@Political Interest , thank you for your replies, I'll try to give them the attention and thoughtfulness they deserve;
Dialogue between Christians and Muslims is useful because although the believers of both religions will not agree to accept each others doctrines they can at least avoid war and conflict. It is better to resolve matters of religious difference peacefully. Neo-Conservative war hawks, for example, during the 1990s and 2000s were some of the most destabilising influencers in Western politics because they wanted to aggressively promote American liberal democratic supremacy and in doing so were content to utterly destroy the lives of the Muslim peoples in the Middle East and Central Asia. Others who posit an irreoncilable clash of civilisations also do not understand that the clash of over 1.5 billion people with some 2.3 billion people is not sustainable or desirable for anyone. It could lead only to violence, misery and poverty.
There are still those who do not wish to have American forces leave Afghanistan because of the perceived threat to western-style ''women's rights" such a withdrawal from Afghanistan might entail. In other words, people are fighting and dying so that in the future Afghan girls can be like Miley Cyrus or similar ''role models'' too...
It is not advisable to try and advance eschatological events, they will happen in their own time. What do the Orthodox believers think of such a question?
God is Sovereign. It is telling that the Orthodox Faith has kept the future dates for all the liturgical years in it's calendar up to at least the 8000th year of the world, the year 2492 AD... Beyond that or before that, who knows? There will be certain things that will happen before the Lord's Return that the Fathers in their Scriptural commentaries write of and Scripture speaks about, but there really is no way to force God's hand, in anything.
Muslims and Christians should attempt to live in harmony with one another, both on a national and global level, including on the level of international relations. Foreign policy should be geared towards this end. The rights of Christian minorities must be protected.
Mutual understanding is important, without necessarily giving away what is believed. And yes, social harmony would be a plus.
This mercantile class did it seems form the basis for what became the bourgeoisie during the 18th and 19th centuries.
Indeed, an atmosphere of trade and the increasing sophistication of economic thought that hadn't been thought of before or had been subdued by religious rules against usury, etc... created the bourgeoisie in my opinion.
In many ways it's a question of respect. Not respect that is only expressed externally but sincere respect that is cultivated, not for monetary or material reasons but merely for its own sake and as a means of being a good human being.
Yes, I think that has to be the minimum baseline for proper relating with others. It's easy with ideology though to objectify people and dehumanize them even if the goal is humanistic, especially when the ideology promotes an amoral ''the ends justify the means'' praxis.
Most people simply don't have time to think or comprehend. They would prefer not to because daily life already makes them uncomfortable enough.
All the more important that those who do govern such people are wise and good themselves, ideally. Otherwise it will not go well for them, especially if they have the ability to vote without the wisdom to do so well.
What sort of people are drawn to Mormonism in your experience? There's a type of post-modern ultra-secular who could never be converted to it, let alone any denomination of Christianity and arguably any serious religious commitment at all. I've always been intrigued by how people choose Mormonism. Once upon a time I may have even met a Mormon convert in person, although I can't be certain. They were with Mormon missionaries who I also met.
Most Mormons I've known were born into it, frankly, I don't know of too many converts personally. I personally cannot imagine with knowing what I know, intelligent people converting to it. But at second glance it offers Westerners and Americans in particular a theology and pseudo-historical background that would be tempting naturally if one didn't know any better, intelligent or otherwise.
A revival of Roman Catholicism would definitely be an option.
Being the traditional ur-religion of the West and encoded into the cultural ''DNA'' so to speak, it could be an option which only requires a relatively younger Pope who is charismatic, intelligent and strong willed who desires the power of the Papacy in the world to be revived, and they would stand a good chance at revival.
Most certainly.
Of course one can't always choose a more prayerful setting, so I try to when and wherever I can when I feel the need to pray.
The West and Iran will continue to be enemies until the latter returns to the Western fold.
While nothing is impossible, it's unlikely that Iran will ever return to the kind of days there before 1979 in my opinion. Wouldn't you agree?
It would not be the first time that the West has made alliances with Muslims against far left extremism.
This is true, although considering the nature of the two cultural groups such alliances are not lasting, at least not lasting after the immediate Left extremist threat is gone.
I don't profess to be any authority and am not making dogmatic assertions on what I've written in recent posts here.
I try not to, although it probably doesn't appear that way to some, lol.
On ISIS;
This was an enemy we could not comprehend. Much like how the pandemic took the West by surprise the ISIS threat caused people bury their heads in the sand and ignore it. Thankfully it never reached Western borders, its advances in its own part of the world were far enough! I remember that during the height of the conflict, before Russian intervention, I predicted that the Assad government would have fallen by 2019. Perhaps it would have done, we will never know, but the situation looked very dire.
It looked very dire indeed. In my opinion it still does although that may appear to be strange to some to hold that thought.
For now it appears dormant. In what I wrote to you previously I was not dismissing the threat that such a movement poses but merely suggesting that its appeal has dissipated somewhat, for now. It is entirely possible that there will be a resurgence after the pandemic ends in around 2022 maybe.
I think there will be a resurgence, because as I've said before the enemies of ISIS hate and fear each other and seek to undermine and defeat each other, more than they hate and fear ISIS. It allows ISIS to tactically retreat while maintaining strategic operational depth. Only a few world leaders have seen the greater threat from ISIS and/or Al-Qaida to any significant degree. This is not something the secular and materialistic western world can stop ultimately.
On the two choices, Islam or Christianity;
Indeed. Each person has to choose.
This is what it comes down to, in my opinion towards the end the only options and only one is right. This does not preclude of course human decency I think at this time, as we've been discussing.