Why western obsession with freedom?

Western freedom stems from the historical struggle in Europe between the Church and the academics. The academics saw the Church as a roadblock to progress. The Church, on the other hand, wanted to retain its centuries old grip upon Christian masses. The conflict ended in a �peace initiative� � the Church would pass sovereignty to the secular elites and they would allow the Church to control the masses �spiritually� � in their personal lives, that is.

The �intellectuals� wanted to relegate all religion to the whims of a powerful minority in the western society so that they could establish the thought and the system that would govern the masses while all the power and wealth in the hands of a few. This resulted in the establishment of the �capitalist society�, which dictates that man has various �freedoms�; the freedom of belief, personal freedom, freedom of opinion, and the best of all � freedom to rob others as long as he toe in with the rest of the crooks.

True, although I would say that nowdays the balance would be easier to reach in places where _education_ prevails, rather than faith because not everyone has faith, and - as you point out- faith cannot be forced upon people.

Kim...

Seriously, i have no idea, sorry. Someone once said "in the USA you have freedom OF religion and in Australia you have freedom FROM religion".

The difference they were trying to emphasize is that in America (it appears), any religious group can stand up and shout a lot and annoy the hell out of everyone and have stupid tv programs and grab loads of money and everyone goes to church in order to look like they are good people (ie: it's a lot of superficial tripe), but in Australia religion is a personal thing and you do NOT shove it at people. You don't make lots of noise, you don't try to convert people and you don't have stupid tv programs.

We aren't a religious bunch - church attendances have been falling for years, but then I'm sure many people will say that they believe in God, they just don't like His/Her fanclubs.  ;)  And it's true, more people probably would be happy to be religious if the religions and religious leaders themselves weren't so annoying.

It's funny you know, I sing in choirs. By far the majority of the most beautiful music we sing is religious. It's rarely in English and it's music written _especially_ for the church, but it's an easy guess to make that the majority of us singing it are not religious AT ALL. But we love it. Beautiful, gorgeous music meant to inspire.

Kim...

You know nothing. Jewish holidays are not national holidays in Australia.

Apparently your ignorance towers almost as high as your arrogance.

Kim...