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Post-Christian America: Gullible, Intolerant, and Superstitious
National Review ^ | July 24, 2017 | david french

Posted on 07/25/2017 6:15:21 PM PDT by DeweyCA

"...I’d urge you to read a fascinating article in this Sunday’s New York Times. It turns out that America’s less religious citizens are far more likely to believe in things such as ghosts and UFOs than people who attend church. The author, psychology professor Clay Routledge, locates this phenomenon in the quest for meaning..."For instance, my colleagues and I recently published a series of studies in the journal Motivation and Emotion demonstrating that the link between low religiosity and belief in advanced alien visitors is at least partly explained by the pursuit of meaning. The less religious participants were, we found, the less they perceived their lives as meaningful. This lack of meaning was associated with a desire to find meaning, which in turn was associated with belief in U.F.O.s and alien visitors."

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Ross Douthat has written powerfully about the political consequences of post-Christian conservatism. It turns out that when men and women shed their faith, they don’t necessarily get more liberal, but they do get more tribal and vicious.

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If there’s one abiding consequence of the shallow theologies and simple superstitions of our time, it’s the inability to endure or make sense of adversity. It’s a phenomenon that fractures families, fosters a sense of rage and injustice, and ultimately results in millions of Americans treating problems of the soul with mountains of pharmaceuticals.

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Human beings are hard-wired to search for meaning and purpose. As we conduct that search, will our nation and culture continue to value and respect the faith that grants hope of redemption, patience through present suffering, and a means to discern between good and evil? ...The choice isn’t between reason and religion. It’s all too often between religion and superstition. Post-Christian America will be a less rational place.

(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: ac; christianity; intolerance; meaning; purpose; secularism; worldview
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The author states that the evidence shows that mankind wants to have meaning and purpose in their lives. If Americans shun Christianity, then they will search for meaning and purpose in other ways, such as weird religious rituals (witchcraft, reincarnation, auras). They also will lose the civil morality that Christianity taught and so our society will become more uncivil and tribal. We are now seeing this happen. So many westerners take for granted, or are completely unaware of, the underlying philosophical assumptions that have served as the basis for western civilization. Those assumptions are mainly from the Bible and when you remove the Biblical foundation, the rest of society is eventually going to suffer. But since that usually takes a while, the secularists don't see it and so they proceed ahead unaware of the destruction that they have unleashed.
1 posted on 07/25/2017 6:15:21 PM PDT by DeweyCA
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To: DeweyCA

Art Bell call your office.


2 posted on 07/25/2017 6:19:03 PM PDT by MSF BU (Support the troops: Join Them.)
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To: DeweyCA

...taugbt in schools...
We Are Finished!


3 posted on 07/25/2017 6:21:25 PM PDT by Big Red Badger (UNSCANABLE in an IDIOCRACY!)
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To: DeweyCA

Jung said if you have no belief in God then you constilate the God complex within, you become the highest power for morals. So morals become situational.


4 posted on 07/25/2017 6:27:34 PM PDT by stockpirate (SETH RICH gave the emails to wikikileaks via murdered ex-UK Amb, murdered he was, cover up it is)
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To: DeweyCA

If you don’t believe in something, you’ll believe in anything.


5 posted on 07/25/2017 6:28:14 PM PDT by henkster (Ask your favorite liberal to take the "Snowflake Challenge.")
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To: DeweyCA
Dewey, you probably didn't catch this because you do not hold grudges like I do (I keep them forever), but from the article:

"Ross Douthat has written powerfully about the political consequences of post-Christian conservatism. It turns out that when men and women shed their faith, they don’t necessarily get more liberal, but they do get more tribal and vicious."

Tribal and vicious is a reference to something the NeverTrumpers were harping on during the election: that Trump and his supporters are "nativists."

French is the chinless weirdo who nearly ran for President to vainly attempt to help Hillary win the election.

This article is a thinly veiled attempt to tell people that Trump supporters are "post-Christian" because they support deportation.

Nevertheless, I suppose there may or may not be some correct observations in his overall message, except for this tribal nonsense. If anything, the less religious people become, the more liberal, and the more globalistic.

6 posted on 07/25/2017 6:34:29 PM PDT by Greetings_Puny_Humans (I mostly come out at night... mostly.)
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To: DeweyCA

..I’d urge you to read a fascinating article in this Sunday’s New York Times

NY Slimes? Pass. More than likely 99 and 44/100ths percent Bullshit.
Better to put the pages in the outhouse where they can be put to a use they qualify for.


7 posted on 07/25/2017 6:43:13 PM PDT by GoldenPup
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To: DeweyCA

Here’s the wikipedia introduction to Victor Frankl’s book on the subject:

Man’s Search for Meaning is a 1946 book by Viktor Frankl chronicling his experiences as an Auschwitz concentration camp inmate during World War II, and describing his psychotherapeutic method, which involved identifying a purpose in life to feel positively about, and then immersively imagining that outcome. According to Frankl, the way a prisoner imagined the future affected his longevity. The book intends to answer the question “How was everyday life in a concentration camp reflected in the mind of the average prisoner?” Part One constitutes Frankl’s analysis of his experiences in the concentration camps, while Part Two introduces his ideas of meaning and his theory called logotherapy.

According to a survey conducted by the Book-of-the-Month Club and the Library of Congress, Man’s Search For Meaning belongs to a list of “the ten most influential books in the United States.”[1] At the time of the author’s death in 1997, the book had sold over 10 million copies and had been translated into 24 languages.[2][3]

This is a fantastic book. It should be required reading in our schools. That wikipedia introduction isn’t very good and doesn’t do the book justice, but that was what was available.

The author states it as mankind “wants” to have meaning and purpose in life. Frankl says it is more than that. Humans NEED purpose.

