book report: Atheist Delusions by Hart, part 4
This quote from Atheist Delusions by David Bentley Hart is a corollary of his assertion I shared previously that the definition of humanity comes from Christian thought.
What does a post-human culture look like? Probably like those cultures that have never received the gospel of Jesus Christ or have outright rejected it. It's not nice to name names, but I look at Maoist and Stalinist countries, where the concept of human or individual rights are stripped away for the benefit of the collective. But the collective is usually a euphemism for the ruling elite, much like organized crime. I also think of pagan cultures. They are typically primitive in their technology but their brutality could only be enhanced with technology.
By the way, I encourage everyone to read the dueling essays in the Huffington Post between Christopher Hitchens and Douglas Wilson over atheism in anticipation of their debate documentary. Trailer below for Collision.
Facebook friends, I will post the video there for you all.
I cannot help but wonder, then, what remains behind when Christianity's power over culture recedes? How long can our gentler ethical prejudices - many of which seem to me to be melting away with fair rapidity - persist once the faith that gave them their rationale and meaning has withered away? Love endures all things perhaps, as the apostle says, and is eternal; but, as a cultural reality, even love requires a reason for its preeminence among the virtues, and the mere habit of solicitude for others will not necessarily long survive when that reason is no longer found. If, as I have argued in these pages, the "human" as we now understand it is the positive invention of Christianity, might it not be the case that a culture that has become truly post-Christian will also, ultimately, become postman? p.215
What does a post-human culture look like? Probably like those cultures that have never received the gospel of Jesus Christ or have outright rejected it. It's not nice to name names, but I look at Maoist and Stalinist countries, where the concept of human or individual rights are stripped away for the benefit of the collective. But the collective is usually a euphemism for the ruling elite, much like organized crime. I also think of pagan cultures. They are typically primitive in their technology but their brutality could only be enhanced with technology.
By the way, I encourage everyone to read the dueling essays in the Huffington Post between Christopher Hitchens and Douglas Wilson over atheism in anticipation of their debate documentary. Trailer below for Collision.
Facebook friends, I will post the video there for you all.
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