The answer of course is that when the West ceases to be Christian nothing will remain, as Sponville knows. There will be no common glue to hold Westerners together and nothing left worth living or dying for. The strangely twisted, suicidal atmosphere of our age is the "death of God" made tangible and it is Nietzsche who describes our meaningless, disordered, ugly, atonal, brutal, upside-down climate of nothingness:
"We have killed him (God), you and I! ...But how have we done it? How were we able to drink up the sea? Who gave us the sponge to wipe away the whole horizon? What did we do when we loosened this earth from its sun? Whither does it now move? Whither do we move? ...Do we not dash on unceasingly? Backwards, sideways, forwards, in all directions? Is there still an above and below? Do we not stray...through infinite nothingness? Does not empty space breathe upon us? ...Does not night come on continually, darker and darker?" (Nihilism: The Root of the Revolution of the Modern Age, Eugene Rose, p. 108)
Such is the theater of the absurd in which there is neither up nor down, male nor female, right nor wrong, true nor false, normal nor abnormal because the living God is dead, and while America and the West drift aimlessly in "infinite nothingness" nihilism progressively dissolves the foundation of soul, mind, worth, morality, family, and individual liberty.
And this is the nihilism feared by Comte, who clearly perceives that it plays into the hands of radical Muslims, who without opposition will impose totalitarian Sharia on the West. Already Western nihilists have essentially surrendered large areas of W. Europe to Muslims. Here in America they're are allowing a mosque to be built at the Twin Towers site, and they now agree that American soldiers can be prosecuted for burning a Koran and military chaplains for speaking out loud the name Jesus Christ.
Though every page of Sponville's book speaks clearly of his inner conflicts, contradictory reasoning, and multitude of fears, such as his terrifying fear of falling into a yawning abyss waiting just beneath his feet, Sponville nevertheless retains enough presence of mind to see that if, as with the international Progressive 'elite," we believe that nothing remains, "we might as well throw in the towel at once." (p. 29)
wow. that was good.
don’t recognize most of the names, but what they said I have thought many times.
Even if I were not Christian, I would want the West to be Christian and I would follow Judeo-Christian law.
Because without it, there’s nothing.
The west just dissolves into sex, narctics, alcohol, theft, cheating, lying, calling men women and women men, and on and on.
why would you not take what you want or do whatever you want if there is no meaing? feeling good would be all that mattered,
how depressing.
At least America has the heartland which my sister told me is still God and Guns, thank goodness.
She visited 12 states and said it was an America she’s never seen before. We live in NYC. well, she moved to NJ.
I don’t know Germany well at all. I don’t now if they have these bastions that we have.
from what I understand, merkel is part of the Conservative party there!!!! if that’s the case, they are doomed.
God is dead. If not in reality, at least in Western Europe.
Reminds me of when Michael Corleone sees the Cuban rebel jump into the car on a suicide mission.
when asked what he thinks it means he said “it means they can win”
history repeats itself.