The sophistication of intellectualism and science which has led to the debunking of traditional, superstition-based religion and the discrediting of rationalist philosophy cause-equals-effect theory, without providing a common-man friendly substitute, has caused the integrated cultural functions based on those beliefs to collapse.

The ensuing ethical vacuum has prompted a ‘clutching at straws’ search for an ethical basis on which to re-integrate our lost cultural functions. In this confused and now also naïve climate (since education on these matters has lapsed as well) people have been adopting even more simplistic solutions than they did previously. And chief among the simplistic solutions are fundamentalist versions of established religions (this is because the social structures and the beliefs aare already there from previous systems and the fundamentalist versions of these belief systems are simple enough to adopt without much prior knowledge or effort).

The irony of it all is that the sophistication of intellect has been a key element in the rise of the adoption of fundamentalism.

Well done Rob for observing what to most Christians is about as obvious as the broad side of a technicolor painted barn.

It is especially obvious to the anthropologist Lauriston Sharp, who studied the Yor Yuront of cape york Peninsula, (which I've mentioned many times) and found that the simple substitution of a steel axe for a stone one, was the primary cause of complete social decay and the virtual extinction of that tribe.

HOW MUCH MORE are we at risk by abandoning the foundations of our society, and then as you so aptly put it, "grasping at straws".

Lets be abundantly clear about one thing though, to use a boxing analogy ...science and post modern thinking have not laid a glove on the Gospel of Christ.

Modern Liberal Biblical Criticism includes the scientific presupposition that 'people cannot rise from the dead'.. thus, it could not have occured with Jesus, therefore...the Scriptures are merely myths invented by naive and supersticious people to prop up their lives.

So, as for me, I proclaim Jesus, the Christ, Messiah and returning Lord. "As the scriptures" portray Him.

I categorically REJECT the lunacy and darkness of such so called evangelists/faith healers like Peter Popoff.

"Miracle Spring Water"?sheesh.

http://www.peterpopoff.org/ how could ANYone be so dumb as to believe this tripe?
See also a good expose'
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Popoff

But this kind of person is not the Christian of the New Testament.

Regarding lost foundations, Jesus said: (referring to the Sermon on the mount)

24"Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 26But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.

If ever there was irony n the world, it must surely be that last posting.

Dear Bugsy, touche. Who was it who said, 'there are none so blind as those who will not see.'?

Let BD have his faith, I once hid from life in that corner too.
But what a great world it would be if we could understand man needs no warm corner to hide in.
That Jesus if he lived was a short brown Jewish man not the tall WASP we depict him.
That he may well have lived and died as we are told but if he alone is reborn we are but toys in some ones sand box.

Yes, well... the best I can say is that dear old Boazy totally misread yet another text. Duh.

As for this: "It is especially obvious to the anthropologist Lauriston Sharp, who studied the Yor Yuront of cape york Peninsula, (which I've mentioned many times) and found that the simple substitution of a steel axe for a stone one, was the primary cause of complete social decay and the virtual extinction of that tribe."

Boazy also loves to misquote this article (and misspell its subjects), in which Sharp neatly outlines a functionalist argument that explains how the removal of the male monopoly over the distribution of stone axes in a western Cape York clan (the 'Yir-Yoront') was implicated in the collapse of tribal authority structures.

He isn't usually so keen to emphasise that this was all done at the hands of boofheaded Christian missionaries, who distributed steel axes to men and women indiscriminately in return for cooperation and labour. And further, that the said missionaries were in explicit cahoots with the colonial project of the Queensland government of the day to subdue the 'natives'. Not to mention that the LMS' 'mission' was overtly one of the replacement of the Indigenous belief system with their own - like that of all missionaries.

Which is of course a good example of why missionaries are inherently objectionable, including our very own 'OLO-missionary' Boazy. If he misreads the Islamic texts that he deluges us with half as badly as he's misunderstood Lauriston Sharp, then we'd be pretty well advised not to attach too much credence to his rants.

As if we didn't know that already :)