It's one of, if not the central, psychological conflicts of modernity. A primary theme of Nietzsche, Freud, Kierkegaard, Dostoevsky and on and on that's still relevant today. I wonder how jihadism relates to nihilism. I'd argue most Westerners have a fundamentally "Christian" value system even if they are atheist or whatever. Which is both good and bad.

I honestly don't think we'd necessarily be better off without religion. For one, we wouldn't have the (classical) liberal society we do today (and that's not to say this is a Christian nation, mooselambs out or anything like that.) We'd also possibly have a lot more crazy, despairing people, and it's probably one of the last threads of community out there for a lot of folks.

Realistically I don't think it's going anywhere,
Christianity is spreading like wildfire in China and is still pretty entrenched in the US. I've got my beefs with it personally (On the Geneology of Morals crushed me) and for the culture at large, but am more tolerant of it now than I was, so long as people aren't inflicting it on others. Plenty of other dogmas outside religion as well.

There's subtlety to the religious beliefs of many that often goes disrespected. Nuance is important, lest you wind up sending half your paycheck to this type of guy and shipping your kids off to Jesus Camp or conversion therapy or something.


[Post edited by hoodeyo at 05/24/2017 02:16AM]