Here we go
again. I'd like to continue listing some interesting comments from Dennis
Prager's book called Still the Best Hope. It's an important book that
compares the United States with its values against Islam and European-style
democratic socialism. Here are some more things Dennis has to say:
1. There
never has been a model of non-Muslim equality under Muslim rule. Jews and
Christians fared poorly throughout most of their sojourn in the Muslim world.
2. The fact
is that America has been the greatest model of liberty, the greatest spreader
of liberty, and the greatest preserver of liberty the world has ever known. It
believed that it was its mission to spread liberty.
3.
Individual liberty exists in inverse proportion to the size of the state. The
bigger the government/state, the less liberty the individual has. The bigger
the government, the smaller the citizen.
4. If people
are not morally accountable to an all-powerful state or to a monarch and they are
granted an amount of personal freedom that is unprecedented in the history of
mankind, they need to be accountable either to themselves – that is, their own
hearts and consciences – or to a God who is moral and who judges each
individual (and nation).
The first
alternative was out of the question for the Founders – and should be out of the
question for anyone who doesn't romanticize human nature. The heart is an awful
guide to good behavior.
5. The
American experiment in liberty was inconceivable to the Founders – and should
be inconceivable to everyone today – without God and without God-based,
morality-teaching religion.
6. When
Leftists make the argument that God and religion are unnecessary, they omit to
note that this is only achievable with a strong state.
7. The American
Revolution was in essence the political and military expression of a religious
movement.
8. If people
were basically good, we wouldn't need value; we could rely on the human heart
to always do the right thing. But the heart is not a moral compass; it is a
generator of emotions. Values are there to overrule our heart, our emotions,
our appetites, our weaknesses, and even our often flawed reasoning.
9. When we
say that if there is no God, there is no good and evil, we are not saying that
an atheist cannot be a good person. We are saying that there is no objective
good and evil.
10. While
secular government is a good thing, secularism has been devastating for
individuals and for societies. On the individual level, among these
consequences have been increased unhappiness (all surveys report that religious
Americans are happier than secular ones); increased reliance on drugs, sex, alcohol,
and mine-numbing entertainment to get through life; moral confusion; a paucity
of wisdom (for example, belief in male-female sameness); and a search for
substitute religions such as Marxism, socialism, fascism, communism,
environmentalism, and pacifism.