An early 20th-century theorist mentioned the upcoming decline of the West. What he fell short to forecast was that the West would export its society to the rest of the globe as well as therefore grasp the whole world in its death throes.
Today we are witnessing that decline as well as since we are involved in it, it is of utmost value to us. At risk are whether the perfects we value will certainly endure or some brand-new abhorrent set of values win the day.
These are not still declarations. We are today at a watershed of background and also our actions today will choose whether the world rises from here or continues to slide right into some new dark age.
It is essential to comprehend bad problems do not just happen. The cultural degeneration we see around us isn’t slipshod. It was triggered. Unless one comprehends this he won’t be able to protect himself or reach out right into the society with efficiency. A society can surviving for hundreds of years unless it is attacked from within or without by aggressive pressures. Where such an attack takes place, main targets are its religious and nationwide gods as well as heroes, its potential of leadership as well as the self-respect and integrity of its members.
Product factors of attack are finance, communications, innovation and also a denial of resources.
Look around today and you will certainly discover plenty of examples of these points. They howl at us daily from the papers.
Probably one of the most crucial point of strike on a society is its religious experience. Where one can destroy or threaten religious organizations then the whole fabric of the society can be swiftly overturned or brought to ruin.
Religion is the initial feeling of neighborhood. Your feeling of area takes place because mutual experience with others. Where the religious sense of area as well as with it actual count on and stability can be damaged then that society is like a sand castle not able to protect itself versus the inexorable sea.
For the last a century or two religion has actually been beset with an unrelenting assault. You have been told it’s the “opiate of the masses,” that it’s unscientific, that it is primitive; simply put, that it is a deception.
But beneath all these attacks on organized religion there was a more essential target: the spirituality of male, your very own basic spiritual nature, self-worth and satisfaction. This black propaganda may have been so effective that possibly you no longer believe you have a spiritual nature however I guarantee you do.
Actually, you don’t have a heart, you are your own spirit. In other words, you are not this publication, your social security card, your body or your mind. You are you.
Persuade a male that he is an animal, that his own self-respect as well as self-worth are misconceptions, that there is no “past” to desire, no greater prospective self to accomplish, and you have a slave. Let a guy know he is himself, a soul, that he can the liberty and also can desire better wisdom and also you have actually started him up a greater roadway.
Of course, such assaults on faith run counter to guy’s typical ambitions to spiritual gratification and an ethical way of life.
For countless years on this world assuming guy has upheld his own spirituality and also considered the ultimate knowledge to be spiritual knowledge.
The brand-new radical idea that male is a pet without a spiritual nature has a name: totalitarian materialism. Materialism is the teaching that “only matter matters.” The apostles of this brand-new thought are trying to sell everyone on the suggestion that individuals truly down deep are simply a mass and what the person wants to do is cohese with this mass and then be protected by the mass.
This thoughtful setting was extremely useful to militaristic and police states and their advocates of the last hundred years who desired to validate their atrocities as well as subjugation of populaces.
Among the tricks of the game has actually been to strike faith as unscientific. Yet science itself is simply a device whereby the physical world can be much better regulated. The joke is that science itself can become a faith.
Gerhard Lenski on web page 331 of his The Spiritual Aspect, a Sociologist’s Query, specifies religion as “a system of ideas about the nature of force( s), ultimately forming guy’s fate, and the methods connected therewith, shared by members of a team.”
Scientific activities can be as fanatical as spiritual ones. Scientific groups can themselves be spiritual “received scientific research” monopolies. The Einsteinian concept of space as well as time can itself end up being a divine writ, just as Aristotle’s works were exchanged dogmas by the orthodoxy to squash any kind of new ideas in the Middle Ages. (Einstein himself until late in his life was considered as a radical as well as denied admission into learned societies.).
Scientific research by itself can end up being a new confidence, a take on new means of getting over anxiousness by clarifying things so there is no worry of God or the hereafter.
Therefore scientific research and religious beliefs are not a dichotomy (pair of opposites). Science itself was borrowed from ancient spiritual studies in India and Egypt.
