I agree with Krauthammer....

[Lanya]

http://www.townhall.com/Columnists/CharlesKrauthammer/2007/12/13/knee-deep_in_religion?page=full&comments=true

[Xavier_Onassis]

 Romney has been faulted for not throwing at least one bone of acknowledgment to nonbelievers in his big religion speech last week. But he couldn't, because the theme of the speech was that there was something special about having your values drawn from religious faith. Indeed, faith is politically indispensable. "Freedom requires religion," Romney declared, "just as religion requires freedom."

But this is nonsense -- as Romney then proceeded to demonstrate in that very same speech. He spoke of the empty cathedrals in Europe. He's right about that: Postwar Europe has experienced the most precipitous decline in religious belief in the history of the West. Yet Europe is one of the freest precincts on the planet. It is an open, vibrant, tolerant community of more than two dozen disparate nations living in a pan-continental harmony and freedom unseen in all previous European history.

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I rarely agree with Krauthammer, but he is dead right about this.

Religion is not necessary to freedom at all. What freedom requires is tolerance, not a belief in a benevolent omnipotent sky creature.

[Plane]

While the grand Cathedrals of Europe empty out ,the Modest Mosques fill , the birthrate for most Europeans is less than replacement , and they are importing a lot of Turks to make up the difference.

Europes freedom is fragile because the people lack vision , purpose , even motivation.

So they need to be replaced , by people who have a vision.

Proverbs 29
18Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.

[Xavier_Onassis]

While the grand Cathedrals of Europe empty out ,the Modest Mosques fill , the birthrate for most Europeans is less than replacement , and they are importing a lot of Turks to make up the difference.

Europes freedom is fragile because the people lack vision , purpose , even motivation.
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That is rot. There is more vision in Europe today than in the US.

Most Turks are not anymore serious about Islam than Europeans are about their religion.

[BT]

There is more vision in Europe today than in the US.

What is the European Vision?

[Xavier_Onassis]

What is the European Vision?

Unity, harmony, respect for other countries, languages and cultures. Peace through negotiation rather than armed conflict.
Secular government (possibly with the exception of Poland).
The view that religion is a rather quaint cultural attribute, but with respect for cathedrals, monasteries, and other church buildings.
Religion is viewed by more people as folklore (like national dress and traditional music and customs) than as some sort of infallible book that no politician would dare criticize./

Pretty much the opposite of Tom Tancredo's vision.

[Plane]

What is the European Vision?

Unity, harmony, respect for other countries, languages and cultures. Peace through negotiation rather than armed conflict.
Secular government (possibly with the exception of Poland).
The view that religion is a rather quaint cultural attribute, but with respect for cathedrals, monasteries, and other church buildings.
Religion is viewed by more people as folklore (like national dress and traditional music and customs) than as some sort of infallible book that no politician would dare criticize./

Pretty much the opposite of Tom Tancredo's vision.

No wonder they are dieing off.

[Xavier_Onassis]

A negative increase in the population is not "dying off".
IT only means that Europeans are concentrating on quality rather than quantity when it comes to their children.

There is a negative population growth among White Americans with graduate school educations as well.

[gipper]

The present state of happy secularism in Europe almost certainly would not have occurred without the deep religious strain in the continent for centuries and the catastrophes that such an orientation brought. While I won't go so far as to particularly assess cause and effect, the history cannot be denied. Maybe it's a natural developmental sequence for that part of the world and its peculiar characteristics. Thus, to the extent Europe is now an enlightened enclave, its historical precursors may play a determinative role in its present nature. The more interesting question is whether this outcome was possible with a different history, preferably one free of the strife and suffering.

[Xavier_Onassis]

The more interesting question is whether this outcome was possible with a different history, preferably one free of the strife and suffering.

You mean WOULD HAVE BEEN possible.

Would we have been better off if all the Muslim cultures were Buddhist? Would we be better off if everyone were Buddhist?