Lord Sacks - CathNews New Zealand https://cathnews.co.nz Catholic News New Zealand Wed, 08 Jun 2016 23:07:42 +0000 en-NZ hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.7.1 https://cathnews.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/cropped-cathnewsfavicon-32x32.jpg Lord Sacks - CathNews New Zealand https://cathnews.co.nz 32 32 70145804 Low birth rates could see West fall like Rome: Rabbi https://cathnews.co.nz/2016/06/10/low-birth-rates-see-west-fall-like-rome-rabbi/ Thu, 09 Jun 2016 17:13:15 +0000 http://cathnews.co.nz/?p=83595

Western civilisation is on the brink of a collapse like ancient Rome because the will to raise children is lacking, a former UK Chief Rabbi has warned. Lord Jonathan Sacks said European society as it currently is "will die" because of a demographic crisis. He warned that even mass immigration is not a solution because of Read more

Low birth rates could see West fall like Rome: Rabbi... Read more]]> Western civilisation is on the brink of a collapse like ancient Rome because the will to raise children is lacking, a former UK Chief Rabbi has warned.

Lord Jonathan Sacks said European society as it currently is "will die" because of a demographic crisis.

He warned that even mass immigration is not a solution because of problems integrating new arrivals into existing society.

Lord Sacks gave an interview to the Daily Telegraph after receiving The Templeton Prize for his work promoting religious understanding.

In the interview, he said similar falling birth rates had been the hallmark of the last days of the Roman Empire.

There was, he said, "no question" that this poses a serious threat to the future of western civilisation as it has been known.

"The contemporary historian[s] of ancient Greece and ancient Rome saw their civilisations begin their decline and fall, both the Greeks and the Romans attributed it to falling birth rates because nobody wanted the responsibilities of bringing up children," he said.

"They were too focussed on enjoying the present to make the sacrifices necessary to build the future . . . all the historians of civilisation have told the same story."

"Europe is going to die because of this because Europe can only maintain its population by unprecedented levels of immigration," said the former Chief Rabbi.

"Now those could be integrated into Europe but they won't be integrated into Europe because when a culture loses its memory it loses its identity and when a culture loses its identity there's nothing left for people to integrate into."

He argued that demographic change could be linked a loss of religious faith in the West, which for centuries has been associated with a high regard for the institution of the family.

"Contemporary historians . . . right now, have failed to find a single historical example of a society that became secularised and maintained its birth rate over subsequent centuries," he argued.

He added: "That's how great civilisations decline and fall."

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Low birth rates could see West fall like Rome: Rabbi]]> 83595 For once, Richard Dawkins is lost for words https://cathnews.co.nz/2012/02/17/for-once-richard-dawkins-is-lost-for-words/ Thu, 16 Feb 2012 18:31:17 +0000 http://cathnews.co.nz/?p=19256

Atheists' arrogance is their Achilles' heel, as a cringemaking radio performance has proved. Which of us hasn't groaned when the Rev Giles Fraser, former canon of St Paul's, pops up with his Thought for the Day on Radio 4? Dr Fraser is the archetypal 21st-century vicar, as predictably Lefty as he is drearily on-trend. That Read more

For once, Richard Dawkins is lost for words... Read more]]> Atheists' arrogance is their Achilles' heel, as a cringemaking radio performance has proved.

Which of us hasn't groaned when the Rev Giles Fraser, former canon of St Paul's, pops up with his Thought for the Day on Radio 4? Dr Fraser is the archetypal 21st-century vicar, as predictably Lefty as he is drearily on-trend. That "former" prefix is because, you'll recall, he resigned after welcoming the Occupy protesters to his cathedral. And since leaving St Paul's he has, in a form of caricature made flesh, become a Guardian leader writer. But I take it all back. Giles Fraser, you are now my hero.

In a discussion on the Today programme yesterday, Dr Fraser skewered the atheist campaigner Richard Dawkins so fabulously, so stylishly, and so thoroughly that anti-religion's high priest was reduced to incoherent mumbling and spluttering.

The two men were debating some new figures produced by Prof Dawkins's think tank, the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science. (A typical Dawkins touch: not just any old Foundation for Reason and Science but the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science.) The statistics purport to show that most people who identify themselves as Christian turn out, when questioned on what they actually think, to be "overwhelmingly secular in their attitudes on issues ranging from gay rights to religion in public life". Dawkins's conclusion is that these self-identified Christians are "not really Christian at all".

If you were trying to come up with a definition of misplaced intellectual arrogance, you could not do better than having the planet's most famous atheist issuing diktats on who does and doesn't count as a proper Christian. Prof Dawkins then announced, triumphantly, that an "astonishing number [of Christians] couldn't identify the first book in the New Testament".

The transcript of the next minute or so only hints at how cringingly, embarrassingly bad it was for Dawkins.

Fraser: Richard, if I said to you what is the full title of The Origin Of Species, I'm sure you could tell me that.

Dawkins: Yes I could.

Fraser: Go on then.

Dawkins: On the Origin of Species…Uh…With, oh, God, On the Origin of Species. There is a sub-title with respect to the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life.

It was a golden minute of radio. But as well as being hilarious, it was hugely symbolic. In The Daily Telegraph yesterday, Baroness Warsi highlighted the militant secularism on the march in Britain. But as Dr Fraser revealed, the atheist army is led by an embarrassingly feeble general. The arrogance and intolerance of the atheists, exemplified by Prof Dawkins, is their Achilles' heel. Read more

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