The following components went into the creation of the miracle of the Western civilization:
- The understanding that God is one;
- The admiration for the powers of the human intellect and the habit of introspection that ancient Greeks discovered;
- The knowledge that in the beginning was the Word;
- The realization that the kingdom of God is within you.
When these things come together, you have the Western civilization. Science, art, medicine, technology, rights, literary criticism, high-trust societies of complete strangers, universities, nuclear family, representative democracy. They all come out of this mix.
Clarissa's Blog 
I don’t understand how belief in a mythical god was essential to achieving the goals of Western civilization. Are people incapable of acting morally and intelligently unless they believe they’re being watched/ruled by a higher power?
Dreidel
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Yes.
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Pagans achieved nothing and were wiped out completely. Atheists did even worse.
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But, you know, they *could* have achieved the goals of Western civilization. The same way infinite monkeys hammering on infinite typewriters could produce the works of Shakespeare, right?
😀
-ethyl
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There are way too many examples to post but let’s look at architecture. Let’s look at what Christians built and at what Soviet atheists built with much better technology. The difference is so shocking. What can possibly explain it?
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What do you mean? Are you saying the ancient Greeks and Romans weren’t pagans? That their only achievements were post-Constantine?
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Their achievements only survived because Christians found them useful and brought them back.
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Most Christian denominations that I have experience with, even the Protestant ones, do not accept 4 and put the kingdom within the rules that the church leaders decide.
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The kingdom of God is within you is not a denial of church authority. It’s the recognition that every human has value from which the idea of rights is born. Casually hurting other people becomes impossible. You have a barrier inside you that doesn’t allow you to say to a stranger, “you ugly cow” or “your baby is as retarded as you.” You will hurt inside when you see another in pain. If somebody slips and falls, you won’t stop, point a finger and laugh. You will rush over to help.
And before you say this is the norm and everybody is like that, no, they aren’t. All of the examples above are from my own life. This all actually happened and was my daily reality in a place where Christianity was forcefully eradicated.
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Can confirm. Helping strangers is seen as *an American thing* in Asia, at least.
-ethyl
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People think that the milk of human kindness, to pick up on our Shakespearean theme, is the human default. It absolutely isn’t. It is a result of currents of thought that are 2,000 years old and that shaped the inner world of the people exposed to them, whether they are aware of it or not.
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Meanwhile, secualr progressive Spain is rapidly devolving into a death cult because the Spanish government doesn’t like ‘racists’ or ‘fascists’….
https://x.com/RobertoVaquero_/status/2036752874424672415
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Yes, let’s just kill off all those inconvenient rape victims. Especially since rape stats are through the roof for some very mysterious reason.
Great victories for feminism. Yippee doodle.
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