THE END OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION

I was watching the History Channel the other night.  And as I watched several programs dealing with the history of the 20th Century,  a few thoughts about the state of humanity as we find ourselves still in the dawn of the 21st Century came to me. 

Here’s what I see as I look out across the landscape of modern intellectual and moral notions about humanity. 

It is clear that modern man has discarded any notion of the natural law and the moral absolutes that flow from it.  Therefore, sin itself is unthinkable.  Technology has replaced religion as civilization’s ultimate good and sole pursuit.  Naturalism has replaced supernaturalism.  And subjectivism is the new morality.

There are no essential or unchanging truths in the modern scheme of things.  Everything and everyone is subject to change. 

Darwin’s theory that the nature of man is responsive to and determined by his environment has become the fundamental principle of modern philosophy and psychology.  Human nature is constantly evolving.  So must be the truths which he perceives at any given moment in that evolution.

Western civilization was born and advanced largely as a consequence of the Biblical notion that man’s duty was to conform his soul to the vision of His Creator.  Through the pursuit of the knowledge of absolute truths and the practice of moral virtue, man would not only advance his individual place in the world but provide the opportunity for others to better their lot in life.
 
In the new order of Universal Progressivism, mankind’s primary task is to subdue reality to his will through ever more efficient technology.   The traditional order of things, of all things, has been turned entirely upside down.

That’s why those of us who were formed in the tradition of classical education, of rational philosophy and Christian morality are incapable of making sense of the ways of people and things today. 

And civilization, as we once knew it, is in danger of disappearing. 

For as long as modern man continues to put himself and the predominance of his will over the will of His Creator, his meaning and place in the world will be in constant peril. 

If the human person has no meaning or purpose other than that which is assigned to him by the moment in which he accidentally finds himself, than life itself is meaningless, insignificant and without any particular value.  In the end, a man is defined by his usefulness and productivity in the advancement of technology.  A person becomes dispensable when he or she becomes an inconvenience or a burden.

After all, isn’t this the very basis of the culture of death so prevalent in modern society?  When the unborn child becomes burdensome, he or she can be dispensed with.  When the elderly and infirm become an overriding inconvenience upon society, they can be dispensed with.  Abortion and euthanasia become the cardinal solutions to personal and societal burdens or inconveniences.

And where is the voice of the Church as modern man hurls himself headlong into the abyss of insignificance?

Over the course of the past two centuries, the Church has succumbed to collectivism:  the submergence of the individual in his relationship to God and the glorification of community of which he is part. 

In place of the dignity of the individual human creature before His Creator, the Church has surrendered modern man to his place within the social order.  Virtue is found not in the longing of the human spirit to be untied to God, but in a person’s concern and care for the members of the global collective.  The environment, clean air and water are the critical moral issues of the day.  Personal enrichment and sanctity has given way to the virtues of re-cycling and the lessening one’s carbon imprint. Just listen to some of the rhetoric of Pope Francis about these issues.

Because the Church has lost its way, the spiritual and physical destruction of Western Civilization cannot be far off.  

Will God once again send prophets to His people to veer them away from self-destruction?  Will the people accept them or put them to death as our ancestors did?  Will the brave new world deliver on its promise of pleasure and ease, or be the harbinger of death and destruction? 

Stay tuned....this will be the topic of a future History Channel show. 

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