The MECC Secretary General Professor Michel Abs Delivers a Speech
Within the “Reflections Sessions” Series in “Ilmolmabdaa” Quarterly Journal
“The Values of the West in their Cognitive and Moral Integration” (Current Evidence)
As part of the “Reflections Sessions” series organized by the “Ilmolmabdaa” quarterly journal, the first seminar was held in cooperation with the “Tahawoulat” (Transformations) Center and the “Delta Center for In-depth Research,” under the title “The Values of the West in Their Cognitive and Moral Incoherence” (Current Evidence), on Friday 23 February 2024, at the journal’s conference room in Beirut. It was held in the presence of intellectual and cultural personalities and interested people in the topic at hand.
The seminar was moderated and presented by Professor Sarkis Abou Zeid, and included two interventions by the Secretary General of the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC) Professor Michel Abs, and the Researcher and Professor of Sociology Professor Talal Atrissi.
The seminar began with a speech by the Editor-in-Chief of the “Ilmolmabdaa” quarterly journal Dr. Mahmoud Haidar, in which he highlighted the goal of the seminars’ series, explaining that the term “Ilmolmabdaa” (which means “Science of Principles”) does not mean God Himself, but rather the first creature with whom God began this world. He also spoke about the seminar’s title, mentioning that “the West, while alienating others, alienates itself. The collapse of Western civilization came from its inside world and not from the outside world, so we must manifest our own identity to confront it through liberation.”
Then, the Secretary General of the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC) Professor Michel Abs delivered a speech in which he stressed that “we are governed, whether we like it or not, by Western technology that controls the universe and people,” saying that “modern society is captive to an unbridled materialistic culture, which is accompanied by the rise of consumer society and the decline of social protection systems.” He also considered that "the barbaric war on Gaza is a blatant example of the collapse of Western values, as thinkers, intellectuals, media personalities, and influential people in politics and finance joined forces in a war against a defenseless people. It came as the straw that broke the back of the camel of the values of Western modernity."
Then, the Researcher and Professor of sociology Professor Talal Atrissi addressed a speech in which he mentioned that “since the Renaissance, the West has entered into a policy of instability, meaning that it is not necessary to have stability in social and human relations.” He added that "the transformations in it excluded any influence of religion on human life, which was reflected in the human sciences and theories of psychology and sociology. Westerners considered that knowledge was only mental knowledge, experience, and sensory experiments, meaning that they excluded the gods or replaced them with other gods, so the mind became for them a god, the knowledge, a god, the individual, a god, and even desires became a god."
Thus, the seminar ended with a dialogue and discussion session between the lecturers and attendees.
