Posted on 04/05/2016 7:51:13 AM PDT by Kaslin
The most profound thinkers in America are conservative. There are, of course, bright liberal and leftist thinkers, but I can't think of one who approaches the depth and wisdom of the best conservative writers and thinkers. What liberal historian, for example, approaches the understanding of life and history that author Paul Johnson has exhibited in his many works of history? Who on the left matches psychiatrist/writer Theodore Dalrymple's insight into the underclass? What left-wing columnists understand human nature, the state of mankind, or contemporary America as do George Will, Charles Krauthammer and Thomas Sowell, or many of the leading columnists at publications such as National Review, City Journal, Commentary Magazine or the Wall Street Journal?
I write this to make it clear that my admiration for the leading conservative writers, columnists and thinkers is deep and abiding.
There is, however, a "but."
The vast majority of leading conservative writers, just like their liberal colleagues, have a secular outlook on life. With few exceptions, the conservative political and intellectual worlds are oblivious to the consequences of secularism. They are unaware of the disaster that godlessness in the West has led to.
Most leading Republicans and most of the wealthy donors to the Republican Party -- in addition to virtually all libertarian politicians and think tank scholars -- are either uninterested in the death of Judeo-Christian religions and values in America and the West, or they're OK with it. They think that America can survive the death of God and religion, that fiscal and other forms of conservatism without social conservatism can preserve America.
It shows how effective the secular indoctrination in our schools and media has been, that even the majority of conservative thinkers are not only secular themselves, but seem to have no idea how much of the American civilization rests on religious foundations.
They don't seem to understand that the only solution to many -- perhaps most -- of the social problems ailing America and the West is some expression of Judeo-Christian faith. Do the inner-city kids who study the Bible and go to church each week lead wasted lives, join gangs, bear children out of wedlock or commit murder? Other than a religious revival, what do conservatives, with all their superb critiques of disastrous left-wing policies, think will uplift inner-city youths?
And why do secular conservatives think so many affluent and well-educated Americans have adopted left-wing dogmas, such as feminism, socialism, environmentalism and egalitarianism as their religions? Because people want to -- have to -- believe in something. And if it's not God and Christianity or Judaism, it's going to be some form of Leftism. Why are evangelical Protestants, theologically conservative Catholics, Orthodox Jews and practicing Mormons almost all conservative? Because they already have a religion and therefore don't need the alternate gods of leftist faiths, and also because Judeo-Christian religions have different values than leftist religions.
When these conservatives -- people who revere the Founding Fathers and the Declaration of Independence -- read the founders' assertion that all men "are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights," do they believe what the founders wrote? Or were they just echoing the irrational religious beliefs of their time, as people on the left believe?
When these conservatives see the components of what I call the American Trinity -- the words "liberty," "In God We Trust" and "e pluribus unum" inscribed on every American coin -- do they regard "In God We Trust" as no longer necessary?
President John Adams warned: "Because we have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion ... our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." Do secular conservatives think he was right or wrong?
The problem is not that most leading conservative thinkers are secular; it is that they don't seem to understand that a godless and Judeo-Christian-free America means the end of America, just as a godless and Judeo-Christian-free Europe has meant the end of Europe.
It basically boils down to what you believe are philosophical axioms. In a theistic system, the axiom is that the god of the system exists and it's will is primary.
There are other philosophical systems where the axiom(s) are based on observation of reality and our relationship to it. Objectivism, for example.
“The Nazis had their own “Morality Code.””
Define morality.
A truth is morals are God-made, external-based and unchangeable. Ethics, on the other hand are man-made, internal based and changing.
Morals are religious teachings, Ethics are societal teachings. Need only look as far as professional ethics rules to see they have little relation to moral teachings.
"Whatever I say it is."
Let's start with a definition.
Moral - concerning or relating to what is right and wrong in human behavior.
Can we agree on that?
Here is the best explanation I have found, written by two of the most influential of the "Founding Grandfathers":
Since Trump came on the scene, there's only one.
Nope because what are considered Morals predate the printing press.
True morality requires some type of outside direction. You can have a “morality” without religion or God, but it will be based on how you feel or think something should be.
A true morality has to be based on something outside of itself, or people will do as the Bible said they always do, whatever seems right to them. And they will claim their actions are moral.
And if you really think about it, you are angry at me because your feelings are telling you to be mad, but you know that you want everybody else to have the same moral stance as you have. If everybody would just act like you, everything would be perfect.
Not religion, all one need do is pick a religion to justify ones action.
Morality, true morality is pinned to God. If not one can logically conclude any action is moral by picking the appropriate moral framework.
For example, a leftist can point to global warming and justify the purging of everyone who disagrees. The fate of the whole world is more important than the lives of individual people. If one chooses to believe the life of one animal is no different that that another (bovine vs. homo sapiens) it is moral to limit the dietary choices of omnivores, at the point of a gun if need be. Or that that an unborn child is not a person. Or greater good vs. lesser good or.........
We currently live in the safe harbor of a society that still has ties to a morality based on a belief in God. Most atheists and agnostics have morality based on assumptions that are fundamentally based on an assumed spirituality or specialness of the human being.
Muslims can justify lying if it advances their religion. It’s called “Taqqiya.”
What do you say it is?
“The fallacy in this piece is that morality requires religion.”
Without true revealed religion, you can call any system of behavior “moral”. In that sense, one can have morality without religion. However, without God, there is no way to distinguish one system of morality from another. All are equal. In that case, and inevitably, the most moral person will always turn out to be the strongman who imposes his will on everyone else.
What has the printing press got to do with it?
I'm not saying the a religious based philosophy is invalid. Just that a religious based philosophy is not the only basis for morality.
I'm not at all angry. What gave you that idea.
So the Muslim morality, which is based on belief in the same god as Judeo-Christian morality, is justified?
Show me one culture or country where morality does not rest on religion.
Are both not "true revealed religion"?
that is an oxymoron, as one cannot be conservative and not be socially conservative.
like calling a white dog black, it just don’t work.
Does you definition of religion include a deity?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.