Are the Dark Ages Coming?
Have you ever wondered if we were bound for another dark age? I have... pretty much everything moves in cycles, so wouldn't dark and enlightenned ages cycle, too?
Well, unfortunately I've found recently that things like the lack of tolerance of self expression is potentially one of the major indicators of an age that is changing for the worse. The abuse of the Patriot Act and the stacking of the Supreme Court with justices that may overturn Roe v. Wade and other civil liberties is a start for Western religions.
Check out this article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060208/ts_nm/religion_cartoons_dc. Riots because of somebody portraying another religion's sacred figures in a less-than-holy light is certainly a disturbing fact. How about the even more disturbing response from Jaques Chirac, president of recently-rent-assunder France: in many more words, "for God's sake, please don't piss them off!"
Just think about it for a while, and also read Steven Levitt's Freakonomics, which might give you some more food for thought. But at the end of this, I just have to ask, Does the reduction in tolerance of other people (in general, not just religious) indicate the beginning of a declining Age?
In the words of Mike Myers, "There are two kinds of people in the world that I hate: people who are intolerant of other people's cultures and the Dutch."