PeterForde

While I agree with much of what you say about Christianity being a basis for our culture and while not perfect, it's a good code by which to live. I have always considered this to be true. My argument is that of what I call the the three basic tenets of religion, namely philosophy, mythology and superstition, the latter two seem to have an undue influence that are controlled by faith which makes claims and rules that are not consistent with modern acceptance.

Joe, while your response appears to be 'learned', there is much inaccuracy – or deliberate deception.
You write, "the great political ideologies of the twentieth century include liberalism socialism, anarchism, corporatism, Marxism, communism, social democracy and fascism.”
Each of those has resulted in social disaster. In fact, they are all different shades of the same (anti-Christian) thing. After decades as a supposed paragon of social democracy, Sweden is now the latest to prove that fact.
Therefore, describing those ideologies as 'great' - in comparison to Christianity – is plainly wrong and misleading.
Furthermore, you incorrectly include conservatism and nationalism in the group. These are branches of the primary ideologies and are either 'good' or 'evil' according to their primary base.
Nationalism - as in 'Nazi' - was infinitely 'evil.'
Nationalism - as in American Patriotism - was the 'good' force that destroyed the Nazi evil
You state that those ‘other’ ideologies are all “products of Western Civilisation.”
Nope. They were ‘rebellions against Christian-based WestCiv’ invented by people who – within their Christian societies – were free to rebel. Marx would have been quickly killed had he been living in an Islam-controlled society.
You correctly state that “'The … religions of the world are all products of non-Western civilizations and, in most cases, pre-date Western civilization…”
That's an irrelevant attempt at smoke-screening; Christianity became the foundation of societies that, over the past 300 years, progressed and developed in a manner vastly superior to those societies that did not have a Christian base. Only this fact is relevant.
The same for your words… “Christianity was, after all, a grab-bag of ideologies as well as a grab-bag of fractious religious sects.”
So what?
It worked – and will always work - better than all others, much like a Mercedes is a “grab-bag of plastic, glass and metal” and also perfectly serves its purpose.
Some atheists present very persuasively – until one digs and realises that their intent is only always to destroy Christianity – and yet offer in its place nothing EVER proved to be more beneficial to human wellness.

Hi Peter,

I was quoting Huntington, and certainly don't believe that all of those ideologies were 'great' or positive, certainly not - merely that, out of the multitudinous interactions of various off-shoots of various Christian strands, serendipitously or inadvertently or, anyway, indirectly, there was some 'permission' for an opening-up of freer thought, good and bad, particularly - in conjunction with the rampant development of capitalism, and of democracy - over the last 200 years.

The multiple and uncontrolled development of ideologies over the last few hundred years in the West, is a bit like Edison's search for a working light-bulb filament - two thousand experiments which didn't work, but perhaps one which did.

Very cautiously, and bearing in mind that no ideology can be, or will ever be, 'perfect' - that quest is itself foolish, Utopian and frankly smells too much like a retreat to religious certainty and the yearning for the strong hand of a God here on Earth - I might tentatively suggest that some ideology, a sort of blend of social democracy and liberalism [my god, as a lefty, what am I saying ?!] might be the most workable. And perhaps, eventually, even in the non-West as well.

Certainly, we should dip our lids to Christianity but move on.

Joe

Loudmouth, to you the article author & all other commenter's.

Q, is this yet another attempt by loyal members of radical, extreme religious cults to replace moderate, rational Christianity with either atheistic, left wing religion or Polynesian Paganism?

The following statement will be 'heresy' to most Australians - deserving of the most aggressive abuse and vilification.
Yet it is nevertheless correct.
The best form of social management has been been proved by an age-old principle practised without exception across all societies.
A ship must only have one captain if it is to have the best chance of safely reaching port.
A 'true' Christian-moral based, benevolent dictatorship is the "least worst" solution to ensure the society does not lose its way and collapse into anarchy.
Singapore, while not 'Christian-based' does evidence that the principle is as best as is possible, given human failings.
The risk of the 'dictatorship' falling into the wrong hands can be minimised by, as was done in some societies, including Buddhists, 'grooming' (brainwashing) the future leader(s) from infancy into being a truly moral, non-greedy, non-self-serving benevolent adult.
That said, even such an approach has risks - just like all others, only less so.
For example, few know (here comes more burn-him-at-the-stake 'heresy') that the Dalai Lama is the biggest fraud on the planet. But that's another story.
The bottom line is to devise a system that has the least potential for extensive human harm and least potential to be corrupted and abused. Even the 'great' American experiment - the best ever undertaken - is now being destroyed by those who found evil ways to get around the often unwritten 'rules.'
This is my final post - I just don;t have the time.And anyway, as I wrote in an essay some five years ago, all everybody has been doing is 'Blah, blah, blah, while ever our society relentlessly heads for disaster occasioned by.... yep .. the total loss of Christian-based moral values in our leaders.

Hi Peter,

Welcome back to the eighteenth century :) or to the world of present-day dictators. Can you name a single present-day dictator who you would be happy to live under, and for the rest of us to live under ? Or do you have an 'ideal dictator' in mind from the past ?

No system is perfect, and no system ever will be, nothing is o swill be. Democracy is always going to be a work-in-progress, and it will depend on us, the populace, to try to keep it working as well as possible. Everything else is either rubbish or, yet again, (in the spirit of the perfect being the enemy of the good) a striving for some Utopia, which inevitably leads to fascism of one sort or another.

Joe