke replacing a relgious belief. Thats exactly what I said.

That's a nonsense phrase.

-CryptoLutheran
 
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stevevw

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I have been doing my best to follow this thread and I am struggling to get to the bottom of the issues. The question of whether modern society is becoming less moral (which is what I think the reference to Sodom and Gomorrah means) has been answered. Modern societies face the same moral issues as ancient civilisations. I have seen no argument to show a decline.
I guess it depends on your view as to what is moral deline, But certainly whether modern society faces the same issues as in the past or not We can judge if societies morals are in a good state or not compared to other times.

Certainly even just 30, 50 0r 100 years ago we had different morals and Ithink they were less corrrupted. For example children respected authority more, the % of bad behaviour has increased, the intensity has increased in important aspects that directly reflect the state of our minds morally compared to the past. Certainly people are more selfish compared to the past and society is less united on its morality.
Just what does the phrase progressive Lefts Woke ideology really mean? To me it seems to be a cobbling together of right-wing buzz-words, as if there were a concerted attempt to undermine society.
No Woke and litics are realities today and doing damage by dividing society. It is eroding the freedoms and moral truths we once held that contributed to building a strong society like the family and sacrifice for others. I linked some articles on this in a previous post. If you are unaware then you have either not investigated or don't understand what Woke means today.
Every instance of the use of 'Woke' evokes intolerance of people with a different world view to the user.
No it doesn't of qualified. In fact Woke itself promoted intolerance and divisions between people based on identity such as race, gender, sex ect rather than uniting us.

For example part of Woke is DEI which is underpinned by Critical theories like Critical Race and Queer theory. These are unsupported fringe ideologies yet their ideas are being forced into society. Like quotas and Affirnative action. Or the Equity part of DEI which priviledges certain groups over others based on race, gender or sex thus descriminating against certain groups. The very opposite of what creating a tolerant and equal society.

Another example is how the category biological women as a unique sex and gender and all that goes with it is being erased and thus winding back the long held rights won by women in the past by the fact that biological males are now entering womens spaces thus denying them a right to spaces as a unique human.

As a result of this ideology we have seen more radical expressions from both sides. This has culminated in ideas like antisemetism resurfacing where people are actually calling for the destruction on the Jews based on their race.

Or where white people especially males are denegrated and their rights being denied, The L and G of the LGBTIQ+ are in conflict with the T and the Trans are now abusing biological women for simply standing up for themselves as a unique sex and gender.

A society that allows antisemetism to grow and resurface is not in a healthy moral state. Thats a red flag for something fundementally wrong.
Though I do not accept the divinity of Christ I do acknowledge the wisdom and compassion of the Gospels. I frequently find myself scratching my head over professed Christians' lack of insight into what I was always taught was the central message of the New Testament, that loving ones fellow human beings was a necessary attribute to living a good life.

There is surprisingly little evidence of that on this thread!
Just because people point out the truth and facts doesn't mean they are being intolerant. Christ was also big on truth, truth in Gods order and laws. He also said that he was the Way, the Truth and the Life and that one must be born again in the spirit.

He also confronted and called out the Pharisees who like Wokist go around cancelling and denegrating people who don't conform to the letter of the Woke laws. How they put on a show on the outside of being all rightous yet are corrupt on the inside. It seems to men this fits ideas like Wokism just as much as it would when the Church and its elders were hypocritical and pushed human ideologies over the Gospel.

Lastly sometimes loving others means telling the truth as in the long run its better and in fact going along with the lies actually makes the problem worse for all. Just because you tell the truth or the reality of the situation doesn't mean you are being intolerant.

You can still love and accept the person no matter who they are or what they have done. But actually going along with their delusions is damaging so its important to shine a light on the truth and facts just as Christ speaks about the light exposing the darkness of sin.
 
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Whyayeman

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Certainly people are more selfish compared to the past and society is less united on its morality.
You state as a fact the issue that is in contention. You cannot demonstrate the truth of this assertion and repeating it is not helpful.
 
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Your position was that we "used to" follow God's order in society, "Thats because we respected Gods order for marriage and human life. We sacrificed self desires for a greater truth. But we now believe in individual desires over all else."

You said we used to do this, the problem is that when we look at the past, just the last couple hundred years, the things I mentioned were part of the fabric of American society and culture.

I don't see how one can say "we respected God's order for ... human life" when talking about when we had things like slavery, or Jim Crow, or were engaged in genocide.

I know you weren't referring to those things. The problem is that when you engage in dreaming about "the good old days" you are ignoring just how bad those "good old days" actually were.

The point is this: We weren't following "God's order" then anymore than we are now. That's a fabrication, a false story of how things used to be.



