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You may or may not be aware that I think all religions--including scientism; rationalism; hedonism; power-as-god; sex-as-god; control-as-god; Islam; Christianity; Judaism etc. are as evil and deadly as Christ declared the pharisees to be.

Religion defined as man stretching, reaching toward something/One transcendent just doesn't cut it and as Freud said--even a religion based on Love would tend to be unloving toward those not members of it--the old in-group/out-group stuff. Toooooo many "Christians" so called have spent too much time proving him right instead of Loving One Another so that the world may know . . .

Yes, screwing around with some abandon has been going on a long time. But anthropologists in favor of unfettered screwing around have a problem. They haven't found ANY culture to survive wide-spread "free" sex [that's the last thing to be free in much of any sense of the word but words have tended to lose their meaning in our 'anything goes' culture] . . . they haven't found ANY culture to survive wide-spread "free" sex for more than a short period after a certain level of rampant screwing around became the norm. Some would say the same thing for homosexuality.

I happen to have a little paper back book. It's not in my hands, luggage or shipped stuff at present and I don't know when it will get here so I can't get the date. But it was a very, very early Marxist manual on how to take over the west. It outlined the sorts of things I mentioned in my last post very explicitly. And they followed through accordingly.

I don't think church attendance saves anyone any more than being in a garage makes you a car. But there's a reason why crime is lowest when church attendance is highest.

When authentic Christianity is earnestly, humbly, lovingly practiced, all manner of good is dispersed far and wide and all manner of evil is healed and progress as well as individuals, families and communities restored and advanced. The evidence is in the history. You may need to have an open mind and do some digging, however.

I didn't dispute that what you said may have been authentic Marxist policy. I just think it's odd to espouse a theory, and then expect me to believe that it's accurate based on the fact that Marxists believed it.

I'm not sure what Christian societies you're talking about, but I know what the greatest society on earth is today, and it is what it is because of democracy, capitalism, and maximum personal freedom. A society without such freedoms, one that represses its people without significant cause is a society that is wasting its effort on finding new ways to frustrate the aspirations of its people. What would be the purpose of, say, a pornography police? We'd be wasting effort to frustrate the harmless desires of people and shut down a financially successful component of the economy at the same time. Our society works because we say, whatever your aspirations may be, you can achieve them if you do your share of the work.

Unbridled hedonism is certainly not the way a society should go. You can't forego your responsibilities. But it seems our society has built-in checks on that. Because of our strong capitalistic institution, you can't expect to get away without working. As long as people do the work they're supposed to do, and what they do in their free time doesn't impede it or anyone else's freedoms, it should be none of their neighbor's or the society's business. Our society works because it's based on the carrot more than the stick. We put in our time and work, and we get rewarded however we choose.

Perhaps the most important aspect of freedom is the freedom to grow and change. Sticking to one firm ideology is a good way to freeze yourself intellectually and culturally, setting yourself up to be outpaced and surpassed by the next society. That freedom of religion is one vital one that allows us to be what we are. If our laws and constitution had to be cross-checked with religious dogma at every point, I can only imagine the intellectual stagnation, lack of critical thinking, and lack of creativity that would result. We would be searching the past for answers rather than looking into the future and charting our own bold, new, uncharted destiny.