Western Civilization Faces a Stark Choice I

[00:02.33]Western Civilization Faces a Stark Choice Ⅰ
[00:10.63]In 1900, most westerners were confident and optimistic,
[00:16.18]full of pride about their civilization.
[00:18.48]Since then, the west has made enormous strides in economic,
[00:22.86]scientific, military, political and social terms.
[00:27.21]Yet the earlier confidence has gone.
[00:30.64]We stopped believing in the ideas
[00:33.18]that drove earlier generations to improve the world.
[00:35.71]Six main ideas made the west, century after century,
[00:39.62]progressively successful, powerful,
[00:42.62]and attractive—Christianity, optimism, science,
[00:46.88]economic growth, individualism and liberalism.
[00:51.31]Are these ideas past their sell-by date?
[00:54.29]Optimism
[00:55.83]The importance of optimism in driving success—
[00:58.52]of individuals, of whole civilizations—
[01:01.16]has been greatly overlooked.
[01:03.63]Optimism comes from three Greek and Christian “myths”—
[01:07.13]the myth of autonomy, the myth of progress
[01:10.64]and the myth of human goodness.
[01:12.71]Creation is ultimately good.
[01:15.37]So, too, are people—God's creation.
[01:17.78]We have stopped believing people are good.
[01:20.42]After 1760, our stories began to feature bad heroes—
[01:25.34]egotistical people, amoral or immoral.
[01:29.49]The last century confirmed a dim view of human nature—
[01:33.08]Freud's ideas, Hitler, two world wars,
[01:37.23]horrific and hateful societies.
[01:39.79]A diminished view of people facilitated these horrors.
[01:43.47]Optimism and pessimism, however, are fancies, not facts.
[01:48.01]Only if we recover belief in human goodness
[01:51.06]can we resume building a better world.
[01:53.05]Christianity
[01:54.90]Western secular values, above all the gods of consumption,
[01:59.16]have trumped Christian ones. Doubt is rampant.
[02:02.51]And Christians today are deeply divided.
[02:04.97]Yet perhaps we need not worry. Christianity transformed the west.
[02:09.78]It was the world's first individualized, activist,
[02:13.42]self-help movement. Ordinary people were encouraged to clean up
[02:17.92]their act and given God's help to do so.
[02:20.11]Everyone had a “soul”; individual human dignity
[02:24.21]and responsibility were greatly enhanced.
[02:26.65]Today many of us do not believe in the soul or Christ.
[02:30.13]In a way, however, we all still believe the Christian message.
[02:34.35]We believe we have a self, just like we have arms and legs.
[02:39.07]With the idea of the soul safely transmuted in the idea of the self,
[02:44.29]Christianity has permanently changed the west.
[02:47.50]The modern self-help movement best exemplifies
[02:50.68]the central Christian innovation-personal responsibility.
[02:54.83]Christianity's crisis does not threaten the west.
[02:57.94]But the attacks on the other five ideas do.
[03:01.05]Science
[03:02.76]Science is preeminently western.
[03:05.47]It

arose through belief in a perfect, rational Creator,
[03:09.32]and in our ability to figure out
[03:11.64]the perfect universe that God created.
[03:13.67]Since 1900, we have lost our faith in science.
[03:17.37]Superstition and mumbo-jumbo abound.
[03:20.25]Science seems to have become weird.
[03:22.91]It portrays a baffling and inscrutable universe,
[03:26.32]ruled by mystery, uncertainty, random chance.
[03:30.13]Also, the dark side of science has emerged:
[03:33.79]monstrous weapons, poisoning the planet.
[03:36.29]Yet science is still fundamentally benign and rational.
[03:40.15]The micro-world might be weird.
[03:42.32]But scientists still follow the scientific method-
[03:45.19]reason and investigation.
[03:47.26]The challenge to understanding is greater,
[03:50.07]but logic and research still hold the key.
[03:52.45]We cannot give up our trust in rationality and sciences,
[03:56.19]for the best forms of civilization depend utterly upon them.