RE: Danahy on Body Counts

["Doug Jones" <credenda@moscow.com>]

Doug Jones wrote:

> You surely don't want to get into a body count
> between Modernity and Christianity? It would take centuries to catch
up to
> Modernity's guillotines, warfare, nukes, and death camps -- so much of
it explicitly in
> the name of tolerance too. More façade.

John Danahy wrote:

> 
> How can I go down a road that doesn't exist?  Again you assume a core
belief
> of Modernity and assign it some validity.  Modernity does not exist
except
> as an assumption upon the part of a few.
> 

I'm sure you're sincere, and I hope you'd count me that way too, but in
terms of the discussion you have to realize what a jaw-dropper this sort
of claim is. Just in terms of understanding each other sympathetically,
you have to know that this sort of comment about the nonexistence of
Modernity comes across to this side as something on par with a devout
Muslim insisting that there is no Islamic worldview, all the while
citing the Koran in every email. I know you don't buy or see that
because Modernity is invisible to you, but it stands out in sharp relief
to those who don't share your paradigm. Modernity tends to be a very
insular, narrow worldview that doggedly guards itself from criticism. 

As for the existence of Modernity being "an assumption of a few," as if
some local cranks were making all this "modernity" stuff up, take a look
at an online bookstore like Amazon.com. A simple search on "modernity"
there brings up a mere 1038 books with authors expounding, delimiting,
and criticizing the worldview of Modernity in some way or other. And
next semester, the history department at the Univ. of Idaho is teaching
a whole course (HIST 366) on modernity. 

But to suggest that people learn a bit about their worldview was labeled
by another contributor as arrogant. Tell me, though, how would you try
to convince a devout Muslim that Islam is indeed his/her worldview? And
that its assumptions show up in every single, "obvious" truth-claim that
pervades "Muslim public schools"? I'm at a loss. 

Back to picking up my jaw,
Doug Jones