Europe never modernized Christianity. its just got rid of it. slowly.
A replacement of a need for 'God' with a need to be happy instead. Hence Materialism.
I wasn't talking about these past 100-200 years. I was talking about the process of modernisation which was begun in 1515 by Luther and continued in the four centuries afterwards. Materialism didn't exist back then either. But the Church still modernised.
oh not to forget, There are many other reasons you probably know of, another one which deserves a mention is the fact that modern day Christianity (should we even call it that? its certainly isnt modern when its non existent) provides for the Capitalists with an opportunity to start whatever businesses they want. Hence the richest and the most powerful promote Atheism.
This only holds true (except for the promotion of atheism bit, which was complete crap) since the end of the Great War. Secularism, agnosticism and atheism only started to rise after the horrors of that war. Capitalism had existed long before then, however.
With the populations morals confused or made flexible you can get away with anything. Night clubs, Brothels, Casinos, Alcohol, Tobacco, Global scale weapons manufacturing, ....etc etc
All of these things still exist in the Muslim world. The only country to my knowledge to have banned any of these is Saudi Arabia. And there is a thriving black market in that state, showing that Arab people still want these things.
It should also be noted that brothels are illegal in many Western countries.
edit: Imagine if the catholic church or some Evangelical nut case took hold of some political power like in the old days of western Europe. the above would be banned instantaneously. for you to claim that Christianity has become 'modern' is an utter lie. The truth is, Christianity has no power in the modern world, and with this, it has become non existent in the modern world. takes centuries you know?
Your analogy is fallacious.
For starters, they simply wouldn't be able to seize power. It's politically impossible in a country with centuries of democratic history. The people would rise up in popular revolt.
Ignoring this obvious flaw however, there also exists the problem of where one is to find these theocratic nutjobs. They are certainly not in such large supplies in the West as they in the Middle East and North Africa. You may try to dismiss this problem with something along the lines of: "I'm sure I could find one who would do it". Yes, I'm sure you could. I'm sure you could also find one human being that would destroy the entire planet with a superweapon, were they given the chance. This doesn't mean it's a plausible argument to say that this is a likelihood.
The truth is that, through a slow Darwinian process of elimination, democratic and liberal society has gradually weeded out the theocratic nutjobs (with the occassional acception). What is left is a moderate base of Christians and others who value the individual above the whole and the means higher than the ends.
Whether this means that Christianity as an ideology has changed, whether it is just the Christians who have, or whether indeed Christianity has changed so much that it essentially does not exist, is up to the individual's viewpoint and depends upon the defintions one supplies for the above terms.
To me, however, both Christians and Christianity have changed, but both still involve a belief in Jesus and his place as a divine being, hence they remain fundementally the same. The details, such as the position of the Church, a belief in the Bible and various ideas of how to best live one's life are just that:
details. They should be viewed only as the flexible clothing around which a central ideology (belief in Christ as a divine representation of a single God) is wrapped.
In short, just because modern Christianity is not the same as 10th-century Christianity, doesn't mean it doesn't exist.
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