Secularism in Sweden - Where Irreligious Trends Lead After Decades

By Edward Pentin 

ROME, JAN. 12, 2012 (Zenit.org).- To see how disturbing a secularist and increasingly irreligious society can become, one need only look to Sweden. 

Abortion has been free on demand and available without parental consent in the country since 1975, resulting in the Nordic nation having the highest teenage abortion rate in Europe (22.5 per 1,000 girls aged 15-19 in 2009). 

Swedish law does not in any way recognize the right to conscientious objection for health care workers (last year, the Swedish parliament overwhelmingly passed an order instructing Swedish politicians to fight against the rights of doctors to refuse to participate in abortion). 

Meanwhile, sex education is graphic and compulsory, beginning at the age of six, and children from kindergarten age are taught cross-dressing and that whatever feels good sexually is OK. The age of consent is 15.

"We have so many violations of human dignity on so many levels, and so many problems when it comes to social engineering," explained Johan Lundell, secretary-general of the Swedish pro-life group Ja till Livet. "This has been going on for the past 70 years."

Lundell was a guest of ours recently at the Dignitatis Humanae Institute (Institute for Human Dignity) where he laid out a catalogue of offenses against human dignity in Swedish society. "We have the highest teenage abortion rate in Europe. Why? Because we say abortion is a human right, it doesn't kill anything, just takes away a pregnancy," he said. "And after 20 years of this, young people don't care any more. Why should they? For 10 to 15 years no one has even said abortion should be legal but rare."

Its sex education program, seen by some social liberals as groundbreaking but others as far too explicit, has been given by some as the principal reason for a low teenage pregnancy rate. But the high number of abortions among that age group are rarely discussed, nor are the figures disclosed. "No one talks about child abortions," said Lundell. "They're ashamed of them. Yet we're the only country in Europe where there's abortion on demand, there are no formal procedures, no parental consent, no informed consent."

Nor are the number of rapes in Sweden widely known or advertised. Yet according to Lundell, over the past 50 years -- during this era of loose sexual mores -- they have risen by "1,000 percent."  

Lundell further noted that all other countries want to reduce the number of abortions, yet despite having 550 different government departments in Sweden, none has a mission to lower the number of terminations. "Children can see this is wrong, parents can see it's wrong, and as a society we don't want it and yet no one talks about it," Lundell added. "It's absurd."

He said that Sweden should "definitely" be taken as a warning to other countries pursuing secularist, socially liberal policies "because then you can see what the agenda is for people, and how the European Union and the United Nations are copying these Scandinavian ideas." 

Returning to the subject of sex education, Lundell said Swedes generally don't bother any more trying to argue that homosexuality is genetic-- a common argument used to promote the same-sex agenda -- because the movement is now so fully accepted that it no longer needs this argument as a support. "In sex education books, they don't talk about someone being heterosexual or homosexual -- there are no such things because for them everyone is homosexual," he said. 

Lundell referred to a brochure for children published by same-sex associations, and printed with the help of financing by the state. "They write positively about all kinds of sexuality, every kind, even the most depraved sexual acts, and it goes into all schools," he explained. "The information is put on Web sites, and school children are told about the Web sites so they can see it." 

Teachers, he said, are encouraged to ask students "What turns you on?" yet Lundell pointed out that if the chief executive of a company asked that at a business meeting, he'd be fired. "It would be sexual harassment," he said. "And yet you train people to do this to children?" Some parents have made formal complaints, branding it as carnal knowledge, too candid for the classroom and labeling the lessons as "vulgar" and "too advanced." But the majority acquiesce to the curriculum, while the option to homeschool children is almost forbidden. 

Yet to many outsiders, Sweden's popular image is of a fair, ordered, just and harmonious society -- the model example of a functioning welfare state. In many cases this is true if one looks at infant mortality rates, life expectancy, standard of health care and access to education. The level of poverty is also relatively low. 

