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Architects of the Culture of Death
The phrase, "the Culture of Death", is bandied about as a catch-all term that covers abortion, euthanasia and other attacks on the sanctity of life. In Architects of the Culture of Death, authors Donald DeMarco and Benjamin Wiker expose the Culture of Death as an intentional and malevolent ideology promoted by influential thinkers who specifically attack Christian morality's core belief in the sanctity of human life and the existence of man's immortal soul. In scholarly, yet reader-friendly prose, DeMarco and Wiker examine the roots of the Culture of Death by introducing 23 of its architects, including Ayn Rand, Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, Jean-Paul Sartre, Alfred Kinsey, Margaret Sanger, Jack Kevorkian, and Peter Singer.
Still, this is not a book without hope. If the Culture of Death rests on a fragmented view of the person and an eclipse of God, the future of the Culture of Life relies on an understanding and restoration of the human being as a person, and the rediscovery of a benevolent God. The personalism of John Paul II is an illuminating thread that runs through Architects, serving as a hopeful antidote.
410 pages, Paperback
First published October 30, 2004
45 people are currently reading
365 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
December 30, 2019
This is not an easy book for me to review. In one way, it was eye-opening, for it does criticize some things that need to be criticized. I knew of most if not all individuals in this book, their biographies are known to me but this book does offer a new (albeit not always objective) perspective. I did feel I learned something new. On the other hand, I don't think the authors were fully objective. Generally speaking, I feel that the writing in this book was a too ideological, emotional and quick to interpret things in their own view. The quotes are often taken out of the context and placed at some places just to add weight to the author's opinions.
Nevertheless, this is an interesting book. A bit on the shallow side, a bit self-indulgent, it loses itself in criticism and fails to offer solid intellectual arguments to some of the issues discussed. However, I do respect the authors for writing it and for voicing opinions that aren't popular. I don't agree with everything they are saying in this book. In fact, there are many things I don't agree with. I think their approach to most subjects wasn't professional and objective enough. For example, their critics of Darwin was just silly and I completely disagree with their views on this subject. That being said, they did hit the nail on the head in many chapters. For example, this book shows how some celebrated philosophers were notorious women haters (and ironically these are the ones who are the popular with feminist). This book questions the extreme liberalism and materialism of our times and for that it deserves praise. I only wish it was less ideologically charged, that's all.
I feel I'm not the targeted audience for this book. The targeted audience I feel are the conservative folks. I'm not sure what I am, but I'm neither a liberal nor a conservative. At times, this book is quite gossipy and I didn't like that. I could see how the authors expected us to get all worked out about how many times someone was married or how many sexual partners they had. Honestly, I couldn't care less about that. What I did appreciate is how this book showed the hypocrisy of certain modern celebrities, philosophers and false scientists. What bothered me the most is how I felt that this book was trying to emotionally manipulate me into agreeing with the author and was even patronizing at times. I didn't care for that at all. To sum up, I'm glad I have read this book even if it was quite disappointing in some ways. I would even recommend it, but do read it with a grain of salt. There is some solid criticism in it, but don't expect too much depth from it.
Nevertheless, this is an interesting book. A bit on the shallow side, a bit self-indulgent, it loses itself in criticism and fails to offer solid intellectual arguments to some of the issues discussed. However, I do respect the authors for writing it and for voicing opinions that aren't popular. I don't agree with everything they are saying in this book. In fact, there are many things I don't agree with. I think their approach to most subjects wasn't professional and objective enough. For example, their critics of Darwin was just silly and I completely disagree with their views on this subject. That being said, they did hit the nail on the head in many chapters. For example, this book shows how some celebrated philosophers were notorious women haters (and ironically these are the ones who are the popular with feminist). This book questions the extreme liberalism and materialism of our times and for that it deserves praise. I only wish it was less ideologically charged, that's all.
