The west’s moral crisis is similar to Islam’s. Both need to re-discover the role of reason. Secular fanaticism is just as real as theological fanaticism. Remember the definition of a fanatic? Its someone who refuses to distinguish between ends & means.
What is the origin of this fallacy?
Secular fanatics believe in a dualism, they believe that the basic components of reality are binary. Since the Enlightenment, the west believed that reality was an indissoluble unity, it was for Einstein as he grabbled with the components of a unified theory. For those with a synoptic education, science was always a justification for sound philosophy. Nevertheless, secular fanatics always believed that reality is composed of a dualism. We witness it everyday in major news media throughout the west as we witness that world opinion is a wellspring of great moral authority.
Did you get that?
A philosophy of pure immanence provides the foundation for moral norms.
Secular fanatics believe that this component of reality is self executing? No need for political institutions right!!
Are sentiments alone sufficient?
Remember Dr. Martin Luther King Jr? Remember how he spoke that the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice!!
Is this the secret from ‘leading from behind’?
From North Korea, to the Iranian Gulag we continue to witness an evil we remain unwilling to confront.
In THE real moral universe, political institutions are needed to execute strategy to create, if not force, the creation of Judeo-Christian norms. For the secular fanatic, the sentiment alone suffices.
Team Obama cannot anticipate that his secular humanism of sufficient sentimentality provides a license for fanatics across the globe.
Here in the west, we ardently believe in a philosophy of time that unites ethics and progress.
Theological fanatics know differently.
William Holland
William Holland 