You should study more. Historically abortion was only considered wrong when it terminated a late-stage pregnancy. People talked about a distinction between a fetus animatus, and a fetus inanimatus--or the distinction between a fetus with a soul and a fetus without. A fetus was considered to be alive, with a soul, at what was called "quickening", or when the mother could feel the baby move and kick inside her.

Attitudes on abortion were actually rather nuanced in pre-modern times. As noted, a distinction was made between a fetus animatus, or ensouled fetus and an inanimate or non-ensouled fetus.

The simple fact of the matter is that over the long history of the Christian Church, most Christian thinkers followed the thought of people like Aristotle, wherein ensoulment happened several months into the pregnancy.

It's actually in the 19th century when attitudes tended to become harsher, for example in the 16th century Pope Gregory XIV in the 1591 Sedes Apostolica made a distinction between the fetus animatus and fetus inanimatus; the harsh penalties of the church canons only applied to the termination of a fetus animatus. This was changed in the 19th century by Pope Pious IX, in whch no distinction was made and all terminations of pregnancy carried the same ecclesiastical discipline.




Would you be interested in some statistical information?

From the Pew Research Center, a graph:

SR_24.03.26_abortion_1.png




Question: Is the ability for women, granted more freedom and security in society, such that they have greater freedom to get away from abusive husbands something we should have a problem with?

Blaming feminism seems silly to me. As though this is all those pesky women's fault.

Surely you don't believe there were fewer abusive husbands before the 1960's/70's do you?



I know you want to blame feminism for "broken and dysfunctional families", but perhaps we could explore other issues. As I don't think you have much of a leg on if you are going to blame "feminism" for this. That seems like a silly scape goat that ignores real issues. Of course, if you think you can back your claim up, you are more than welcome to do so.



You disagree with cheating being not socially acceptable? How about this, do a poll and ask the question to a general audience here if cheating on one's spouse or partner is okay to do. It's unlikely you're going to get a lot of responses saying that cheating is just A-OK.

Perhaps you live somewhere different than me where cheating is celebrated. Where I'm from, however, in the godless and heathenous Pacific Northwest, famously known as the Unchurched Belt of the United States--being an unfaithful partner is considered a bad thing. Not just by Christians, but by everybody. I have my suspicion, however, that it's probably the same where you live too. And that you are just making up the sentiment about unfaithfulness--I don't see that, I don't observe that, and I doubt you have either.



And the fact that you blame feminists, gay people, and liberals for this seems silly to me. Because if you want to look at the real sources for the breakdown can be placed more into the fact that we are living in a world of late-stage capitalism where our culture has been taught to abide by an ideology of consumerism; where wealth disparity and power disparity creates discord. There is a lack of community, a lack of the village, not because of women, gays, liberals--but because Consumerism breeds a Me-First mentality.



Do you believe Donald Trump is a virtuous person?

Because when I look at Donald Trump I see the living embodiment of everything that is deeply wrong in American culture and society.

Right, anti-semitism is a sign of an unhealthy society. But so is any other form of deep racist and bigoted attidues--for example, hatred of immigrants, foreigners, or Muslims. Or, say, hatred of gay people.



Well either everyone has the right to living in a consentual legal partnership, or no.

You don't have to acknowledge a same-sex marriage as a spiritually, theologically, or religiously valid marriage. But the fundamental question is, do these people deserve the same treatment under the law as others? Is marriage, in a legal sense, a right?

Should there be laws that tell people who they may or may not live in a partnership with, and which is legally recognized?



And, I think that as long as you remain in this way of thinking, you're not going to be able to be able to actually look at what the actual fundamental problems are that we are dealing with.

You can't complain about Wienstein AND blame feminism.

We didn't curb mob lynchings of black people by blaming Civil Rights leaders, but by listening to them and affecting changes to the very structures of our society.

-CryptoLutheran
Nailed it; glued it; cemented it in place; painted it in brilliant white gloss paint; and placed gold finials on either end! Overly effusive and bombastic on my part, but thank you for the concision, relevance and evidence.
 
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RDKirk

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Your position was that we "used to" follow God's order in society, "Thats because we respected Gods order for marriage and human life. We sacrificed self desires for a greater truth. But we now believe in individual desires over all else."

You said we used to do this, the problem is that when we look at the past, just the last couple hundred years, the things I mentioned were part of the fabric of American society and culture.

I don't see how one can say "we respected God's order for ... human life" when talking about when we had things like slavery, or Jim Crow, or were engaged in genocide.

I know you weren't referring to those things. The problem is that when you engage in dreaming about "the good old days" you are ignoring just how bad those "good old days" actually were.

The point is this: We weren't following "God's order" then anymore than we are now. That's a fabrication, a false story of how things used to be.



You should study more. Historically abortion was only considered wrong when it terminated a late-stage pregnancy. People talked about a distinction between a fetus animatus, and a fetus inanimatus--or the distinction between a fetus with a soul and a fetus without. A fetus was considered to be alive, with a soul, at what was called "quickening", or when the mother could feel the baby move and kick inside her.

