Any guess what the Road to Hell is paved with? Yes, Good Intentions.
My belief is that while Satan corrupted the Savonarolas and Torquemadas and Popes and Kings, not to mention common men and women (including those in Salem in order to undermine the religious foundation of the New World colonies), the corruption of Caliphs and Emirs, and Sheikhs and Imams has been far worse. It is clear the from a historical perspective, that the politicization of Islam and the subsequent coopting of the faith by self-appointed rulers has been devastating for Muslims. Oppression sanctioned by religion became the vehicle through which despots kept power. The rule of the mullahs in Iran can not truly be the will of an Allah that loves his people. The suicide bombings that wrack Israel can not be the will of an Allah that is merciful. The dhimmitude is not respect for the worshippers of the God of Abraham. The dancing in joy at the murder of thousands of innocents on September 11th can not be the praise to Allah that Allah intends.
It can’t be, and there must be some explanation for it. This current essay is one small explanation.
But we’re not done. Not by a large measure. Satan is persistent.
Beginning in the 1400s and ending with the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in the 20th century, Islamic expansion had lost its steam. Christianity has met sword with sword. Islam needs either another impetus, or a weakening of Christianity.
Both were provided. First, the impetus: Wahabbism, the virulent islamicist doctrine that now commands the spirits of those Muslims who are dedicated to destroying Christianity. We won’t cover that here, as Alex has done so over at his blog, and at this one as well
But how did Satan move to undermine Christianity? Perhaps, during the Age of Reason, he inspired a subset of Enlightenment thinkers who then moved to create a logical body of writing which raised humans and their minds above Nature, subsequently eliminating God as the judge of men, spawning an egalitarian rather than libertarian movement, and ultimately leading to the murderous French Revolutionary, Soviet, and Red Chinese regimes. The Enlightenment spawned the relativists and the situational ethicists is explained in this article here, but is a recurring theme in Paulie World, as I hate the communists.
Further, the Enlightenment has to be further explained. For the most part, the Enlightenment was a direct result of the Dark Ages, a time when the natural forward movement of man was actually reversed. When the dam finally broke, Europe broke out in first a Renaissance, then an Age of Reason, where science and scientific discover began to flourish. Leonardo, Newton, Bacon, Galileo, Copernicus, and others lead a movement to discover the laws of nature. This scientific movement was for the most part (heliocentricity was challenged strongly) accepted and encouraged by the Church, and in fact the earliest proponents were sponsored by the Church.
Article comments
1 - Eric Olsen
Fascinating and extremely thoughtful (and thorough, as you noted). I agree with most of it but have a few thoughts: absolute certainly in the rightness of your own beliefs is as dangerous as moral relativism: this is what fundamentalist Muslims have - terrorists or not. I think we must all leave room in our minds that we might be wrong and therefore respect the beliefs of others as long as they do not cause us harm. In the case of Islamists, however, (and all fanatics) they are doing harm and are not to be respected.
Thanks for sharing this Paulie!
2 - JR
If evolution is such a deliberate process, why has it appeared to stop?
Actually, evolution appears not to have stopped. This group is studying the effects of living at high altitudes. From Nature news:
Not to mention all of the evidence of continuing evolution that is observed among other life forms. Didn't you learn in seventh-grade about those moths in industrial England that adapted to soot-covered trees? And why do you think they have to make up a new flu vaccine every year?
A more thorough understanding of evolution would reveal that, like entropy, it simply occurs with the passage of time. There is no stopping.