It’s not a criticism, most people do not, but I think you may know little of history of the early Greeks, especially the philosophers. If you have an opportunity to learn of them, or if I’m mistaken, and you do know them, how was it that so many of them were so independent and individualistic (Socrates, for example)—they all preceded Jesus’ birth?
I have no idea what this means to you. It sophistry to me.
“Individualism, btw, is a perversion of the definition of man as an individual.”
An individualist is the opposite of a collectivist. Or do you think “collectivist” is a perversion of the definition of socialism as favoring “collective mankind” or “society” over individual men? In any case I do not think you know what an individualist means by individualism.
http://usabig.com/iindv/articles_stand/individual/whatisindividual.php
“... it is resentment of Christianity in particular that drives the destruction of this once great civilization.”
I have no doubt that a great many people, especially those who have swallowed the leftist Kool Aid despise Christianity, even when they know little or nothing about it beyond the fact that Christians, at least, have values. To resent something, I think you must at least know something about it.
What is destroying this country and this culture is a very simple thing, but it is complex and takes many forms, but in all it’s forms it is an assault on reason, on truth, and on independent individuals of character and decency, because they are an endictment of every relativist, hedonist, and seoncd-hander of every stripe, and of which our society is mostly comprised today.
http://usabig.com/iindv/articles_stand/objectivism/three_books.php
The link is to a short article I wrote some time ago defending Christianity against the assault of a small group of “philosophers,” in particular, but also against the general assault Christianity is under today. I am not a theist.
I’m not trying to convince you of anything, or change your mind about anything except, possibly, a mistaken assumption about those who are not theists. Most people automatically assume, because I do not believe in God, I must be an evolutionist, which I am most certainly not; or that I am what is called a materialist, or these days, a physicalist, which also I most certainly am not
Hank
The only thing I would question you on, and I mean no maliciousness, is this impulse you have to defend Christianity when you claim to be no theist. A Christian might argue that God has a hold on you in some fashion that you haven’t grasped just yet...or as Paul stated what Christ told him on the road to Damascus..”It is hard for thee to kick against the goads...”(old term for cattle prods)
snip: especially the philosophers
spirited: Though they may appear to you to be individual thinkers, all of their thinking began from a common source: irrational nature. Recall that Paul tells us that there are only two sources for all religions. He defines them like this:
either man will worship and serve the (living, rational) Creator of creation or he will worship and serve (irrational) creation.
Again, the idea that man is an individual, which means that he has an individual soul, mind, conscience, and will is uniquely Christian. The ancients knew of no such thing. And how could they when they believed that their destiny, even their thoughts, had been ‘written’ long before their birth by the sun, moon, stars, and planets? While they spoke of their fate, doom, and luck, today’s naturalists speak of determinism, cause, genes, and memes.
While Plato had some advanced ideas, they were nevertheless predicated on nature, fate, doom, and luck. It was in the hands of Christian Scholastics and other monotheistic thinkers of that time that Plato’s ideas were refined.