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Alexander Solzhenitsyn's Templeon Address
Orthodox America ^ | 8/4/2008 | Apollos21K

Posted on 08/04/2008 8:25:41 AM PDT by Apollos21K

More than half a century ago, while I was still a child, I recall hearing a number of older people offer the following explanation for the great disasters that had befallen Russia: Men have forgotten God; that's why all this has happened.

Since then I have spent well-nigh fifty years working on the history of our Revolution; in the process I have read hundreds of books, collected hundreds of personal testimonies, and have already contributed eight volumes of my own toward the effort of clearing away the rubble left by that upheaval. But if I were asked today to formulate as concisely as possible the main cause of the ruinous Revolution that swallowed up some sixty million of our people, I could not put it more accurately than to repeat: Men have forgotten God; that's why all this has happened.

What is more, the events of the Russian Revolution can only be understood now, at the end of the century, against the background of what has since occurred in the rest of the world. What emerges here is a process of universal significance. And if I were called upon to identify briefly the principal trait of the entire twentieth century, here too, I would be unable to find anything more precise and pithy than to repeat once again: Men have forgotten God...

(Excerpt) Read more at roca.org ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: atheism; communism; god; solzhenitsyn
Solzhenitsyn not only had a message about communism, but a warning for the West.
1 posted on 08/04/2008 8:25:42 AM PDT by Apollos21K
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To: Apollos21K

He will be missed-he was one of the greatest writers of the 20th Century-a giant.


2 posted on 08/04/2008 8:38:18 AM PDT by Larry381 (If the other guy has a knife-Obama brings........a basketball?)
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To: Apollos21K
” ... I could not put it more accurately than to repeat: Men have forgotten God; that's why all this has happened.

What is more, the events of the Russian Revolution can only be understood now, at the end of the century, against the background of what has since occurred in the rest of the world. What emerges here is a process of universal significance. And if I were called upon to identify briefly the principal trait of the entire twentieth century, here too, I would be unable to find anything more precise and pithy than to repeat once again: Men have forgotten God...”
__________________________________________________________

Of course

... you are speaking/writing accurately. We in the United States of America are without excuse. Our own pleasures, pride, laziness and the lure of all the worldly pleasures outside of our families, have captivated us as a society. No excuse.

God had made plain for all to see the wonders of creation and the whole universe.

How many of us read the Holy Scriptures? Too busy. Distracted. We indulge in distraction during nearly all of our waking hours.

We are more excited and enthused over football than the God who gives us life and breath and talents and feeds us everyday of our lives. We participate on the most minimal level possible as a rule.

3 posted on 08/04/2008 8:43:10 AM PDT by geologist (The only answer to the troubles of this life is Jesus. A decision we all must make.)
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To: geologist

One of the greatest writers ever.

His impact on the dissolution of the Soviet Union is probably underestimated for the same reason that Reagan’s impact is muted. They both set their sights on destroying the communist regime in the Soviet Union, the bastion of hope for all the liberals in American that embrace socialism.


4 posted on 08/04/2008 8:57:34 AM PDT by rbmillerjr ("bigger government means constricting freedom"....................RWR)
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To: rbmillerjr
The power of the written word is not to be underestimated.

Even during this time of fewer readers of books.

Truth by it's very nature is assaulted from all sides. It gives the attackers a focus, or so it seems to me.

5 posted on 08/04/2008 9:04:30 AM PDT by geologist (The only answer to the troubles of this life is Jesus. A decision we all must make.)
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To: Apollos21K

bttt


6 posted on 08/04/2008 9:12:36 AM PDT by Matchett-PI (Driving a Phase-2 Operation Chaos Hybrid that burns both gas AND rubber!)
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To: Larry381

Dare one say...the greatest Russian of the 20th century.


7 posted on 08/04/2008 9:20:54 AM PDT by xp38
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