Importance of God in the World

[Paul Mackin]

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/02/books/review/02lilla.html


Good reading for p-listers who find American politics bewildering and  
unusual with respect to the importance to it of God and Religion.



".  . . . Today we can be forgiven for thinking that Europe, not the  
United States, is the exception. Wherever we now cast our gaze around  
the globe, we are met with the spectacle of individuals and whole  
cultures set spiritually ablaze, and eager to spread the flame to  
others. The Old World is different: though Christian belief remains  
strong in some European countries, like Poland, and Islam is a potent  
force among Muslims across the Continent, contemporary Europe is the  
closest thing to a godless civilization the world has ever known.  
Does this place it in the vanguard of world history? That is what  
many Europeans think, which is why they have been caught off guard by  
the challenge of radical Islam even in their own backyard. They find  
it hard to believe that people can still take God seriously and want  
to shape society according to his dictates"