I feel I'm not the targeted audience for this book. The targeted audience I feel are the conservative folks. I'm not sure what I am, but I'm neither a liberal nor a conservative. At times, this book is quite gossipy and I didn't like that. I could see how the authors expected us to get all worked out about how many times someone was married or how many sexual partners they had. Honestly, I couldn't care less about that. What I did appreciate is how this book showed the hypocrisy of certain modern celebrities, philosophers and false scientists. What bothered me the most is how I felt that this book was trying to emotionally manipulate me into agreeing with the author and was even patronizing at times. I didn't care for that at all. To sum up, I'm glad I have read this book even if it was quite disappointing in some ways. I would even recommend it, but do read it with a grain of salt. There is some solid criticism in it, but don't expect too much depth from it.
July 23, 2013
A great look at how we got where we are today in the secular world which for me seems so far off the mark from what we were created to be. At times this was a difficult read for me. Honestly, my mind doesn't think the way so many of these philosopher do/ did so I had to go slow to really wrap my mind around what they thought and what their motivations were. At the end and overall, I would recommend this book to many like- minded people ( like-minded to myself) as well as to those who I find myself engaging in deep discussions of opposition to my thoughts with.
February 24, 2020
Malo drugačije štivo od onog na koje se uobičajeno osvrćem na ovim stranicama… Trebalo mi je malo da se prilagodim, ali, kad se čitatelj prebaci u taj mod, pred njim je izvanredno djelo, koncizno i jasno napisano.
Fokus autora je na filozofima od druge polovice 19. stoljeća naovamo, koji su prema stavu autora, arhitekti kulture smrti, ili Kulture smrti, što će reći, filozofi koji su utjecali na strujanja društvene svijesti i stava o pobačaju, eutanaziji, seksualnosti, eugenici i sl. Zanimljivost knjige je što, osim pregleda temeljnih postavki filozofije tih arhitekata, dobivamo uvid i u živote istih, koji otkrivaju moguće razloge za iznjedrenje takvih filozofija.
Spomenutim filozofijama autori suprotstavljaju vrijednosti iz filozofije personalizma Jacquesa Maritaina i Karola Wojtyle (Ivana Pavla II). Tvrdi uvez je u knjižari Verbum rasprodano, ne čudim se…
Fokus autora je na filozofima od druge polovice 19. stoljeća naovamo, koji su prema stavu autora, arhitekti kulture smrti, ili Kulture smrti, što će reći, filozofi koji su utjecali na strujanja društvene svijesti i stava o pobačaju, eutanaziji, seksualnosti, eugenici i sl. Zanimljivost knjige je što, osim pregleda temeljnih postavki filozofije tih arhitekata, dobivamo uvid i u živote istih, koji otkrivaju moguće razloge za iznjedrenje takvih filozofija.
Spomenutim filozofijama autori suprotstavljaju vrijednosti iz filozofije personalizma Jacquesa Maritaina i Karola Wojtyle (Ivana Pavla II). Tvrdi uvez je u knjižari Verbum rasprodano, ne čudim se…
January 31, 2008
A great collection of the biographies of some of the folks who have led the secular humanist charge against the sanctity of human life. Their pronouncements declaring social "enlightenment" and protestations railing against tradition, family, religion, and a basic respect for the dignity of human life, are little more than thinly veiled attempts to further institutionalize the secularist agenda.
July 28, 2014
Not particularly a fun book to read, but you will want to read it for the information if you are for the right to life. The book is divided into seven sections:
1. The Will Worshipers
Arthur Schopenhauer
Friedrich Nietzsche
Ayn Rand
2. The Eugenic Evolutionists
Charles Darwin
Francis Galton
Ernst Haeckel
3. The Secular Utopianists
Karl Marx
Auguste Comte
Judith Jarvis Thomson
4. The Atheistic Existentialists
Jean-Paul Sartre
Simone de Beauvoir
Elisabeth Badinter
5. The Pleasure Seekers
Sigmund Freud
Wilhelm Reich
Helen Gurley Brown
6. The Sex Planners
Margaret Mead
Alfred Kinsey
Margaret Sanger
Clarence Gamble
Alan Guttmacher
7. The Death Peddlers
Derek Humphry
Jack Kevorkian
Peter Singer
One thing that bugged me about this book is that it refers to the Pope as "The Holy Father". I find this blasphemous. Still, if you care about the right to life issue you should read this.
