One of the more dangerous falsehoods embraced by intellectuals is the idea that man is perfectible. Intellectuals, of course, appoint themselves as those doing the perfecting. This is a form of narcissism, in which man fires the Creator and hires himself in His place. What God failed to do, man would succeed at. The drive to make men perfect has launched a disastrous stream of utopian ideas, including Nazism and Communism.
In a thought provoking article callled "Freedom from Sin," Matthew Anger discusses man's evasion of personal responsibility and embrace of outward blame, e.g., "It's not my fault I murdered a stranger for his wallet, it is my family's, society's, or another race's fault." When "society" sins, the state determines penance. It imposes punishment on the innocent (the rest of society) rather than the guilty (the individual offender). In other words, the state will make things perfect by reshaping the collective. In the process, the state lifts the burden of responsibility from the shoulders of individuals. The former is a recipe for tyranny, the latter for anarchy--neither for perfection.
"The underlying premise of secularism since the Enlightenment is that the consequences of man's fallen nature can be eliminated through physical or political action," Anger writes. "In other words, sin is not an inherent tendency in people, but is something that comes about through purely external influences. As the atheistic Ivan says in Dostoyevsky's Brothers Karamazov, 'men of wisdom and learning will proclaim that there is no such thing as crime, that there is therefore no sin either, that there are only hungry people.'"
Hello Dan.
On the other hand, too many use man being imperfectible as cop out. Too many use organized religion as an excuse, instead of using the "nature of the being" we are Created, as an empowerment. Human beings are goal-oriented -- we set goals, it's what we do to survive. I say leave perfectibility on the table as a goal to shoot for. Original Sin is history's greatest advertising campaign; nothing has done bigger bank.
"Society sins," and "physical or political action" - it all depends on human beings to begin with. We (Right and Left) talk about government and society's ills in a vacuum, like they have problems, solutions and cosnequences all by themselves, or mean something to beings other than the human.
Very nicely put both of you. Great to see intelligent debate instead of ad bacularems and the like.
Warrior knows how I feel about empowerment. God may give us the tools, but what we choose to do with them is just that. There are people who start out with great health, but drink beer like crazy and eat their Super sizers. They waste what gift they were given. I think our Creator takes offense to that.
And God always expects us to meet him halfway. This is why lazy people have nothing.
Be well,
Dwain "Sponge Daddy" Koch
I think Anger's article is more a condemnation of moral relativism than anything else. "Oh, he didn't really want to shoot that poor cashier -- he just happens to have a big car payment and needed the money. He isn't a bad person!" Let's face it, it's become quite fashionable among namby-pamby liberals to indulge in their animal instincts and then try to duck responsibility for consequences by resorting to flimsy, nonsensical excuses.
Good point Mike. That is similar to the discussion I had with my wife about our teenage son's behavior. She kept saying that he was a great kid "compared to the others." Well, yes, but what he did was still WRONG.
Then I threw this one at her....
I am sure people thought Mussolini was better than Hitler (morally). However, this doesn't lessen the fact that Mussolini was still pig Sh_t.
Throw that one at the moral relativists.
Be well,
Dwain "Sponge Daddy" Koch
