Posted on 04/02/2024 10:24:19 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
I’m pretty sure that even ancient Israel wasn’t exactly what God envisioned (though his influence can be seen).;-)
Yes, pre-1776, or more precisely pre-1700, European cultureS (plural) with the exception of the Saami in the north of Norway, the Mongols in Kalmykia were based on Christianity
The very ethos and thinking of the Europeans was Christian based and infused.
Yes to your second question
Yes to your third question
However your questions are irrelevant to the fact that ancient Israel was a theocratic autocracy without fundamental rights for individuals - completely unlike medieval Europe, forget about later. To be fair - at the same time when there was an ancient Israel, the other states were the same: theocratic autocracies.
Way too late for Britian. US is too soft.
Perhaps I should clarify what I am saying.
When I say that Western civilization rests on a foundation going back to ancient Israel, I am not making a comparison of our "form of government" to the government structures of ancient Israel. I am saying that our Judeo/Christian culture is an extension of Scripture going all the way back to Abraham (and Sodom and Gomorrah).
As you said, I think our republican form of government is more like that of ancient Rome and the democracies of the ancient Greek city-states than any government in Israel (or anywhere else for that matter).
I know what Dawkins is doing in Dawkins’ life. Don’t think you know what God is doing either but that doesn’t stop you from fantasizing.
That said, you are both fantasizing and then judging the person you are fantasizing about.
One of the prime architects of public disdain for Christianity is now lamenting, “Waaa, what happened?”
No, I am pointing out what he is doing. If he repents tomorrow, professes his faith, and stops trying to destroy the faith of everyone else on the planet you can imagine anything you want about how he got there.
The overwhelming negativity of this thread has had that effect on me.
I see this admission by Dawkins as an incredibly positive turn...which is so much greater than Dawkins and his grumpiness about reaching this conclusion.
As historian Tom Holland has said, we in the West are swimming in Christian thought and culture. We even dream Christian dreams because everything around us, even when one is a devout atheist (like Dawkins), is built on Christ.
As you probably know, Dawkins and his ilk (Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens, Daniel Dennett) believed deeply that Christianity is the bane of our civilization. That this "superstition" needed to die so mankind can move forward.
This "cultural Christian" comment by him (even if he complains bitterly about having to make it and denies all that it might mean) is a repudiation of "The New Atheism" that demands that religion must not be tolerated.
Dawkins of course has been the greatest evangelist of this dogma of hate for Christianity. And now he admits, however unhappily, that he has been wrong.
Even Ben Shapiro, an Orthodox Jew, was elated by this turn of events.
Amazing men, amazing minds.
Adams, Jefferson, Washington, Franklin, and so many others.
Their quotes reach out across time.
Tyranny, never rests in searching for an opening, which was our collective mistake.
Prayers that the fires of freedom will reignite in time, Lord.
Tatt
My point, you missed, kind one.
‘Twas not Christianity I did intend to demean, ergo the term theocracy. ‘Twas the ‘mohammedans!
True, there were some poor souls, like Alcee Young (1640), that were caught up in some spiritual frenzy all those years past, but America has never been nor will the Cconstitution allow such mental mind(*)ucks as ‘a theocracy’.
‘
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