Over the last hundred years or so, however,…[the] hopeful vision [that secularism promises a neutral public and peaceful space] has not materialized. Rather than seeing greater harmony in secular societies, we have witnessed more community breakdown. We also notice that the greatest losses of life in the twentieth century (Mao Tse-tung: 70 million deaths; Stalin: 20-40 million deaths; Hitler: 11-12 million deaths; Pol Pot: 1-2 million deaths”¦) have been inspired by secular ideologies, not religious ones. The atrocities that human beings commit against each other continue apace, and secularism is at a loss to know what to say about them. “It is the work of a few rogues” sounds less plausible every time we hear it. The incoherence of secularism also means that it cannot withstand determined pressure groups or totalitarian ideologies.
I believe secularism in the West is really a combination of Christianity and paganism, with the proportions shifting over the years from the former to the latter. Secularism does not supply values of its own but borrows them from Christianity (human rights, care for minorities, freedom of speech, toleration of differences, etc.) or paganism (fascination with astrology and ever more extreme forms of entertainment, lower views of marriage, higher views of other relationships, openness to abortion/infanticide, euthanasia, etc.). Credit is rarely given to these sources, and it is only as the proportion of paganism has increased that the true nature of secularism is becoming more apparent.
Justyn is absolutely correct about this. There is no “middle ground”, there is not one square inch of life – physical or spiritual – that is not contested for by God and His rebellious creation. From first to last – there are truly only two Ways.
More people would understand the point about paganism if they had a firmer grasp of history…something that has not been encouraged in some decades. One useful reference is the first of the two volumes about the Enlightenment by Peter Gay: [i]The Rise of Modern Paganism[/i]. He argues that the philosophes’
[blockquote]was a paganism directed against their Christian inheritance and dependent upon the paganism of classical antiquity, but it was also a [i]modern[/i] paganism, emancipated from classical thought as much as from Christian dogma.[/blockquote]
That astrology and its companions are becoming more popular bespeaks people whose society is impoverished by loss of any cultural (or religious, if you prefer) anchor for their behavior. When people are desparate they [b]will[/b] grasp at straws.
Simply put the culture is deracinated.