Why has civility nearly disappeared in our culture, and how can we encourage its return?

@PDXNative1986 True in many ways... social media has caused many to move away from face-to-face conversations. And it seems to have also added this element of anonymity to the conversation that has fostered uncivil behavior.

@ms20182878 A good point, by both you and the previous two contributors. Even e-mails can inflame by their impersonal nature, when what seems clear enough to the writer means something else to the reader.

I think the anonymity has fostered not only uncivil behaviour, but also intellectual, moral and philosophical cowardice.

But social media gets the Gospel out and its reaching the whole world now! So that is another sign that Jesus will return any minute.@ms20182878

@Carazaa
I can understand that advantage and your hope of a returning Jesus to you as a practicing Christian, but I'm afraid it's lost on anyone of another religion or like me, of none. (I am from an Anglican background, but not strongly so.)

However, no one religion has any monopoly on behaviour; and the risk of trying to correlate Christianity with civility is a corollary I and I am sure you, know is patently false; that you are un-civil if and because you are not Christian.

The same applies to any faith and its sects - there is no "one true" religion or sect since all are "true" to their own followers. Indeed, world events show it can be very dangerous, even lethal, to worship even the "approved" deity but in the "wrong" way.

Whilst I accept Jesus did indeed promote civility and humanity, religious differences and the misuse of religions have always, and continue to be, a ready excuse for those bent on very un-civil behaviour indeed. This was probably always so, including among religions invented, flourished then eventually lost millennia ago. I don't blame any of their gods for that fault; I blame human weakness, pride, greed and folly.

To sum up, being kind and respectful to others need not be axiomatic with religion:
- Whilst some religions original writings at least try to promote good behaviour, some of their own sectarian followers promote the opposite.
- And you can be a complete atheist but still be civil in a Christian sense.

Jesus said "I AM the way, the truth, and the life No man comes to the Father but by me." He also gave us a sign 2000 years ago in Matt 24
that right before he comes back to judge the living and the dead that iniquity will abound and the love of many will grow cold and people will be lovers of self more than lovers of God, So this is why the world is uncivil now!

@Carazaa
I can see that as a religious perspective but with respect it a) applies to followers of just that religion and no other, and b), it evades the point that you don't need to believe in a supernatural being to treat fellow human beings with respect.

I am not religious so don't believe in Jesus' divinity, just see him as a gifted teacher (actually, this is also Islam's view of him, and I think but am happy to be corrected here, that of the Plymouth Brethren); but I hope I treat other people in a way that Jesus would approve.

I am not blind to Christianity. I have friends who do believe, and only last year I travelled to a town 400 miles from home for the weekend, to attend as invited, the ordination of one of them as a deacon.

Nor am I blind to the central tenets of religions, and these appear to be common to almost all that have been invented, whether or not still followed, over human history. Although we cannot possibly know, these tenets quite likely developed in Prehistoric times, not only among humans but just possibly, by the Neanderthals who are now being given the cultural respect they deserve.