"It's long been said that if it is not possible to bring about a socialist world in Sweden, then it's not possible anywhere," said Lundell. "That's why some have tried to make it into a socialist paradise. But unlike in, say, Italy or Greece, in Sweden it's not about the socialism of finances but rather the socialism of families -- social engineering, which has been much more visible here than in southern Europe." 

Per Bylund, a Swedish fellow at the Von Mises Institute, once described the all encompassing power of the state thus: "A significant difference between my generation and the preceding one is that most of us were not raised by our parents at all. We were raised by the authorities in state daycare centers from the time of infancy; then pushed on to public schools, public high schools, and public universities; and later to employment in the public sector and more education via the powerful labor unions and their educational associations. The state is ever-present and is to many the only means of survival -- and its welfare benefits the only possible way to gain independence." 

Yet this social engineering has had dire consequences. Few European countries have witnessed such a rapid decline in the institution of marriage, nor such an expeditious rise in abortion. During the 1950s and first half of the 1960s, the marriage rate in Sweden was historically at its peak. Suddenly, the rate started dropping so quickly that it saw a decrease of about 50% in less than 10 years. No other country experienced such a rapid change. 

Between 2000 and 2010, when the rest of Europe was showing signs of a reduction in annual abortion rates, the Swedish government says the rate increased from 30,980 to 37,693. The proportion of repeat abortions rose from 38.1% to 40.4% -- the highest level ever -- while the number of women having at least four previous abortions increased from 521 to approximately 750. 

With the exception of a few stalwart campaigners such as Lundell, most Swedish Christians -- and particularly Christian politicians -- remain silent in the face of the countless social violations against human dignity. Little resistance is also given to attacks on religious freedom for Christians, with priority increasingly being given to Sharia law. 

Judging by the figures, it could almost be said the faith has packed up altogether. At the end of 2009, 71.3% of Swedes belonged to the Lutheran Church of Sweden -- a number that has been decreasing by about one percentage point a year for the last two decades. Of them, only around 2% regularly attend Sunday services. Indeed, some studies have found Swedes to be one of the least religious people in the world and a country with one of the highest numbers of atheists. According to different studies carried out in the early 2000s, between 46% and 85% of Swedes do not believe in God.

Lundell said that although small, the Catholic Church has a good bishop and is helped by immigrants from Poland and Latin America. But Catholics are generally seen as outsiders with little influence and they are wary of overtly campaigning or being seen as "too tough," he said. Even Pentecostals are reticent to raise objections. "They are probably the only Pentecostal church in the world that doesn't," he added. 

But despite all this, Lundell, whose organization is attracting a growing number of young people, remains hopeful -- and he remains ultimately loyal to his home country. "I'm so proud of Sweden I can't imagine moving away," he said. "But I am ashamed of the politics when it comes to the family, sexual politics and restrictions on freedom of religion."

"Whole parts of society aren't Sweden any more," he added. "So we will fight, and we will do so with more eagerness than ever."

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Edward Pentin is a freelance journalist and Communications Director at the Dignitatis Humanae Institute. He can be reached at epentin@zenit.org.

Taken from www.zenit.org  

Submitted by Sr Fabiola OP

Two Interesting Arguments for God: Intelligibility & Desire

I wanted to share two simple arguments for God's existence that I don't see used very often :the argument from intelligibility, and the argument from desire.

I. The Argument from Intelligibility

The argument from intelligibility is one that Pope Benedict is largely responsible for.  Fr. Robert Barron explains the argument in Catholicism (pp. 67-68):

Pope Benedict XVI

In 1968 a young theology professor at the University of Tübingen formulated a neat argument for God's existence that owed a good deal to Thomas Aquinas but also drew on more contemporary sources.  The theologian's name was Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI.  Ratzinger commences with the observation that finite being, as we experience it, is marked, through and through, by intelligibility, that it is to say, by a formal structure that makes it understandable to an inquiring mind.  

In point of fact, all of the sciences - physics, chemistry, psychology, astronomy, biology, and so forth - rest on the assumption that at all levels, microscopic and macroscopic, being can be known.  The same principle was acknowledged in ancient times by Pythagoras, who said that all existing things correspond in numeric value, and in medieval times by the scholastic philsophers who forumlated the dictum omne ens est scibile (all being in knowable). 

