Ok, guenon says that the process of modern deviation began in the 18th century with the enlightenment rationalist philospoher, Rene Descartes. But it cane be seen to start earlier than this, in the rennaisance with humanism, the idea that humans and human betterment should be the focus. But to Descartes, turning against the older scholastic Christian Aristotelian tradition in his system of philosophy, managed to construct a schema in which all material processes could be seen as mechanistic. This 'proved' that all phenomena could be reduced to human terms, to reason alone, needing no reference to anything non-human to explain them. This formed a part of the larger scientific project going on in europe, wherein other scientists had been following the same path, being able to create mathematical models to describe the movement of the heavens, and other things in nature. So to start with this rationalism had the effect of cutting off people from the supra-rational, and limiting them to only reason as a source of knowledge. The problem with descartes theory was that he could account for things in the world, but he couldn't account for the mind, or the mental world. So he proposed his 'dualism' of body and mind, that they were both difference substances, one material or having 'extension' and the other not having extension. This presented a problem of how they interact. Eventually it became clear that this way of thinking about things didn't work, with the english enlightenment philosophers proposing that we come to know things by experience alone, not reason: Empiricism. So firstly, rationalism limits knowledge to what can be known to the rational faculty (the aql), then Empiricism limits knowledge to what can be known through experience. This represents a further limiting, for in rationalism only that which can be known by the aql exists, this basically limits God to what can be understood by reason, but does not eliminate him as a possibility, but this eventually leads to empiricism, where we are led to believe that only that which can be seen or observed exists. So since only the physical world is observable, scientists are led to believe only it exists (materialism), and since God is not observable, they are led to believe he does not exist (atheism). So guenon says this is how the modern deviation came about, by effectively cutting off man from the transcendent, the supra-rational, in the 18th century. This led directly to atheism. This process was necessary for the enemies of God, since it would bring about the clearing away of the old order, of religion and ordered society, leaving a vacuum which westerners find themselves in now. Communism played its part in this too, by sweeping away the old order in the countries that were subject to it. Now, the fact that this vacuum appears to be filled by consumerism and other things is an illusion. Things will only get worse, and I suspect to the extent that people will be crying out for a saviour, a role which the anti christ will then step into. And the process of deviation is still continuing, as we see with feminists and other leftist groups still fighting for their goals of equality and freedom, which represent a furthering of the inversion process; equality means to make the unequal things equal, to make the superior equal to the inferior. Part of this is their promotion of homosexualism, transexualism and every other sexual deviation imaginable under the guise of freedom. It is necessary for them (as part of their overall plan) to promote these things because it furthers the goal of eliminating any remnant of the old ways, found in traditional society. This process is also reflected in Art, see how a can of feces or a crucifix is urine is now considered art compared to the Renaissance art, and in every other area of value, morality, ethics. Money and their nafs is their god now, nothing else. So I think any antichrist will be some one who is very appealing to the nafs of the people, one that 'empowers' the people's nafs, since this is all people follow nowadays. He will probably offer something like becoming a god, or immortality. I mentioned before the antichrist will emerge proclaiming something like 'we are all gods', you can see this in human rights and social justice ideologies, as well as in transhumanism which claims we can become basically gods through technology. So why do you think leftists get so angry when they see some one being prevented from being a homosexual, or from rebelling against his government, or being put to death? It's because they already operate with this mentality that human beings are 'little gods', so to do anything or say anything critical of human beings is already, unconsciously, seen as a kind of blasphemy. This is why leftists get so riled up and angry when they see muslims obeying allah, instead of 'humanistic values'. Humanism amounts to no more than the elevation of man to godhood. I could write about this for hours, and there are lot of things I didn't mention, but this is basically what's going on. Guenon says all this deviation is planned, by some hidden force, I believe Shaykh Hossein Nasr says something similar. so here's some suggestions http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptjUh...eature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yt_tpUSODYw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghx3d1GiAc0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apO9X...33FAAAAAAAABAA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzPT4GFA2YY