THE MAD DASH TO SUICIDE

The West has rejected the principles that had once elevated the West – the freedoms of speech and religion and even justice and equality before the law. In a recent ruling:

·       The European Court of Human Rights — which has jurisdiction over 47 European countries, and whose rulings are legally binding on all 28 member states of the European Union — has effectively legitimized an Islamic blasphemy code in the interests of "preserving religious peace" in Europe. https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13204/european-court-human-rights-sharia

Such a ruling accords neither with justice or equality. It is biased and will only breed cynicism, discord, and a lack of trust in justice and all our principles of fairness. If we can no longer question a religion that promotes honor killings, jihad, rape, and world conquest, we should no longer be allowed to criticize other religions and worldviews. Why should the most violent of religions receive a “free pass” and special protection under the law?

This is happening all over the West, where certain groups have become more favored than others. This will create massive cynicism and distrust of the system and those who maintain it. The favored will become arrogant and un-favored will become defensive and resentful. It is a great prescription for division and conflict.

When certain groups are marginalized before the law and not endowed with the same rights and respect, these embittered ones will be inclined to take the law into their own hands.

Under the banner of true justice and equality, we can all stand together as brethren who share the same fate and are working together to preserve it. However, when justice and equality are scuttled, humanity is dispersed. Only coercion and violence can then hold them together. Historian Rodney Stark warned that:

·       Without a theology [or philosophy] committed to reason, progress and moral equality, today the entire world would be about where non-European societies were in, say, 1800: A world with many astrologers and alchemists but no scientists. A world of despots, lacking universities, banks, factories, eyeglasses, chimneys, and pianos. A world where most infants do not live to the age of five…The modern world arose only in Christian societies. Not in Islam. Not in Asia. Not in a “secular” society – there having been none. And all the modernization that has since occurred outside Christendom was imported from the West, often brought by colonizers and missionaries. Even so, many apostles of modernization assume that…similar progress can be achieved not only without Christianity…(The Victory of Reason, 233).