Ratzinger argues that the only finally satisfying explanaiton for this universal objective intelligibility is a great Intelligence who has thought the universe into being.  Our language provides an intriguing clue in this regard, for we speak of our acks of knowledge as moments of “recognition,” literally a re-cognition, a thinking again what has already been thought.  Ratzinger cites Einstein in support of this connection: “in the laws of nature, a mind so superior is revealed that in comparison, our minds are as something worthless.” The prologue to the Gospel of John states, “In the beginning was the Word,” and specifies that all things came to be through this divine Logos, implying thereby that the being of the universe is not dumbly there, but rather intelligently there, imbued by a creative mind with intelligible structure.

In other words, all science points to God, since all science requires intelligibility, which in turn, requires an Intelligent Creator.

Einstein

Much time and energy is wasted on the Intelligent Design debate over things like irreducible complexity, that the more fundamental questions aren't being asked.  Whether the universe was a good idea or a bad idea, a holy plan or an evil plan, it's still  an idea, and a plan.  This necessarily requires a Thinker and a Planner.  Consider the stability of math, of the universal constants, of the fundamental interactions.  Two plus two doesn't suddenly equal five, but there's no natural explanation for why these things remain stable (in fact, since these are immaterial truths, materialism can't even approach them).  Yet if two plus two generated a random result, we could never have math or science, never develop any technology, and all existence would be a series of random and inexplicable events that our brains would be incapable of processing.

By the way, while Benedict developed this argument, we see variations of it being made back in the early days of the 300s, when St. Athanasius argued that “if the movement of creation were irrational, and the universe were borne along without plan, a man might fairly disbelieve what we say. But if it subsist in reason and wisdom and skill, and is perfectly ordered throughout, it follows that He that is over it and has ordered it is none other than the [reason or] Word of God.”  So the argument has a pretty solid pedigree, such as it is.

II. The Argument from Desire

C.S. Lewis (in his second appearance on the blog this week) describes the argument from hunger this way, in Mere Christianity (pp. 136-37):

The Christian says ‘Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists. A baby feels hunger: well, there is such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim:: well, there is such a thing as water. Men feel sexual desire: well, there is such a thing as sex. If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.  If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud.  Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing.  If that is so, I must take care, on the one hand, never to despise, or to be unthankful for, these earthly blessings, and on the other, never to mistake them for the something else of which they are only a copy, or echo, or mirage.  I must keep alive in myself the desire for my true country, which I shall not find till after death; I must never let it get snowed under or turned aside; I must make it the main object of life to press on to that other country and to help others do the same.’

This argument is self-explanatory, but let me answer two objections.

Juan de Juanes,
Jesus with the Eucharist (mid-16th c.)

First, the hunger for God may be stronger or weaker for certain people than others.  That's quite natural.  Some people have larger appetites than others, some people are seemingly uninterested (or conversely, obsessed) with sex, etc.  But some degree of a hunger for God exists in every human soul.

Second, while our desires correspond to realities, but they can be corrupted and perverted.  Gluttony is a perversion of our natural desire for food, lust is a perversion of our natural desire for sex, and so on.  But standing back, we can see why hunger (and gluttony) exist, and why sexual desires (and lust) exist.  These are desires that are ordered towards the attainment of specific goals.  So even if the hunger for God gets perverted in some way, this doesn't deny the reality that God exists, and that we long for Him.


Finally, with our desire for God, the appropriate question ought to be: could anything less than God possibly satisfy this hunger?  We try to appease that hunger for God by substituting earthly pleasures: wealth, honor, power, and sensible pleasures (everything from sex to overeating).  But that's like drinking a lot of water when you're hungry for food.  It might fill the void for a while, but it doesn't really satisfy the craving.  Our souls are made with an aching hunger for God.

http://catholicdefense.blogspot.com/2012/01/two-interesting-arguments-for-god.html