I don't think we are any better, nicer or smarter than we were 2000 years ago. We are healthier; we live longer; we are much better educated and more educated...but better? Nicer? Smarter? No, not even. We aren't descending because we really didn't ascend. We are just people, weak, fragile, hopeful and sometimes HOPELESS.
I also don't thing that our Western civilization is descending into immorality. We are as moral or immoral as people always have been, are and will be. We don't change as humans but there are lots more of us.
I once read that in 1800 we reached the 1 billion mark. Now we are 6 billion on planet earth. We aren't any worse but we sure are MORE.
Just my opinion.
There have been peaks and valleys in our public morality, I agree. But the morality of America has declined in the few years I have been on this earth.
Forced celebration of sodomy, the welfare state, and the willing ignorance of the threat of terrorism, and disintegration of the family, on demand abortion....all of this has grown by leaps and bounds.
I think this is true—and the eastern world has started to grow in its Christian world view. The church in China is growing much faster than in America. God’s spirit is being received by more people in Asia, and that is a good thing.