1. The Will Worshipers
Arthur Schopenhauer
Friedrich Nietzsche
Ayn Rand
2. The Eugenic Evolutionists
Charles Darwin
Francis Galton
Ernst Haeckel
3. The Secular Utopianists
Karl Marx
Auguste Comte
Judith Jarvis Thomson
4. The Atheistic Existentialists
Jean-Paul Sartre
Simone de Beauvoir
Elisabeth Badinter
5. The Pleasure Seekers
Sigmund Freud
Wilhelm Reich
Helen Gurley Brown
6. The Sex Planners
Margaret Mead
Alfred Kinsey
Margaret Sanger
Clarence Gamble
Alan Guttmacher
7. The Death Peddlers
Derek Humphry
Jack Kevorkian
Peter Singer
One thing that bugged me about this book is that it refers to the Pope as "The Holy Father". I find this blasphemous. Still, if you care about the right to life issue you should read this.
January 8, 2016
I have read this whole book once and parts of it many times. It's a great to read and then have it around for a reference. You are well informed about many of these bad guys but some of these folks are highly celebrated in our culture
even by some conservatives who apparently don't know the whole story.
Understanding the negative impact on society these deviants have had is great info to have on hand when your kids study them in school.
even by some conservatives who apparently don't know the whole story.
Understanding the negative impact on society these deviants have had is great info to have on hand when your kids study them in school.
October 26, 2013
Short chapters to give evidence to how people influenced our society. Margaret Sanger, Ayn Rand, Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, Jean-Paul Sartre, Alfred Kinsey to name a few. Ayn Rand was an atheist, however, given her intellect, I think that if she were alive today and could see the development of the human in the womb, she would be anti-abortion (or at least, mostly anti-abortion).
June 4, 2010
In spite of the religious bias, it is a pretty good book.
November 3, 2022
A nice companion book to Intellectuals: From Marx and Tolstoy to Sartre and Chomsky and The Idea of Decline in Western History.
The introduction sets the tone, with the extremely prescient note of intellectuals and demonic narcissists "attempt[ing] to set up and earthy paradise through force" and death.
And, the focus on governments set up to manipulate the meaning of human life, redefining it by manipulating the family, connection to community and sexuality.
All of which are paramount to the modern day totalitarian socialist tactics of the day.
A couple of key points jump out:
* The efforts to depersonalize by grouping people into identity groups and groups of grievance carriers.
the cult of self-worship and the inner cult believing in their GodHood, since they have so fervently embraced the death of God.
* The truly ill Elisabeth Badinter, the philosopher in favour of bestiality, men carrying babies to term, the erasure of sex differences, the proponent of incest.
* Freud thinking he is Moses.
* The absolutism and megalomania of "freedom loving liberals". Their hatred of authority and their quick, evil glee at imposing their iron hell views on anyone around them. A shuffle con.
* The removal of rules and guidelines handed down from centuries of testing, in favour of their [the persons profiled in this book] perversions normalized.
* The continual swapping of vice for virtue.
* The Nikolai Gogal quote "It is sad not to see the good in goodness".
* The nymphomaniac Sanger telling her granddaughter intercourse three times day is about right.
* The soulless and gutter brutality of the amoral Kevorkian and Peter Singer.
* The justification for killing Caeser (I will not spoil that one, Julius Caesar) that leads to culling of populations for their own good, without remorse. Think on that one for a while. You are bound to come up with some examples.
-------------
Then the worst stuff that was left out:
* Kinsey raping children, and sex-torturing infants, for "research"
* Sanger wanting to lower black birth rates
* Nietzsche going crazy after seeing a horse beaten, but having zero respect for human dignity.
-------------
Who needs lizard people from another dimension when these people still influence "intellectual" discourse and public policy?