Let a male understand he is himself, a spiritual being, that he can the liberty and deserves to desire higher knowledge as well as you have actually begun him up a greater road.
Religious beliefs has actually additionally been attacked as primitive. Too much research study of primitive cultures may lead one to think religion is primitive as it is so leading in them and that “modern-day” societies can ignore it. The what’s what is that at no time is religious beliefs more required as a civilizing force than in the presence of massive forces in the hands of male, that might have become extremely lacking in social capacities stressed in religion.
The terrific religious civilizing pressures of the past, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and others, have all stressed distinction of great from evil as well as greater ethical worths.
The reducing of church presence in the United States coincided with a surge in pornography as well as general immorality, as well as a rise in criminal activity which after that caused an increase in numbers of authorities without a subsequent decline in real ethical aberration.
When religious beliefs is not significant in a society or has stopped to be, the state acquires the whole worry of public morality, criminal activity as well as intolerance. It then has to utilize punishment and police. Yet this is not successful as principles, integrity and self-esteem not currently inherent in the individual, can not be enforced with any kind of terrific success. Only by a spiritual recognition and inculcation of the spiritual value of these qualities can they come about. There have to be much more factor and also even more emotional motivation to be moral, and so on, than risk of human self-control.
When a society has actually dropped completely away from spiritual pursuits into materialism, one need to start by demonstrating they are each a heart, not a product pet. From this realization of their very own religious nature people can again involve an awareness of God and also become extra themselves.
Medication, psychiatry and also psychology “addressed” the whole problem of “human nature” simply by disposing it right into the category of product nature– body, mind, pressure. As they politically demand syndicate and use social and also political publicity to impose their syndicate, they debar real look for genuine answers to human nature.
When religious beliefs is not significant in a culture or has actually stopped to be, the state inherits the entire concern of public principles, criminal activity and intolerance. It then must utilize penalty and cops. Yet this is not successful as morality, honesty and self-regard not already inherent in the individual, can not be implemented with any wonderful success.
Their failings are testified by absence of lead to the field of humanity. They can not alter male– they can only weaken. While asserting supremacy in the field of humanity they can not demonstrate outcomes– as well as no place do they show that lack greater than in their own individuals. They have the highest possible self-destruction price and also favor the use of pressure on others. Under their tutelage the criminal offense price and antisocial forces have climbed. However they are most condemned by their assaults on anybody who seeks solutions and also upon the civilizing influences of religious beliefs.
Obviously, if one is mosting likely to find fault with something, it indicates that he wants to do something about it as well as would certainly if he could. If one does not like the criminal activity, viciousness, oppression and also physical violence of this culture, he can do something concerning it. He can come to be a VOLUNTEER PRIEST and assist civilize it, bring it conscience as well as kindness and also love as well as freedom from travail by instilling into it trust fund, decency, honesty as well as tolerance.
Quickly, a Volunteer Minister meets the interpretation of religion in this significantly negative and hopeless globe.
Let’s look again at the meaning of religion.
In a couple of words, religion can be defined as idea in spiritual beings. A lot more extensively, religion can be defined as a system of ideas as well as methods by means of which a team of people fights with the best troubles of human life. The quality of being spiritual implies 2 things: initially, an idea that wickedness, pain, bewilderment and oppression are essential facts of existence; 2nd, a collection of methods as well as relevant sanctified ideas that reveal a conviction that guy can inevitably be saved from those truths. *.
Therefore, a Volunteer Minister is a person who helps his fellow male on a volunteer basis by bring back function, truth and also spiritual worths to the lives of others.
A Volunteer Preacher does not shut his eyes to the pain, wickedness as well as injustice of existence. Instead, he is educated to take care of these points and also help others accomplish relief from them and new personal toughness as well.
How does a Volunteer Priest accomplish these wonders? Essentially, he utilizes the modern technology of Scientology to change problems for the better– for himself, his family members, his teams, friends, partners and also for mankind.
A society to make it through well, requires a minimum of as numerous Volunteer Ministers as it has policemen. A culture obtains what it focuses upon. By focusing on spiritual worths instead of crime a brand-new day might yet dawn for man.