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Are These the New Dark Ages?
The period between the 400s and the late 900s A.D. was termed The Dark Ages by scholars who later lamented that during that epoch almost all love for learning, art and craftsmanship disappeared in Western Europe.

During the Middle Ages a vibrant cultural commitment to discovery and progress was replaced by the preference for popular myths, fabrications and rumors, which were used by both the religious and political leaders to regulate the aspirations and fears of the masses. It is often forgotten, however, that during this dark period in Western Christianity’s history the Muslims developed a splendidly progressive civilization that stretched from Spain to China.

Behind the frenetic agenda of the political and religious right in America today lies a profound angst over the unspoken awareness that American civilization is most likely entering a profound period of economic, religious and cultural descendency. They know that our ability to claim pre-eminence in these areas certainly will soon be openly questioned by the world. Even our military pre-eminence cannot for much longer rescue us from our fading sense of supremacy.

This fear--that America is facing a significant period of economic, religious and cultural decline--is actually the essential root cause of the social anxiety which is behind much of the political and religious right’s recent achievements.

Evangelical fundamentalists are on a ruthless crusade to “save America” from what they perceive is its potential destruction from within.

They identify liberalism as the culprit, but they are sorely mistaken. The real danger for the world is religious fundamentalism. The most frightening aspect of this crusade is comfort level of fundamentalists with regards to an apocalyptic resolution of this conflict if their agenda of cultural redemption cannot be achieved.

The irony is that the world’s fundamentalists of every tradition have this in common, whether Christian, Jew or Muslim. They are distraught over the perceived losses and declines of their particular culture, and they are willing to use all means available to purge their culture of all people working for the cause of enlightenment and rationality....