Comments by "Mark Pawelek" (@mark4asp) on "83-year-old Philosopher’s message to our generation and time | Os Guinness" video.

  1. Reason cannot be at the helm; because we, as humans, are unreasonable by nature. Some of us can overcome our unreasonable nature. But many can't. What you dis' as "greed and the thirst for power" is just practical reason in action. Machiavellian reason. You privilege reason, yet at the same time, you can't describe a system where the reasonable person can be in command to run things reasonably! How does the purely reasonable person win against the Machiavellian?
    2
  2. Secular rationalism is easily undermined because we are not, by nature, rational. Yet, we're able to fake rationalism, and also able to learn it. Yet some of us can't. Some people are just wrong; beyond redemption. That is one aspect where I differ from Christians. I don't have infinite capacity to forgive. Christians criticize secularism at their peril. Secularism enables Christianity. It does not threaten it. The speaker went wrong as soon as he began to dis' "secular humanism". Secularism is a system to prevent one religious creed dominating society. For example: Pakistan is a non-secular state. Israel is a secular state. A lot of religiously inclined people pose a conflict between secularism and faith. Secularism is the idea which ended the 30-years war of the 17th century in Germany between Catholicism and Protestantism. The war which killed 7 million and devastated Germany. Secularism is a good thing. There is a conflict between secularism and faith. But, likewise, there's conflict between every faith against all others. Something called multiculturalism is NOT a solution to that - secularism is a solution. Multiculturalism refuses to judge bad ideas. Secularism will judge certain ideas as systems as bad and will reject them. The speaker should've been railing against multiculturalism rather than secularism. Unfortunately he undermined his own message by blaming the wrong target. By all means attack humanism - if you wish too. But never, NEVER, attack secularism unless you desire its alternatives: fanaticism, and fascism, or the everything goes of multiculturalism - which will, likely, destroy itself. Modern Christianity failed to respond to Islam. Led astray by Pope Francis. Christians haven't taken the threat of Islam seriously for what is is: a plan for world conquest and domination. If, as a Christian, you doubt me, then you must spend more time studying the perils of Islam. Perhaps more time talking to actual Muslims; to figure out, for yourself, why their biases are all for Islam; even for Jihad. Christians have been lulled into seeing Islam as an ally against the atheists. Maybe it is? But secularism and atheism are 2 entirely separate things. Any Christian who thinks secularism is a greater threat to them than Islam is not looking at the facts on the ground. Read some history books.
    1