If anything has been achieved by the weakening of religion in the West, it has been the weakening of social bonds at the most basic level. The biblical neighbor has become more than ever a stranger, and the feeling that permeated or should permeate a community, whatever it may be, has become a generalized and absolute distrust. A common bond was broken without replacing it, and the result could only be segregation. From this, one can only conclude that the world has become an even more hostile place.
Tag: religion
When Is Destroyed That Which for Centuries…
In a posthumous work, the late Pope Benedict XVI says
La società occidentale è una società nella quale nella sfera pubblica Dio è assente e per la quale non ha più nulla da dire. E per questo è una società nella quale si perde sempre più il criterio e la misura dell’umano.
From this stems, to a large extent, the existential vacuum that modern society has gotten itself into. When is destroyed that which for centuries has served man as a fulcrum of meaning, a certainty and a support, helplessness and confusion are inevitable. Disoriented, modern man no longer has anything to fall back on, and deprived of a higher vision of existence, he has become lesser. The benefits of belief for the common man are debatable; however, it cannot be denied that religious practice forces him to see a more complex reality and often lifts him above the banality of everyday life.
Spiritual Charlatans
It is really interesting to follow lectures by spiritual charlatans. Today, more than ever, the world is favorable to them. So we are left to admire how a bald head, a few white hairs and a wrinkled face impose respect, symbolizing the highest wisdom and the most serious meditation. So we are impelled by common sense to listen in silence to truths that our experience has not been kind enough to present to us. And we see how they make sense, how we are good fools, and how, after knowing them, we must go on living. It is a pity that such enchantment does not last…
Christianity Is the Main Barrier to Collectivism
Very few saw that Christianity would be the main barrier to prevent the West from being totally dominated by the collectivist ideas that flourished in the last century. Today, a war is raging that would already be lost, were it not for the honorable Christian resistance. The historical moment is already clear, and too interesting to ignore: after decades of insults and loss of prestige, only Christianity seems to have forged strong enough bonds to supplant this plague called communism. Who would have thought it! In a secular world, it was precisely religion saving it from totalitarian oppression that allowed it to progress to unprecedented levels. Historians will have to do justice, should the West be freed from the disgrace and misery that threatens it, and credit Christianity with avoiding what would perhaps be the most infamous and darkest chapters of human dignity.