Is this reality better or worse than what we had in the 20th century? I do not know nor am I trying to make any judgments. I am only pointing out that the culture in which we live is a pagan culture that is not very different from the culture that prevailed in the world some 2,500 years ago. Even technology does not really make things different. The difference is only external.

Does contemporary Western culture have no literature, no poetry, no dreams? It does have some. Does it not have a fair number of good people? It does. Many features of human nature, as well as many of its good traits, have remained. But there are major changes in the basic tenets of the culture. We seem to continue on the same path, because culture has an enormous amount of inertia and takes a long time to change. Consider how long it takes for a language to die, or for a new language to appear. So we are not at the very end of a period, but we are well into a neo-pagan era.

What does Jewish culture have to say about all this? When it comes to technology, Judaism is all for progress. Most other religions tend to view progress with suspicion, even hatred, as well as a real desire to destroy. Judaism, even in earliest times, saw innovation as important and chronicled it. In the opening chapters of Genesis, the inventors of musical instruments and weapons are mentioned. While we were aware that some inventions might be dangerous, progress was always considered to be positive. This attitude, which has helped us remain a young people, is based on Judaism's profound faith in man. We believe that the duty of humanity is to be partners of God — which means, among other things, being creative. Creativity, then, is a basic component of our belief, of our desire to improve the world. 

In regard to the pagan gods, however, Judaism is very clear: we are totally against them. In that sense, we are standing in the very same place as our father Abraham stood. In Abraham's time, the pagan world had a very high culture. Not only did it have its own poets and philosophers — some of them very great — it even had international banking, enabling the transfer of funds in clay envelopes containing clay letters for distances of 2,000 kilometres and more. Abraham was considered — rightly or wrongly — as the lonely madman of Ur (then, the lonely madman of Haran, and finally, the lonely madman of Canaan) because he was against the prevailing religious culture. Judaism has a clear stand on this issue, even if it is not so very popular. 

Indeed, we see that after all is said and done, we are still lonely, as lonely as Abraham. The verse "Abraham was one" (Ezekiel 33:24) says just that: he was one, against a whole world. Indeed, the Midrash (Genesis Rabbah 42:8) explains the epitaph Avraham ha-Ivri as "Abraham who came from the other side". "The whole world stands on one bank [of the river], and he is on the other bank."