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 The Jewish-Christian God and the Islamic god Allah are very different. They don't have human flaws and are all-powerful. Belief in such gods demands more from a worshiper. A philandering worshiper in ancient Greece may take comfort that Zeus also does the same but not those of monotheistic religions.

If he thinks that he has offended Zeus, he can turn to Hera or other gods. For followers of monotheistic religions, there is no escape. Unlike a worshiper of the Kitchen god, the Christian or Muslim cannot hope to bribe their God. What this means is that monotheistic religions are better at compelling their worshipers to abide by the prescribed code of conduct.

Of course not all polytheistic gods are undemanding. The Japanese god-emperor during the Second World War demanded and got kamikaze pilots to die for him. In general however, I think it is safe to say that most polytheistic gods are too human like, too varied in their emphasis and too lacking in perceived power to demand much from their worshipers.

Also, judging from Roman/Greek gods, it is not clear to me if there is much of a cohesive code of conduct. Each god seems to encourage different behavior or different lifestyle. For example, Pan (6) is the Greek god of music, sexuality, sensuality and creativity. Those who aspire to a life of women, wine and song will find Pan a very suitable god to worship. Roman soldiers, on the other hand may prefer Mars, the god of war. Farmers and hunters would worship Diane. It creates a very tolerant or if you like a very permissive society.

There seems to be a god to suit every lifestyle. All gods and all lifestyles are tolerated. It is this third observation about polytheistic religion that struck me as similar to modern secularism. In the modern secular world, there is increasing tolerance of all kinds of lifestyle. Once upon a time in the west, having a child out of wedlock was considered shameful.

Today being a single mother is a lifestyle choice and soon same sex marriage will become accepted in law in the US as it is increasingly acceptable in Europe . After that I predict that sex with minors will also become acceptable. As western society deChristianizes, even the concept of marriage could change. The Christian concept of marriage consisting of one man, one wife till death to us part may also end.

Group marriages of three or more partners of varying combinations and different time duration could become acceptable. Secularism engenders the same kind of tolerant (or permissive) attitudes that polytheism once did.

Everything becomes relative. There is no good or bad. What is good to you may be bad to another. Without the discipline of an omnipotent, omni-present monotheistic god with one standard of prescribed behavior, there is no fixed standard of what is good and bad, right and wrong. Everybody is free to decide for themselves. All gods and lifestyles are permitted and tolerated.

This is why you get political correctness, multi-culturalism and moral relativity which makes it difficult to criticize Islam. As a result of this nonsense, western countries give Islamists the right of residence and often housing and unemployment benefits even though they make no bones about wanting to destroy the very societies that are so generous to them.

Secularism dulls the ability to see that Islam poses a danger to freedom in the west. In the name of multi-culturalism, you end up tolerating those that do not tolerate you and wishes to destroy you. Multi-culturalism is the product of those who are unsure of their own values and this is the result of the loss in religious faith.

You can see the effect of the different attitudes between the secular Blue States that voted for Kerry and the Red States that voted for Bush. Red state people, who are more religious voted Bush. While they may not comprehend the war on terrorism fully, they at least see this as a fight between good and evil.

Kerry on the other hand promised to fight the war “sensitively”. This suggests to me that his target audience thinks that America 's enemies in Iraq (the Jihadist who want an Islamic state and the remnants of Saddam's Baathists) have somehow got a legitimate grievance against America . People who are tolerant of every lifestyle and every kind of value system cannot recognize evil even when it is staring them in their face. Even the intolerable must be tolerated. Red state people, being more confident of their own values simply think America 's enemies are evil.

Secularism accounts for Europe 's opposition to the war. Europe today is, I suspect, similar to the situation in Mecca 1,400 years ago. The Polytheistic Meccans then were no match for Islam. They tolerated Mohammed for far too long and could not see the danger his ideas were to their society. Also Islam is a religion whose god is viewed as all powerful and can thus demand great sacrifices such as martyrdom from its followers. This gave Mohamed a decisive military advantage which Meccan gods did not confer upon their worshipers.

A secular European is likely to shrug his shoulders when told of Bernard Lewis's comment that Europe is likely to become Arabic and Muslim by the end of this century. So what? We won't be here. Eat, drink and be merry. Unlike their ancestors who could be moved to undertake the construction of Cathedrals that won't be completed within their life-times, today's secular minded Europeans do not care what is going to happen after their life-times.

Europe 's salvation from Islamic takeover may depend in large part on reviving Christian beliefs, if that is possible. Secularism and polytheism engenders a tolerant (or permissive) culture that is too hedonistic, too short-term, too lacking in moral fiber to defend itself against Islam's aggressive monotheism.

But those who dislike all religions and dismiss them as superstitions may take umbrage at my suggestion that the west and especially Europe needs to revive Christianity. Didn't Christianity stifled science as Islam did? Didn't Christianity bring forth witch-hunts and the Inquisition? What about the Crusades? I will answer each charge.

Its true that Science and Christianity had clashed before notably in the case of Galileo which I wrote about in my earlier article, "How Islam failed Muslims".

More recently, there was the Scopes trial and Bush's ban on stem cell research. These are high profile cases that obscure the other side of the ledger. Christianity, had in fact, been good for science and helped facilitate the scientific revolution.

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