Taleb on Christianity

There’s a lot of interesting stuff in Taleb’s latest piece on Christianity.

It’s a lot of what you’d expect, but succinctly said:

• Modern nationalism is essentially a Christian heresy
• Western Atheism is just the next cycle of the Protestant reformation, also making it a uniquely Christian heresy
• Christianity had some radical ethical and philosophical positions that are still shaping society to this day

Merging the second and third point, Western Europe is a society infused with a Christian ethos, even if the outward practice of Christianity is closing in on zero percent of the population of the Netherlands. The deeply rooted societal concerns of justice, fairness, social welfare, concern for how actions will affect posterity are very Christian.

Oddly enough, I don’t feel that cultural ethos in the US, despite Christianity being so widely practiced there.