Our good pope is leading the way in the struggle that really matters and is even more crucial that the struggle against Islam. Here's an excerpt.

Pope Benedict XVI, Christianity and the Crisis of Cultures, pp. 43-45.

Enlightenment philosophy has developed the belief that “…man ought not to imagine that he is different from all other living beings. And it follows that man ought not to be treated any differently from them.” (42-43)

“We asked two questions: whether the rationalistic (positivistic) philosophy is strictly rational, and therefore universally valid, and whether it is complete. Is it enough on its own? May, or indeed must, it abandon its historical roots to the sphere of that which can claim no more than a subjective validity? Our answer to all these questions must be an unambiguous No. This philosophy expresses, not the complete reason of man, but only part of it. And this mutilation of reason means that we cannot consider it to be rational at all. Hence, it is incomplete and can recover its health only through reestablishing contact with its roots. A tree without roots dries up…

In affirming this, we are not denying all the positive and important contributions of this philosophy. Rather, we are stating that it needs to be completed, since it is profoundly incomplete. And this brings us back to the two controversial points in the preamble to the European Constitution. The failure to mention Christian roots is not the expression of a superior tolerance that respects all cultures in the same way and chooses not to accord privileges to any one of them. Rather, it expresses the absolutization of a way of thinking and living that is radically opposed (inter alia) to all the other historical cultures of humanity. The real antagonism typical of today’s world is not that between diverse religious cultures; rather, it is the antagonism between the radical emancipation of man from God, from the roots of life, on the one hand, and the great religious cultures, on the other. If we come to experience a clash of cultures, this will not be due to a conflict between the great religions, which of course have always been at odds with one another but, nevertheless, have ultimately always understood how to coexist with one another. The coming clash will be between this radical emancipation of man and the great historical cultures. Accordingly, the refusal to refer to God in the Constitution is not the expression of a tolerance that wishes to protect the nontheistic religions and the dignity of atheists and agnostics; rather, it is the expression of a consciousness that would like to see God eradicated once and for all from the public life of humanity and shut up in the subjective sphere of cultural residues from the past. In this way, relativism, which is the starting point of this whole process, becomes a dogmatism that believes itself in possession of the definitive knowledge of human reason, with the right to consider everything else merely as a stage in human history that is basically obsolete and deserves to be relativized. In reality, this means that we have need of roots if we are to survive and that we must not lose sight of God if we do not want human dignity to disappear.”

To jump start the discussion: Which do you think is the more dangerous enemy of Christianity, Islam or Secularism? I think the Pope has it right when he fingers secularism as the greatest enemy because it corrupts everything it touches and reduces reason to the most extreme forms of nominalism.

I believe he is also correct in his contention that major wars aren't religious but secular in nature.

What think you?

CDL

A few wars:

The Punic Wars
The War of Spanish Succession
WWI
WWII
Korean War
The Cold War
The War of the Roses
The Russo-Japanese War

Etc... Ad nauseum

The only wars that were fought in the name of religion were the Jihads, the Crusades, and the religious wars of the 17th and 18th centuries.

The only major wars that I can think of off of the top of my head that is (edit.)
That old line about religion being the cause of all wars is false.

Ah, but secularism IS a religion! The religion of the Antichrist. All that you see in society has been long forseen by the Church Fathers and Ascetics. It is not just random, but has been planned all along by the fallen ones.

Alexandr

Alexandr,

My next point was that in the 20th Century all of the bloodshed by the Nazis, Stalin and co, Mao, Pol Pot, etc... has outnumbered all of the deaths due to any religious war by at least 100,000,000 deaths.

WOW !!! He knocked the ball clear out of the park! Superbly stated ! Kudos to you, Dan, for posting this ! WOW!!!

This is the kind of stuff that should be shouted from the rooftops.

By the way, how is the rest of the book?

-- John

The rest of the book is excellent. It isn't a long book or even very difficult. I plan to use this excerpt to begin all of my religion and theology classes beginnin next week.

Can you imagine any other figure in the world being able to confront this head on?

I hope others will read this book, though not many have. It is excellent.

CDL