Posted on 02/14/2009 2:15:54 PM PST by RightResponse
Barack Obama is now leader of the most influential nation on earth. Are we yet capable of dancing to his song of hope?
Obama was elected by default by a desperate nation drowning in faithlessness and cynicism. He was simply the best bet for change.
This bleak outlook is the chronic disease of our day. We are pessimistic about our economic and ecological futures. We distrust government officials, officers of the law, bureaucrats and the principles of big business (while we scramble to enhance our own bottom line.) We doubt the trustworthiness and ambitions of people of other colours and other religions. We have our phones and e-mails rigged to monitor the fidelity of our mates.
We are a society shorn of hope and faith.
Every past society that devolved to a world view only admitting the materiality of the physical world eventually disintegrated. On the other hand, every political and spiritual genius of his particular time understood human nature and its needs. Those superior minds attempted to unite people "in one mind" -- of moral rectitude and faith; of faith in the ultimate triumph of goodness.
The vigour of Zoroaster's religion propelled ancient Persia to world-class status. Alexander the Great and Ptolemy Soter after him recognized the spiritual need in man and attempted to unite the Greek world with a "universal religion." Later, Caesar Augustus reinvented and reinvigorated the Roman religion, and Rome survived a few more centuries. Constantine recognized this human need and modern Christianity was born. Then came Mohammed, who lifted a fractious and barbarous people into the most civilized and scientifically advanced empire of the age.
We must seek God ... or Goodness (or Love, if you prefer) for our own mental health. Belief is our sustenance as much as is the food we eat and the air we breathe. Spiritual food gives us the confidence to walk into the future with clarity and optimism. A healthy individual and a healthy society must have hope and confidence that the ultimate outcome of all things will be for the good. That is the essence of religion and has been since antiquity.
Strong beliefs bond differing minds and group into a working whole. It creates internally integrated morals -- internal laws that need no outside coercion to ensure. It gives us the courage to live justly, and to die well.
If Barack Obama is indeed the political unifier that Americans -- and us -- have put our atrophied hopes in, perhaps he will take the steps so necessary to heal his nation of its distrust and cynicism. Perhaps he will have the courage to harness the will to believe in some transcendent goodness.
But he must lead. He must demonstrate how to believe again in what is demonstrably true: That there is something out there that is greater and grander than the individual.
We need faith, but the faiths of our fathers are tired now, or are spent forces. We must recognize this whether we are Muslims, Sikhs, Jews or Christians. We are now a global village, and only a global world view will suffice.
As in the past, this new and unifying faith must be novel, vibrant and inclusive. In this new global era of widespread education and immediate communication, this new faith must also be credible. It must align with scientifically obtained knowledge yet be aware also of the undiscoverable -- the great mysteries that hold us rapt and in awe.
The marriage of a believable faith with the husbandry of government is the union that must be contracted.
Only then can there be a United Nations, only then shall we have peace on Earth and goodwill toward all.
Terry Neal lives in Stoney Creek.
Wow! What are they smoking in Canada these days. When a fishmongering, culturally fractured democracy like Canada can see Islam like this, we will soon be surrounded by a religion like that (which is mentioned in his article).
p.s. I know not all Canada believes like this guy.
We do not need a new faith. The old one is quite sufficient.
We know apostasy must come.
What the hell is this crap?
He's far from it!
Those who believe he is such just simply have personal issues with focus and direction.
“A New Faith Needed to Unify Humankind As We March Into Future”
Anyone ever read the “Left Behind” series?
So, I guess that means we need secular humanism. Not
This plot hatched in hell has been planned for thousands of years.
Alas, we will live—some of us—to see it briefly be attempted . . . mandated . . .
The Scripture says the world leader will demand to be worshipped as God.
And that all other religions will be banned.
They are laying the groundwork more overtly, now.
The same old stuff the Oligarchy has been planning a long time.
and depicted so well in
THX 1138.
They are just A LOT CLOSER
than they were when the movie came out.
Freep-mail me to get on or off my pro-life and Catholic List:
Please ping me to note-worthy Pro-Life or Catholic threads, or other threads of interest.
Obama Says A Baby Is A Punishment
Obama: If they make a mistake, I dont want them punished with a baby.
I cannot even imagine what kind of fractured logic could have conjured such mindless drivel. He should do humanity a favor and stick a gun in his mouth before ever giving vent to these kind of delusions again.
Please let me know if you want on or off the list--as well as letting Joya and MarySecretary know.
The pace is picking up as more overt events seem to jump off the pages of the Bible out of the daily news.
And pinging some Calvinists who just might . . . cobble together sufficient fair-mindedness to wrap their minds around this
yet another
significant puzzle piece in the END TIMES PUZZLE.
So how do we know when Odummer isn’t lying, since he seems to lie about everything?
See, I told you evolution is not a march to perfection; once around the park again, driver...
Someone drank the bong water.
The money line...
“Then came Mohammed, who lifted a fractious and barbarous people into the most civilized and scientifically advanced empire of the age.”
Wow! What are they smoking in Canada these days. When a fishmongering, culturally fractured democracy like Canada can see Islam like this, we will soon be surrounded by a religion like that (which is mentioned in his article).
I don’t agree with the author’s main points in the article as a whole, but here he is talking about the Europe of the Dark and Middle Ages, not the world of today. Islamic civilization was probably superior to that of the West until at least the twelfth century, maybe until the Renaissance.
Of course, China was probably superior to both during that period.
Motion to dismiss on grounds of historical ignorance and practicing 0bamania in a public place.
Exactly. The old faith would still be practiced today, if our young people had not been taught that they have no souls.
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