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To: A.J.Armitage
I'm not so sure I agree, A.J. All great civilizations care about posterity; a culture that values life and family and is able to convert new members shows signs to me of being interested in the future. The secular West at the moment seems to be most interested in immediate gratification. One sure sign of this is the steep decline in birth rates.
185 posted on 09/30/2001 7:18:26 PM PDT by independentmind
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To: independentmind
The secular West at the moment seems to be most interested in immediate gratification. One sure sign of this is the steep decline in birth rates.

It would be better to say large portions of the West. Or maybe you have the same distinction in mind I do when you use the phrase "secular West", which would be different from the Christian West.

Perhaps the same distinction is at work in Islam? The moderate Muslims, on the one hand, have picked up our bad habits, while the radical Muslims prefer the bad habits they've inherated from their ancestors. Their bad habits, such as killing infidels and political backwardness, aggressive bad habits, aren't the kind that are fatal to a civilization, unless they lead you to attack another civilization strong enough to crush you with minimal effort, which they've done, although we probably won't actually destroy them. It would be easy for us: nuke Mecca. We did it to the old Japanese culture when we made the emperor admit he wasn't god. The root of a culture is the cult, the religion, or, in more secular terms, the framework the world is seen through.

188 posted on 09/30/2001 7:44:26 PM PDT by A.J.Armitage
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