In the former home of Mahatma Gandhi, we find the following quote, prominently posted:
“It is doubtful that the efforts of the Mahatma would have succeeded
except that he was appealing to the conscience of a Christianized
people”— Bertrand Russell
So here we have, posted in the home of a Buddhist, the words of a militant atheist, extolling the virtues of Christianity.
So much for the argument that the judeo-christian ethic is not Central to
Western culture. The constant claim that the judeo-christian ethic is an
evil to be overcome is similarly bombed out of existence.
Aristotle was the one that brought the concepts of virtue and thereby right and wrong to the fore.
It was Alexander the Great, (who was probably Aristotle’s best-known student) who gave those concepts practical application.
Now while those concepts as Aristotle laid out came very close to the
truth, the trouble was, he never had anything to hang those concepts of
right and wrong on. Aristotle had no concept of a higher power in his
philosophies. He understood that anything created by man can be and
usually is, destroyed by man.
And since in his philosophy there
was no God, it ended up being that there was no morality, either.
Certain men began to be perceived as Gods. Great cities were built.
Great accomplishments, great power….but you have no morality, no right and wrong, eventually you end up with no great cities, no great culture, because metaphorically there was no Foundation under the building.
It was the Hebrews who brought the idea of a higher power forward. A
lawgiver. The concept that there was a being more powerful than men.
Those those two concepts are at the basis of Western Society, Western
culture, and that melding of philosophies resulted in America.
I have stated several times over the years in these spaces that an America
simply could not be created without those two philosophies being at the
root of it.
Can you, for example, imagine in America created with Islam as its philosophical root? I certainly cannot. Any of the pantheistic cultures? We both know better. Atheism? No…. Obviously no.
The fact is we would never have lasted as long as we have absent the judeo- Christian ethic.
Why?
Because it is that ethic, that philosophy, that recognizes the primacy of the individual.
And now we begin to see the reason behind the anti-Semitic sentiments of the anti-American left. I suggest to you that that anti-semitism, that jew hatred is a tacit recognition that the judeo-christian ethic is the basis of America as it was founded and it’s what has made it great.
I would further suggest that America has lessened itself the further away from that perception we get.
