Former Pope Benedict XVI often pointed out that the secular focus on scientific and technological progress alone has created a moral vacuum in the West.
The Declining West: It has produced an atheist culture that suffers from a lack of moral energy and compassion.
He deemed the lack of traditional moral standards to be the greatest threat to contemporary culture, as society disintegrates into divided groups that lack respect for one another, writes Hanne Nabintu Herland, historian of religions and bestselling author in her regular WND column.
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The Declining West: Without traditional values that derive from a religious pool of thought, the relentless human struggle to improve oneself for the betterment of humankind halts, and society slowly dismantles its ability for genuine solidarity.
The traditional moral codex taught firm borders between right and wrong. Truth was universally objective — a category that applies to all men regardless of culture, gender, race or social standing. The concept of the law of nature outlined each individual’s right to freedom and obligation to do his duty—to do what is right.
It taught the importance of humility, self-restraint, self-control, patience, and unselfish love. This moral codex taught that the heart of man inhabits the seed of evil and, therefore, the war against one’s own lower nature is of utmost importance.
It strengthened the mental, inner war against greed, gluttony, lust and fundamentally instilled the fear of God as the eternal judge of humanity who watches the world with an observant eye. The idea was to fear God and therefore treat one another with respect and dignity, as judgement is awaits all in the afterlife.
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The Declining West: The idea was that since man is frail and lacks perfection, he needs the most glorious of God’s qualities: grace and forgiveness.
In other words, he needs compassion, a quality notably absent from the host of demonic forces who are not capable of genuine love—agape—in any form, as their nature is based on selfishness, greed, lust, hatred, anger, deceit, grudge-holding, and pride. The word “pride” is defined as a deadly sin, a cardinal mistake, a principle error.
Pride is often defined as an excessive love of one’s own self, it joins the demonic revolt against God’s order and seeks to obey the rules of no one other than itself. This is in stark opposition to the quality of humility, which sets others higher than oneself and embodies a deep respect for God’s law and thereby humanity as God’s creation.
The central commandment in the Christian faith is the definition of how to overcome the darkness in the world and live the best, possible life. The idea is that by coming closer to the source of light, God the Creator, His eternal light will find its pathway into the demonic darkness that engulfs this world. The stated aim is always to spread love.
This religiously motivated ideal that millions in the West strove to achieve, was slowly removed as atheism gained ground among the elites. The Western intelligentsia slowly substituted humility with pride and the Marxist belief in the idea of the “inherent goodness” of humankind.
It was now rendered not necessary to fight one’s evil nature, as the heart of man did not need any help from the Creator. Emancipation was defined as relief from the constraints of the conscience. Man was, in his own view, to become God and rule the earth without any help from the metaphysical dimension. He was to overcome the ever lurking devils by his own power.
The Declining West: The nihilist philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche’s view of religious rituals was that it served slavish mentalities that urged men to attempt to keep the gods happy, suggesting that human maturity and independence implied freeing oneself from the constraints of traditional morality.
The ultimate revolt against religion became the atheist force that opened up the floodgates of hedonism, pride, lack of boundaries and promiscuity that now kills Western greatness.
Atheist socialism went as far as to explain that if anything went wrong, it was society’s fault. The legitimization of selfishness conquered the cultural moral vacuum left wide open as Christian morality was cast aside as old, unwanted relics from the past.
Yet, religion is not as easy to root out as many an atheists hoped for. Even if a small elite controls the mainstream narrative and does not respect the traditional values that once made the West great, research still shows that in the United States alone around 80% state that they “believe in God”.
According to a Pew Research Forum study, as few as 2.4% among the world population say that they are atheists. Yet, they are currently allowed to tyrannically rule the West.
