The Great Dilemma (part III)

The leftists who have mercilessly hammered away at religion and tradition in Europe and the United States are correct that the said phenomena have had some negative consequences. But, they have failed to ask some very important questions:

1. Does man and society have the need for beliefs and traditions that transcend the individual?

2. Can a society optimally function without shared values and beliefs and conversely, what are the prospects of a society driven by moral relativism and individual philosophies?

3. Perhaps educated elevated individuals can function in the vacuum of cultural relativism, but how does the absence of shared values and traditions effect the mass of people who lack the education or desire to create their own viable, individual moral philosophy?

4. If you doubt the importance of values in determining behavior, tell us - why do some poor and hungry people maintain high levels of conduct, while some wealthy individuals continue to steal from their fellow man?

5. Shared values, traditions and institutions have served to govern the behavior of many individuals and communities. Tocqueville believe that the unique combination of domestic tranquility and limited government found in the United States was a distinct product of the power of religious values and institutions in America.

So, could it be said that the price we are paying for our "liberation" from less coercive traditional values and institutions is the growth of coercive state authority?

6. Is it by coincidence that the most horrific violence of the last century was propagated by regimes (communist & nazis) that sought to overturn the Judeo-Christian foundation of their societies?

7. The manner in which many individuals have pursued communism, anti-racism, environmentalism, consumerism etc. have had a distinct religious impulse. Does this imply that perhaps man is born with a religious impulse? If not expressed through traditional religion, will it will be channeled through any number of