The modern welfare state completely fails humanity. By just giving out free stuff, the government robs people of their purpose, steals all meaning from the lives, and condemns people to a sorry, unhappy existence. Without struggle and a little bit of hardship people are guaranteed to be unhappy. This is alluded to in the book of Genesis when Adam and Eve were cast out of the garden. They were now required to work the land to provide for themselves. This is how it must be.


8 posted on 07/25/2017 6:43:41 PM PDT by j. earl carter
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To: DeweyCA

A Post-Christian America will happen 1 nanosecond after the Rapture!


9 posted on 07/25/2017 6:44:05 PM PDT by TRY ONE (I never got the memo changing the name of Global Warming to Klimate Change)
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To: Greetings_Puny_Humans
Actually, I did catch that in the article. I think what French is quoting Douthat as saying is that when people dump Christianity, they also will often dump the civility that Christianity teaches. In the article, both Douthat and French apply this to both the far Left and and the alt-Right. I have seen some of the viciousness and frequent name-calling from both of these entities.
10 posted on 07/25/2017 6:44:26 PM PDT by DeweyCA
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To: DeweyCA

The irony with this one is thick, since if one asked an urban elitist, “Where are you most likely to find someone who is gullible, intolerant, and superstitious,” they would almost certainly guess a red state or “unsophisticated” rural area.

Guess the joke’s on them.


11 posted on 07/25/2017 6:47:28 PM PDT by GnuThere
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To: DeweyCA
In the article, both Douthat and French apply this to both the far Left and and the alt-Right. I have seen some of the viciousness and frequent name-calling from both of these entities.

There's nothing wrong with viciousness and name calling where appropriate. It's been cool since Ann Coulter and Michael Savage. That said, when French uses the word "tribalistic" and applies it to conservatives, he is referring to immigration. He is not referring to mere nastiness, though he might also be doing that since he is basically a low-T sissy without a chin.

12 posted on 07/25/2017 6:49:24 PM PDT by Greetings_Puny_Humans (I mostly come out at night... mostly.)
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To: j. earl carter
Yes, Man’s Search For Meaning by Victor Frankl is an outstanding book. It should be required reading in all high school English Literature courses. For those who haven't read the book: Frankl, a Jewish psychoanalyst before WWII, observed and analysed why some concentration camp prisoners survived, while others wasted away and died. His conclusion was that the survivors had a meaning or purpose for living and thus had the will to struggle and go on. That meaning or purpose often was to reunite with family members, or religious reason or, in some cases, just to get revenge on the Nazis.
13 posted on 07/25/2017 6:51:44 PM PDT by DeweyCA
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To: DeweyCA

Chesterton called this one a long time ago. Rodney Stark of Baylor also showed this to be the case about (IIRC) a decade ago, when a study his students carried out showed that lack of religious belief and belief in weird stuff were positively correlated.

Yep, history goes on, the problems mankind faces may change, but the answer is still Jesus.


14 posted on 07/25/2017 7:03:58 PM PDT by PlateOfShrimp
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To: DeweyCA
Btw, here is the URl to the psychology professor's New York Times article that French mentions that tells about "America’s less religious citizens are far more likely to believe in things such as ghosts and UFOs than people who attend church."

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/21/opinion/sunday/dont-believe-in-god-maybe-youll-try-ufos.html?referer=https://t.co/RWiVwrOW7G?amp=1

In the NYT article, the psychology professor links to studies that show that "People who do not frequently attend church are twice as likely to believe in ghosts as those who are regular churchgoers. The less religious people are, the more likely they are to endorse empirically unsupported ideas about U.F.O.s, intelligent aliens monitoring the lives of humans and related conspiracies about a government cover-up of these phenomena."
15 posted on 07/25/2017 7:07:52 PM PDT by DeweyCA
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To: TRY ONE

We are in the End Times and the Great Falling Away has begun. Maranatha.


16 posted on 07/25/2017 7:12:45 PM PDT by SVTCobra03 (You can never have enough friends, horsepower or ammunition.)
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To: DeweyCA
Nietzsche said that when a man has a "why" to live for he can endure almost any "how." Victor Frankl wrote after his WWII experience in Nazi prison camp, a book called "Man's Search for Meaning" and founded a school of psychoanalysis on the principle. That these latter day guys think they have discovered something new only reveals how shallow present day "scholarship" has become.
17 posted on 07/25/2017 7:25:41 PM PDT by hinckley buzzard
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To: j. earl carter

You are so right! Bears repeating:

“This is a fantastic book. It should be required reading in our schools.”

HST, one must be inquisitive about one’s life in order to assimilate and appreciate Dr. Frankl’s conclusion that humans NEED purpose.

As a general question, I wonder how many purposeless people have y’all have encountered in your passage through this life?

Bet they were not grounded in a Judeo-Christian upbringing.


18 posted on 07/25/2017 7:36:37 PM PDT by Taxman (Replace the income tax with the FAIRtax and abolish the IRS!)
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To: Taxman
I wonder how many purposeless people have y’all have encountered

To me, this gets right to the heart of everything that is wrong with liberalism. Liberals don't recognize this need. A Christian upbringing is a de-facto admission of there being more to life than just hanging around for 80 years.

As for encountering purposeless people:

I think most people eventually get it right, but it takes some a lot longer than others. This is where our education system is failing. It would be much easier if the schools explained all of this to the kids who don't learn at home, rather than making them spend 10 to 20 years of their adult lives trying to figure this out.

19 posted on 07/25/2017 8:06:05 PM PDT by j. earl carter
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To: DeweyCA

Davis French has been so unrelentingly foul and nasty re: Trump that he is in no position to speak on the morality of any other Americans.


20 posted on 07/26/2017 12:35:45 AM PDT by 9YearLurker
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