Saturday, May 01, 2004

Edmund Burke's Prophecy

I am currently reading Edmund Burke. Here is something interesting that he wrote back in 1790:
We know, and it is our pride to know, that man is by his constitution a religious animal; that atheism is against, not only our reason, but our instincts; and that it cannot prevail long. But if, in the moment of riot, and in a drunken delirium from the hot spirit drawn out of the alembic of hell, which France is now so furiously boiling, we should uncover our nakedness, by throwing off the Christian religion which has hitherto been our boast and comfort, and one great source of civilization amongst us, and amongst many other nations, we are apprehensive (being well aware that the mind will not endure a void) that some uncouth, pernicious, and degrading superstition might take place of it.
Considering that England has "uncovered its nakedness" and has embraced thoroughly the hellish, post-modernist void of secularism, that its empty churches are now hardly better than historical curiosities and quaint landmarks, is it not little wonder that a resurgent, jihadist Islam should rush in to fill the void, both in England, and even more so in France? Though the churches are empty, the mosques are spreading and are crowded, and the message being preached in them is all too often one of violence. What Edmund Burke wrote in "On the Revolution in France" now seems strangely prophetic of what would happen two hundred years later, when Europe began to turned into Eurabia.