At least, we do get finally get the kind light and intelligence of the Personalism of John Paul II as some measure of integrated personhood and moral decency.
Tough read.
The introduction sets the tone, with the extremely prescient note of intellectuals and demonic narcissists "attempt[ing] to set up and earthy paradise through force" and death.
And, the focus on governments set up to manipulate the meaning of human life, redefining it by manipulating the family, connection to community and sexuality.
All of which are paramount to the modern day totalitarian socialist tactics of the day.
A couple of key points jump out:
* The efforts to depersonalize by grouping people into identity groups and groups of grievance carriers.
the cult of self-worship and the inner cult believing in their GodHood, since they have so fervently embraced the death of God.
* The truly ill Elisabeth Badinter, the philosopher in favour of bestiality, men carrying babies to term, the erasure of sex differences, the proponent of incest.
* Freud thinking he is Moses.
* The absolutism and megalomania of "freedom loving liberals". Their hatred of authority and their quick, evil glee at imposing their iron hell views on anyone around them. A shuffle con.
* The removal of rules and guidelines handed down from centuries of testing, in favour of their [the persons profiled in this book] perversions normalized.
* The continual swapping of vice for virtue.
* The Nikolai Gogal quote "It is sad not to see the good in goodness".
* The nymphomaniac Sanger telling her granddaughter intercourse three times day is about right.
* The soulless and gutter brutality of the amoral Kevorkian and Peter Singer.
* The justification for killing Caeser (I will not spoil that one, Julius Caesar) that leads to culling of populations for their own good, without remorse. Think on that one for a while. You are bound to come up with some examples.
-------------
Then the worst stuff that was left out:
* Kinsey raping children, and sex-torturing infants, for "research"
* Sanger wanting to lower black birth rates
* Nietzsche going crazy after seeing a horse beaten, but having zero respect for human dignity.
-------------
Who needs lizard people from another dimension when these people still influence "intellectual" discourse and public policy?
At least, we do get finally get the kind light and intelligence of the Personalism of John Paul II as some measure of integrated personhood and moral decency.
Tough read.
September 5, 2023
Zbog same teme djelo nije jednostavno za čitanje, ali detaljno objašnjava svjetonazor ljudi koji su utjecali na formiranje suvremene kulture smrti (Nietzsche, Kinsey, Rand,...), nastale zbog sumnjivih interesa. Tko želi bolje shvatiti kulturu koja ide na štetu života i zašto se suvremena globalna kultura nalazi u trenutnom stanju, ova knjiga može poslužiti kao vodič.
Čitatelj ujedno bolje razumije koliko okolina i životne okolnosti mogu utjecati na formiranje pojedinca, pri čemu se postavlja zanimljivo pitanje koliko smo samostalni u upravljanju vlastitim životom ili smo samo produkti okoline, prostora i vremena u kojem smo se našli. Istina je najvjerojatnije negdje između.
Čitatelj ujedno bolje razumije koliko okolina i životne okolnosti mogu utjecati na formiranje pojedinca, pri čemu se postavlja zanimljivo pitanje koliko smo samostalni u upravljanju vlastitim životom ili smo samo produkti okoline, prostora i vremena u kojem smo se našli. Istina je najvjerojatnije negdje između.
September 1, 2019
One of the more interesting spiritual books I've read recently. I read apologetics mainly, so this was right up my alley. The chapters were short and sweet, while still holding my interest, and I finished this book in about 3 days. Highly recommended.
January 29, 2024
Great Book
It was eye-opening to see the individual stories of the people that have built our current culture of death. I would recommend this book to anyone curious of how we got to where we are today.
It was eye-opening to see the individual stories of the people that have built our current culture of death. I would recommend this book to anyone curious of how we got to where we are today.
April 30, 2024
Good analysis and essay about those architect who had done a worked to proliferate the culture of death and how we can stop that ideology while we sow life in others by our behavior and way of living our life.