Attitudes on abortion were actually rather nuanced in pre-modern times. As noted, a distinction was made between a fetus animatus, or ensouled fetus and an inanimate or non-ensouled fetus.

The simple fact of the matter is that over the long history of the Christian Church, most Christian thinkers followed the thought of people like Aristotle, wherein ensoulment happened several months into the pregnancy.

It's actually in the 19th century when attitudes tended to become harsher, for example in the 16th century Pope Gregory XIV in the 1591 Sedes Apostolica made a distinction between the fetus animatus and fetus inanimatus; the harsh penalties of the church canons only applied to the termination of a fetus animatus. This was changed in the 19th century by Pope Pious IX, in whch no distinction was made and all terminations of pregnancy carried the same ecclesiastical discipline.




Would you be interested in some statistical information?

From the Pew Research Center, a graph:

SR_24.03.26_abortion_1.png




Question: Is the ability for women, granted more freedom and security in society, such that they have greater freedom to get away from abusive husbands something we should have a problem with?

Blaming feminism seems silly to me. As though this is all those pesky women's fault.

Surely you don't believe there were fewer abusive husbands before the 1960's/70's do you?



I know you want to blame feminism for "broken and dysfunctional families", but perhaps we could explore other issues. As I don't think you have much of a leg on if you are going to blame "feminism" for this. That seems like a silly scape goat that ignores real issues. Of course, if you think you can back your claim up, you are more than welcome to do so.



You disagree with cheating being not socially acceptable? How about this, do a poll and ask the question to a general audience here if cheating on one's spouse or partner is okay to do. It's unlikely you're going to get a lot of responses saying that cheating is just A-OK.

Perhaps you live somewhere different than me where cheating is celebrated. Where I'm from, however, in the godless and heathenous Pacific Northwest, famously known as the Unchurched Belt of the United States--being an unfaithful partner is considered a bad thing. Not just by Christians, but by everybody. I have my suspicion, however, that it's probably the same where you live too. And that you are just making up the sentiment about unfaithfulness--I don't see that, I don't observe that, and I doubt you have either.



And the fact that you blame feminists, gay people, and liberals for this seems silly to me. Because if you want to look at the real sources for the breakdown can be placed more into the fact that we are living in a world of late-stage capitalism where our culture has been taught to abide by an ideology of consumerism; where wealth disparity and power disparity creates discord. There is a lack of community, a lack of the village, not because of women, gays, liberals--but because Consumerism breeds a Me-First mentality.



Do you believe Donald Trump is a virtuous person?

Because when I look at Donald Trump I see the living embodiment of everything that is deeply wrong in American culture and society.

Right, anti-semitism is a sign of an unhealthy society. But so is any other form of deep racist and bigoted attidues--for example, hatred of immigrants, foreigners, or Muslims. Or, say, hatred of gay people.



Well either everyone has the right to living in a consentual legal partnership, or no.

You don't have to acknowledge a same-sex marriage as a spiritually, theologically, or religiously valid marriage. But the fundamental question is, do these people deserve the same treatment under the law as others? Is marriage, in a legal sense, a right?

Should there be laws that tell people who they may or may not live in a partnership with, and which is legally recognized?



And, I think that as long as you remain in this way of thinking, you're not going to be able to be able to actually look at what the actual fundamental problems are that we are dealing with.

You can't complain about Wienstein AND blame feminism.

We didn't curb mob lynchings of black people by blaming Civil Rights leaders, but by listening to them and affecting changes to the very structures of our society.

-CryptoLutheran
"A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle" was straight out third-wave feminism, a sentiment that didn't exist until they created it.

White folks can stand for a while longer to be complacent about that, but black Americans have always been the canary in this coal mine. The "I don't need a man to help me raise my children" sentiment that arose among black women in the 80s has ravaged us. It came from nowhere but third-wave feminism. The intention was to destroy the family. It's in their books--they didn't hide it, they wrote about it. Read black feminist Bell Hooks.
 
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Ophiolite

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Its seems as if the majority of humans fall prey to one or other notion: either things used to very much better, or things used to be very much worse. This seems to emerge from loose (or excessively narrow) definitions of what is better and what is worse, coupled with a heavt reliance on opinion and anecdote to support ones position.

If one takes the view of Santayana that those who ignore the past are condemned to repeat it, then it behoves us to have a very solid, evidence-based, appreciation of that past.

"A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle"
Cladistically speaking humans are fish, and this fish certainly made extensive use of bicycles in my youth. Like all good ideas (and all bad ones) extremists, exploiters, crazies and a general miscellany of human types can distort and corrupt the idea. That does not alter its core value. Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. (Other apposite cliches are available.)
 
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