Timothy Birdnow

Christopher Chantrill pens a piece at American Thinker about the rise of Islam and modern thinking that starts out great, but he degenerates into a moral relativism that I find shocking from so lucid a thinker.

Moral relativism is what is killing our society.

In his article Chantrill states:

I say that there has never been a saving faith that has the answer to life, the universe, everything, and there never will, and I believe that the beginning of wisdom is to understand this, and yet to live your life in confidence and courage and faith that things will turn out all right. And if things don’t turn out well for you, maybe they will turn out well for your children. I believe that the source of all problems is the real Termptation: to reduce life to a single faith and diminish humans into obedient followers of a Great Leader, be he mortal or demonic or divine."

This after he correctly states that Islam and Leftism are faiths that people adopt to provide certitude to their chaotic lives.

Now I agree with this to a point, but again, he is advocating a kind of relativism that is the fundamental cause of what we are experiencing now. Relativism is what gives us "my truth" as opposed to an objective "The Truth". Relativism is what allows a man to shave his legs and put on a wig and call himself Nancy - and then play in the WNBA.

Chris complains about apocalyptic thinking, and he's got a point, but there are good things that come out of apocalyptic thinking. Many good Christians found salvation out of fear of the End Times, no question. It looms over all of humanity, just as does death. We don't like to think about death because we know it's coming for us but we will think about the apocalypse because it MAY happen, and in our lifetime, but it also may not.

It's not apocalypse doctrine that is the problem; it's human response to it.

The Muslims believe it's coming and that Islam will end triumphant and that dude who fell down the well will climb back out (the 12th Imam) and restore paradise. Jews believe in it too, even though Jews tend not to believe in Heaven or any of the Christian doctrines. They think the Messiah will come at the end and put them into a place of world power. (Actually they probably will be in a position of SPIRITUAL power as the last believers after the Great Tribulation has purged all the secular Jews.) Christians believe Christ will return as King and judge the unrighteous.

Secularists borrowed this from their religious neighbors because it was useful and they believe that, as Marx said, after socialism is triumphant the state will wither away and we'll all live in a paradise where it's share and share alike and you will own nothing and be happy forever. But that faith isn't even backed up by any sort of God, just the false god they created out of government.

I would argue one of these visions is right and the others wrong. I would further argue that even the ones who are right probably get some of it wrong. It's like science; different scientists can look at a thing with different theories and look for evidence to find out which one is correct. In the end the truth comes out. Newton believed light was composed of particles, Huygens thought it was a wave. Einstein combined the two and we now know light is composed of particles that move in a wave. I think the apocalypse is similar.

At any rate I think Chris is retreating to a relativism that is damaging to society and is what caused us to wind up in this predicament in the first place.

Nietzche argued that Wester philosophy and science would eventually die because it would begin challenging it's fundamental assumptions, that logic and reason and experimentation can explain reality. He was a nihilist, believing in nothing in the end. He went mad. But he wasn't wrong; that's exactly what science has now done - taken away our belief in a concrete reality and now everyone is a god unto himself, blessed be my name! Well, it's a lonely and pretty miserable thing to be a god. That is best left to the expert. Don't try that at home kids!

Chris is right in that the way we should live our lives is in accepting uncertainty - that is trust in God. But being uncertain in our lives does not equate being uncertain in our faith, in who we are and what we believe. That way lies ennui and destruction.

Islam and Leftism are flip sides of the same coin; they are both aspects of the rebellion against Christ and both have their roots in Christianity. Islam was nothing but a rewarming of a number of heresies that were suppressed by the Orthodox Church and the Byzantine Empire. It was composed of Manicheans, Mithraists, Arians, and other heretical sects that promoted heretical doctrines. Muhammed gave them a way to force their views on the majority and I do mean force. And it's goal was always to break traditional Christianity (and along with it Judaism, which they may hate even worse because it is older and they knew Islam was an upstart).

Leftism was likewise. Many of the 17th century philosophe's were haters of Christianity, which they believed was just a fairy tale which kept societal progress retarded. It is claim, for instance, that David Hume said on his deathbed that his one regret was that he hadn't destroyed Christianity. This while the man was about to meet his maker.

The 19th century was an age of rebellion and there were revolutions everywhere, across Europe and in the Americas. The French were particularly egregious and they had the "cult of reason" featuring a nude prostitute and had people dressed as monks and nuns marching along behind her. There was a real hatred for all things Christian.

It was against this backdrop that Jean Jacques Rousseau wrote his The Social Contract in which he advocated making the People, the collective will replace God and the State replace the church. Both Fascism and Communism were born in this. Communism simply focused less on the national aspects while Fascism emphasized the quasi-spiritual mysticism of the People. But they both came from the same poisoned tree.

And they continued to grow ever since. Islam is their brother in the spirit of rebellion, no question, and that is why the two are kissing cousins today.

But it's all ultimately a rebellion against Christ ans His Church. Nothing more.

It is interesting to note that the LIberal movement was born in the 18th century, on the heels of the Protestant Reformation. It was, shall we say, the afterbirth. Protestantism rebelled against the Catholic Church (and for good reason - the Catholic Church had grown very corrupt) and the Liberals just took the next logical step. The Protestants showed them how to do it, how to use propaganda and the printing press and other such tools. I am not dissing Protestantism (as I said, there were good reasons) but Protestantism succeeded by using techniques that the Left would eventually adopt and improve upon.

Islam has learned from them and is using the same tactics and their are growing because they offer what is lacking in modern Christianity - fire in the belly. Most people don't care about Christianity anymore because it's so milquetoast and boring and lifeless. It is that way because the upper echelon in the Church thinks that is what will draw in people, not offending anyone. They are the perfect enablers for DEI and the other crazy stuff coming out of the Left because they prefer friendship with the world to obedience to God.

At any rate Christianity is the Diet Coke of religions - just one calorie. At least that is true these days in the mainline churches.

But it is the true path for a variety of reasons. Don't understand it? You aren't supposed to; how can you understand a God who created everything but understand the faith dedicated to Him? Think the Trinity doesn't make sense? Why should it? Don't like the fact Jesus got beat to a pulp then executed? Why should God Himself not suffer as do we? The other faiths are just rewarmed human ideas about earthly things. Islam is about sexual lust and food and enjoying life and fighting. That is the kind of religion a human being creates - not God.

At any rate I think Chris misses the boat at the end of this. We have to understand there is a true and false, right and wrong. Dismiss that at your peril.

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