May 21, 2020
Simply not for me
March 31, 2024
Es como leer la Filosofía partiendo del siglo 16. Y esta como ha influenciado la cultura en la que vivimos hoy.
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May 23, 2014"Surmakultuuri arhitektid" on katoliiklaste poolt välja antud raamat, millele on saatesõna kirjutanud Varro Vooglaid ise. Näib, nagu oleks selle emotsionaalse teose eesmärk viia inimkond kuidagiviisi tagasi seisundisse, kus hea ja kurja tundmise puult ei ole veel vilja nopitud, ehk et inimene ei tohiks tegelikult i s e mõelda, vaid jääks truuks kristlikule dogmale katolikus võtmes, sest jumalasõna on ju mitmeti mõistetud. Näiteks seisab lk 39 tõdemus, et filosofeerima hakkamine kui katse ületada näivust ja siseneda tegelikkuse riiki nõuab julgust, sest ei ole teada, kuhu mõte välja jõuab. Ent kui nüüd keegi jõuab oma kogemuste ja mõttekäigu põhjal teisele järeldusele kui jumala olemasolu, harmoonia ja ettehoolduseni, tembeldavad autorid ta surmakultuurile kehutajaks. Näiteks läbib raamatut pidevalt teema, kas terve inimese elu peab ohverdama ise endaga mitte hakkamasaajate nimel. Autorid on teravalt abordi vastu. Juba rasestumisvastased vahendid ja pereplaneerimine kuuluvad loomulikult surmakultuuri hulka. Iga surmakultuuri esindaja kohta tuuakse rohkesti biograafilisi tõendeid tema kui kalgi ja psühholoogiliselt pooliku inimese kohta (need hädad tulenevad tavaliselt Jumala hülgamisest).
Siiski, hoolimata lausa humoorikalt mõjuvast pahameeleepistlist (sõimust) Nietzsche, Margaret Meadi, Seksi ja linna vaimse ema jpt aadressil saab ülevaatliku pildi tänapäeva jumalatu maailma arhitektidest. Hea ja sujuv tõlge Toomas Helpilt ja Madis Kivisillalt.
Siiski, hoolimata lausa humoorikalt mõjuvast pahameeleepistlist (sõimust) Nietzsche, Margaret Meadi, Seksi ja linna vaimse ema jpt aadressil saab ülevaatliku pildi tänapäeva jumalatu maailma arhitektidest. Hea ja sujuv tõlge Toomas Helpilt ja Madis Kivisillalt.
February 8, 2019
El libro se centra en dividir dos visiones filosóficas que los autores llaman cultura de la muerte y cultura de la vida, una es construida por diferentes filósofos famosos a través de la historia y según ellos generan en la sociedad actual una justificación a actos moralmente inaceptables en una visión católica a la cual llaman cultura de la vida y hacen creer que es la indicada para una convivencia sana, analizan la vida y obra de varios filósofos de manera un poco conveniente para la moral católica para hacer quedar dicha visión como la. Verdadera, se resalta el ejercicio juicioso de la búsqueda de datos que arroja y la fluidez en la escritura, es un libro recomendado para para personas que quieran analizar el pensamiento católico actual para temas delicados como el aborto, eutanasia, libertad sexual, eugenesia y ateísmo
April 7, 2022
A must read for anyone (but especially Catholics), who think the culture of death (i.e. abortion, euthanasia, eugenics, degenerate sexual ideology, narcissistic individualism) has sprung up “out of nowhere”. There were engineers or “architects” that willed for the world to be this way. Interestingly enough, though most pushed for freedom, choice, and happiness, they almost all ended up insane, alone, or wildly unhappy at the end of their lives. Their philosophies are not ultimately livable, but too many people today will try to live them anyways.
February 2, 2018
Los autores desenmascaran las corrientes filosóficas erróneas del pasado que las personas de hoy siguen comprando, por inocencia o por berrinche. Léelo si no quieres ser uno de ellos
February 27, 2024
It does not belog to catholic literature, although it is written
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews