Don't get me wrong here, gnostic theists can be every bit as arrogant as gnostic atheists.

But while the 2 may share arrogance, only the one - theists - is providing a reason for humans (at least those that "believe") to hold their baser nature in check.

You don't have to like the taste of the medicine to appreciate the cure.

Nope. Sorry. Don't buy it. Once you learn to ride a bike you don't keep the corrupt, power hungry training wheels on.

We've peeked behind the curtain. The booming voice and terrible visage don't work when you see who's running the show. We're at a point where we can control ourselves without the threat of eternal damnation and the promise of eternal reward. Maybe not everyone yet, but the tide is turning.

I think historically, that is mostly accurate, but I also think empathy does it. Of course, empathy tends to dissolve when people are starving, or threatened and fearful of external and internal conflict.

Sure, but try and ride when you don't even have the bike anymore, or when your legs no longer work. The knowledge remains; the will or means may not.

Like I said, that's all well and good while the lights still run, water comes out of the faucet, and there is still food on the table.
And sometimes the tide turns, and sometimes it turns hard again. Look at the difference between early Baghdad and Iraq today. Or Greece. Italy.
It seems that your faith may be in people themselves, and what you might call 'progress'. I don't see it.
Quote from Drayton:

I know, man. The power goes out for a couple of hours here, I'm running down the street, screaming incoherently, raping, murdering. It's pitiful.

There's that familiar snark.
All the sarcasm we love, now with 100% less refute!

The power has only ever gone out for "a couple hours". The masses at large in the U.S. today have never had to contend with real service disruption, food supply chain issues, the sudden disappearance of human services.
Yet.
All the praying and churching and wishful thinking about human nature in the world won't deal with that.

Let's look to the pope to save us then! Drown a few witches! Exorcise a few epileptics!

Yes! Or to science and reason and the inherent goodness of Man!

Gnostic Atheists are every bit as arrogant as their theistic counterparts. Both espouse to know something that is unknowable.

The difference is found when seeing what each side does with this purported knowledge. When people are steadfastly and absolutely certain of something, they tend to use that certainty to justify behavior that agnostics find abhorrent. The real difference between gnostic atheists and gnostic theists is how extreme that behavior is perceived.

Let this comic demonstrate why, generally speaking, gnostic theists are viewed with more derision than gnostic atheists:

And that will lead to America's ruin...

The bible often speaks about the nations and the people becoming strong prosperous when they were righteous and kept the commandments and all too often that lead to complacency and that eventually to a haughty prideful nation the people began to believe that they didn't need God anymore and they began to think themselves as gods unto themselves, making up thier own rules and standards of morality which confirmed to the popular social standards of the day.

This is what I see is happening now...what I see in your schools as well as in my own country the growing disrepect for authority and elders and how the family and the home is being assaulted from all sides of society and the authority and responsibilty of parents being taken away by the government or simple neglect on the parents' part.

Being accountable and taking personal responsibilty for our actions means nothing now that you can get a lawyer and sue the restaurant that served the hot coffee you just spilled on your lap because you were too busy on your cell phone to notice the car in front of you.

The so called 1950s with a 2 parent family in thier suburban home with a white picketed fence watching Howdy Doody may be unpalatable for your tastes Foob..but I find it is a more attractive situation than the current situation the family and the home is facing today.

America has become a nation of complacency and finger pointing and no one wants to take up responsibilty for thier actions they becoming increasingly dependant on the government to care of everything. One time your country was an example of ingenuity and self relience along with other traits that made it the country of choice to emmigrate to in the search for a better life from every part of the planet.

But now it has given rise to a generation that harbours a sense of entitlement.

And Foob it is going to get worse...a whole lot worse.

Ah yes, those of us with a deep and abiding respect for the lessons of history must be mindless papists and witch-burners.

You're sounding more and more like a gnostic atheist yourself foob, so certain are you that history's lessons will yield to your secular wishes.