The heart of religion is morality, what is right and wrong. It is nearly impossible to escape morality when defining public policy. They can deny all they want, but secularists inject just as much religion into the political discussion as any evangelical Christian.
because in their own little world, these secularists beleive they are God. and how dare they let something be grater than them.
Cohen makes the same mistake that so many on the left make. He starts with ideas that are incorrect...
Isn’t the IRA a product of “secular Europe”?
I like Dennis Prager. He is a pretty smart guy and generally right on the issues.
But here he makes the classic mistake of equating secularism with socialism leaving out the really successful secular system: capitalism. This is your basic red herring/paper tiger argument that compares the damage done in religious wars with the damage done in fighting against the Nazis and the Communists. What it is ignores is the non-wars between cooperating, secular or at least somewhat secular, capitalistic countries. And I include the U.S. in that latter category. The U.S. conduct of business and mutual defense is not based on our religious beliefs at all. For example, what do we have in common with the Japanese and Koreans in the religious realm? The answer is nothing. We have an agreement to trade and provide mutual defense. We don't fight them despite the fact that we do not share religious beliefs with them - it is a purely secular arrangement and is based on a common belief in the principles of capitalism more than any other philosophy.
Sorry Dennis, you are just dead wrong on this one.
...he is just the most ruthless and meanest on the block.....always willing to murder any who would oppose.
Not the happiest of examples, actually - that was Henry IV of France in 1593 to explain why he shifted from Protestantism to Catholicism. It may actually be apropos in a way Cohen didn't mean - our candidates are never so devout as when they're running for office.
I'm not entirely certain that transitioning from killing one another over religion to killing one another over ideology constitutes much of an improvement, actually. Despite the hoo-hah over the topic America is a very long way from a theocracy, and I think that Prager is correct in pointing out the level of concern over the Influence Of The Christian Right has reached the level of insensate paranoia over on the Left. This happens when you begin to believe your own hype.
Nevertheless, aggressive secularism in the form of multiculturalism has drawbacks in precisely the same areas as aggressive theocracy, which is one sign that it has attained a religious status of its own. One has a difficult time differentiating between strictures in public comment based on heresy and strictures on it based on "hate-speech" laws. But at the present time the Inquisition appears to be strictly a secular phenomenon. I'm not sure that's an improvement either.
What’s the body count for Planned Parenthood?
Secularists presume that if Christianity goes away, so goes the influence of religion in any form.
What they fair to realize is that Islam is waiting in the wings. Wonder how well they’d function with their idealism in that kind of world?
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The last time Europe went to war over religion was the 30 Years War, that ended in 1648. And by the last years it had little to do with religion and everything to do with who would be dominant in Germany: Austria, France or Sweden.
There were at least eight general European wars after (depending on how you count the French Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic Wars, as one or many), and none were over religion.
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Secular Europe? I’ve just had a look at the religion breakdowns of a number of the ‘old europe’ countries on the CIA factbook - most appear to have followers of a religion at 70-80% of the population
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