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Post by rmarks1 on Sept 7, 2013 12:18:03 GMT -5
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Post by Deleted on Sept 8, 2013 19:44:10 GMT -5
That was very interesting, Bob. I enjoyed that. Kind of reminded me of a TED talk. One thing I noticed and stuck out like sore thumb about the socialist, communist, and authoratarian countries that were mentioned in that videio was that those countries were not noted as atheistics. We know that dictatorships cannot contenance religion because of the fact that it is a power of it's its own that can work against the regime whatever it may be.
I rarely view Fox News, but when it comes to times like this regarding Syria, I do, and one of their commentators mentioned that if the U.S. doesn't strike Syria that it would allow the Darwinian viscious ones to prevail. I found that interesting that Social Darwinism was characterierized as the agressive, viscious ones are those that survive. So, I went and researched this, and I will be commenting about that on the Main Board in the next day or two.
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Post by juliet on Sept 29, 2013 18:55:58 GMT -5
Extremist ideologies come in religious and secular flavors. Those who point to Communism or Nazism as 'proof' that atheism is evil must then ignore the excesses of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and so on. It is neither religion nor philosophy per se that cause the trouble: it's the extremist fringes.
'Social Darwinism' is a misapplication of Darwinian theory to society. Herbert Spencer, and others, found in burgeoning evolutionary theory justifications for attitudes that had been originally founded and supported in religious belief.
In reality, sociopaths would 'win' the struggle for survival, but they cannot form a self-sustaining culture. The terrorist thugs who blow up innocent people don't have a plan for how to create their 'perfect society' afterwards. People like Assad are trying to hold onto power any way they can.
Tyrants CAN use religion. It requires a return to theocracy, with the human world supposedly reflecting the divine world. The divine pantheon is then the purported model for the secular government hierarchy. The problem for modern theocrats is that their followers will know about other cultures and religions. Back in the heydays of Egypt, Babylon, Rome, and so forth, when one identified as a member of those cultures, you knew for certain that they followed those gods. Nowadays, you can be English and Jewish, Spanish and Protestant, and so on. Modern theocrats must expel or repress those who do not follow the state religion, and we all know how well that works in the long run. (In the case of Iraq and former Communist countries, we also see how well secular oppression works.)
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