Freedom (or perceived freedom) has a cost as well as a benefit. The tighter the leash the less ability to act on your will/whims.

Power corrupts.
I am more concerned about the fed-gov threat to life and liberty. Too much meddling.

The difference is the Christians have largely shown, and demonstrated that they can live and function civally in a secular society. The islamists,,,4,3,2, 1,,,boom! I kill you.

Enough said.

There, There. Please.

Odd, I've been a Christian all my life and have never tried to convert or control anyone. I pray in private occasional for other people who are sickly but aside from that I keep my faith to myself.

The broad brush does not apply.

"The West tamed its religious fanatics only because humanistic philosophy prevailed. So the lesson for our time is that the way to tame religious terrorism is not by religious methods – we don’t need a 'return to original Christianity' or to hope that Islam has a 'Reformation.'"
Thank you Mr. Stephen Hicks!

This is a great article. I agree with it wholeheartedly.
"We had our religious fanatics – but we tamed them."
When I saw this, I wonder who are "we" since this happened before living memory.The article answers:
"The humanists taught – often against vicious religious opposition – that life on Earth matters and that we should enjoy it."
I'm happy to be a part of this we:
"They taught that we should be rational, using our senses and our reason to understand the world and ourselves. They taught, increasingly as the Renaissance made headway, that each individual’s life matters and that we should judge people according to their individual characters and actions. They taught that each person is responsible for his (and even her) life."
I agree with every part of this article.

hear hear

" altruistic creed" is that meant to be good thing?

The difference is that the Christians learned that literal interpretation of the religious text might engender difficult and contradictory aspects. Still the Christians at a minimum have retained the altruistic creed and partially dispensed with the crusading part. Now, the "crusade", if you will, is about protecting civilians on their own soil by infiltrating and dispensing with enemies on their soil.

The Muslims seem to read the Quran quite literally. Whether this is cultural or the intention of the text is quite superfluous. In either case, the extremists and their sympathizers within the Muslim community are invoking a reaction in the Christians which is diminishing the West. The West is not equivalent to "Judaeo-Christian". It is, as you all have pointed out, a certain culture of individual rights, and this has predominantly meant America. (Europe's World Wars are evidence of this.)

The specter of fascism has located a body in the populist right of Europe (paraphrasing Yaron Brook). This is a kind of auto-immune response, or - per Yaron Brook - suicide due to the negative effects that the altruist creed has supplied to Europe in greater measure than the migrants themselves.

Humanism began in the Renaissance with the recovery of ancient texts and related materials. Quite simply, Stocis, Peripatetics, Epicureans, Cyrenians, and all of the others never sought to kill each other. In our lifetimes, Protestants and Catholics still warred in Northern Ireland. We tend to soft-pedal Buddhism but - as Christopher Hitchens pointed out - only because we ourselves were not beaten by the monks of Lhasa as others were.

Integral to humanism was the idea of l'uomo universale the Renaissance man who mastered many studies and skills. That was different from the traditional idea of a "calling." And even today, we tend to give mute acceptance to the idea that you go to college to get one skill which you employ for wages your whole working life until you can retire from work altogether.

(Today, we do have a different model, but the old model still holds sway. Politicians promise "a good paying job" and want people to be educated in college to get one ... one...)

As an aside William Howland Woodin was a financier who served as the Secretary of the Treasury for Franklin D. Roosevelt. It was because of Woodin that ordinary people could hold gold when the banks were ordered to transfer their stocks to the Federal Reserve. Woodin also wrote music, including "The FDR March."

Thanks db, nice find. I will add "everyjoe" to my list.

Renaissance humanism came from the re-discovery of pagan culture. Reading Cicero and all of the others brought ideas outside the intentions of the Church.

Both seek control over their adherents and others.
Both push group ahead of individual.
Both insist primacy over all competing religions.
Both initiate force for no rational reason.


So difference is more in degree than kind.

Yes. But to be 'objective' about it, Christianity, for the most part has changed for the better, As the everyjoe article says " because humanistic philosophy prevailed", the tolerance does not seem to originate from inside. I expect to hear that humanism came out of Christianity, I remain to be convinced.

Islam has changed as well, the wrong way, what we call Islamism is as bad or worse than anything since the time of the founder.