CELTICEMPIRE
Zulu Conqueror
South Korea has a substantial Christian population, proving that Christianity is not "the white man's Religion" Jesus wasnt even white, Christianity is not Western.
Can someone help me define Western Civilization?
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Brian Shanahan
Permanoob
Christianity is the "white man's religion" because it was first adopted by (broadly) white men, spread around the world by white man, and made into "the one true faith" by white men. It is not called that simply because of it being the preserve of Caucasian Europeans and their descendants, but because for a lot of the world their first experience of Christianity came through the white preacher who abjured them to renounce their own beliefs, and was quite often backed up by a troop of guards sent to protect the preacher if he inflamed the people too much.
SKILORD
Insurgent
Socrates, Jesus, Roussou, Locke, Hegel, Caeser, Smith, Sartre, Clemens, Kipling, Conrad, Hitler, Marx, Madison and Michael Bay.
In no particular order.
In no particular order.
aronnax
Let your spirit be free
I would.
Of the few you mention, only Singapore has a European Language significant speaking population and as a official language. And while these nations have adopted a lot from the Americas and Europe, there is no way in hell that we would consider ourselves as Westerners. We are Japanese/Korean/Chinese/Malay/Indic first, and at best, western-influenced second.
I hate the the term Western World because it doesn't have any real meaning since the ending of the cold war. I usually substitute it to Europe (Everything in Europe but Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova). I consider Turkey a "European Associate". They are both simultaneously in and out of Europe. In addition to Europe, I will add in Australia, New Zealand, the US, Canada and sometimes, the richer states of Latin America and the Caribbean.
CELTICEMPIRE
Zulu Conqueror
Christianity, recently is more successful in Africa and Asia, than in Europe
ParadigmShifter
Random Nonsense Generator
That's because we realised in the 80s that if we wanted spiritual guidance from a celibate man in a dress, we'd be listening to Culture Club's Karma Chameleon.
And we soon worked out Boy George was lying because he wanted to stay popular so he could buy more smack.
And we soon worked out Boy George was lying because he wanted to stay popular so he could buy more smack.
classical_hero
In whom I trust
I think that tailless' definition is by far the best one.
Dark blue = west.
EDIT: Maybe this map has been edited from its original book version. What is the ireland north of Australia cast as dark blue for?
Can give somebody give me an explaination for South Korea and Japan being Western?
Papua New Guinea, the Philippines and the Pacific microstates? I'd call them essentially western. PNG perhaps less so, but it's still got a lot of the features... hell Tugby League is the most popular sport ferchrissakes.
What's your basis for excluding the countries mentioned above?
Godwynn
March to the Sea
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Why do you say that?
I feel that the Germans are one of the main drivers of modern Western Culture through literature, music, philosophy, and science.
SKILORD
Insurgent
Poland is Very European. Russia is not.
So there.
And of course Germany is West of Poland.
So there.
And of course Germany is West of Poland.
Heretic_Cata
We're gonna live forever
I'm surprised Romania was included. But then again, with the definition he gave we sort of are.
How the hell is Spain in the west, but Latin America isn't?
Mainly
1) Relatively poor developing countries
2) Not white
3) Weaker democratic institutions than those typically found in, say, the EU
4) Except for the Philippines, only recently converted to Christianity. The Western countries have strong Christian foundation going back at least a millennia.
Rich Christian White societies strongly aligned with the United States with membership in NATO and the EU. How are they not western?
RedRalph
Deity
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They aren't rich, they weren't in the HRE and they were all part of Russia for centuries.
GoodSarmatian
Jokerfied Western Male
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If you refer to the map Quackers posted, it's from Huntingtons's Clash of Civilization where cvilization more or less means religion.
Dark blue is catholic or protestant (latin america is not there because of the influence of idigenous cultures), light blue is eastern orthodox. Since Latvia is mostly Lutheran and Lithuania and Poland are mostly catholic they're considered western.
An arbitrary and frankly quite useless distinction.
They are pretty wealthy compared to the rest of the world.
What is being in the HRE got to do with it?
And what's being part of Russia got to do with it? In fact, I'd include Russia as a Western country if it was democratic and an EU member.
RedRalph
Deity
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So in other words you are using 'western' as a synonym for 'wealthy and friendly to the US'?
Brian Shanahan
Permanoob
Seeing as West is pretty much a relativistic direction, and all statements are true (for a given value of true), I can confidently state that every civilisation is at some point (or in some person's view) Western, and be technically correct (the best kind of correct incidentally).
I believe that's /thread.
I believe that's /thread.
What does EU membership have to do with western civilization? Western Civilization was begun by the ancient Greeks, passed on to the Romans, and so forth. How can some upstart organization (that, according to all the Euros here is not even a real nation, state, or anything else but apparently just a gentlemen's club sort of thing) which has only been around for 17 years (actual EU) have any bearing on what is and is not western civilization?
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