“By far the most important event in the entire rise of Christianity was the meeting in Jerusalem in around the year 50, when Paul was granted the authority to convert Gentiles without them also becoming observant Jews.”

So wrote Rodney Stark, the Distinguished Professor of the Social Sciences and co-director of the Institute for Studies of Religion at Baylor University. His most recent book is “The Triumph of Christianity: How the Jesus Movement Became the World’s Largest Religion” ($27.99, HarperCollins).

For Christians in particular, I recommend it if only because so many have a tenuous grasp of Christianity’s real history, as opposed the versions that too often are casually accepted as truth.

The truth is that the rise of Christianity is one of the most extraordinary stories of the past two millennia. Stark not only has the knowledge of his vast subject, but he writes with such felicity that it is hard to put the 500-page book aside for both its revelations and its devotion to the facts.

Despite the fact we live in a society that has at most only 4% who self-describe themselves as atheists, the more active among them have the audacity to demand that Christmas be banished to the privacy of homes or the pews and pulpits of churches. They rebuke religion in general as the source of conflict and wars, but ignore the spiritual support and ethical lessons that Christianity provides along with its promise of salvation.

While Judaism was the bedrock of morality and faith that gave it birth, Christianity made it more accessible and significantly includes the Torah as part of its liturgy.

To ignore the rise of Christianity is to be ignorant of an essential element of Western history. Likewise, to ignore the threat of Islam whose beginning is usually dated around 622 CE and which exploded following Mohammad’s death in 632 CE is to ignore the greatest threat to civilization, past and present. Less a religion than a battle plan for world conquest, Islam preaches death to all “unbelievers.” Take heed!

Stark provides a summation to his book and, even so, I shall select only parts of it in the interest of brevity.

“The first generation of the Jesus Movement consisted of a tiny and fearful minority” of a religion, Judaism, that had already been around for a thousand years or more before the assertion was made that the messiah had come and was a crucified Galilean rabbi who mainly and briefly preached in that area of Israel.

“The mission to the Jews was quite successful: large numbers of Jews in the Diasporan communities outside of Palestine did convert to Christianity.” The Diaspora were the Jewish communities in the Middle East and throughout the Mediterranean nations, including Rome, living in places where pagan faiths were dominant.

“Christianity was not a religion based on the slaves and lowest classes of Romans, but was particularly attractive to the privileged.” Moreover, in its earliest years, women often played important roles. Contrary to popular belief, however, “Paganism was not quickly stamped out, but disappeared very slowly.” Paganism involved the worship of multiple gods as well as a belief in magic.

Despite impressive cathedrals, in medieval times church worship among Christians was largely ignored and, as often as not, the clergy were ill-informed about the faith and sometimes not even baptized.

Despite what is said of the Crusades, they were a campaign to reclaim the holy land from Muslims who had conquered it and they were led by men who knowingly bankrupted themselves and often died in this cause. Though Christianity had been widely observed in the East, the armies of Islam destroyed all but remnants, thus shifting its survival to Europe in the West.

“Science arose only in the West because efforts to formulate and discover laws of nature only made sense if one believed in a rational creator.” Even the misnamed “Dark Ages” were actually times of technological development. Likewise historians have determined that the Spanish Inquisition was “a quite temperate body that was responsible for very few deaths and saved a great many lives by opposing the witch hunts that swept through the rest of Europe.”

Perhaps the greatest surprise was the damage done by Constantine who, having made it the religion of his empire, gave rise to an indolent and hypocritical Church hierarchy initially composed of Roman aristocracy. It fostered a clergy who were ignorant of the faith and indifferent to its mission. Not until the Reformation was competition introduced, forcing the Church to return to piety, as various Protestant sects emerged, and energized Christianity in the process.

Stark concludes that “The claim that religion must soon disappear as the world becomes more modern is nothing but wishful thinking on the part of academic atheists. Religion is thriving, perhaps as never before. More than forty percent of the people on Earth today are Christians and their number is growing more rapidly than that of any other major faith.”

And that, as they say, is the good news.

© Alan Caruba, 2011

 

WesternFront America

If the Christian has no assurance that God will triumph from the way the world appears to be going, one would be better off hedging one’s bets by siding with the Devil or sitting the whole thing out all together. There are those that attempt to do just that.

Atheism is the worldview that believes that God does not exist. Those embracing this perspective tend to do so over both objective and existential reasons.

Those claiming to embrace Atheism for objective reasons often concentrate their attacks on the more scientific approaches to the existence of God such as the cosmological argument. The cosmological argument for the existence of God holds that all contingent things must have a cause and that this cause is at the minimum Aristotle’s Uncaused Cause and preferably the God of the Christian faith as expounded by Aquinas when he adapted these propositions for Christian usage. Atheists raise their hands and say hold on a moment to what they see as presumptuous conclusions.

From the Christian perspective, since God exists beyond what we perceive as time, He is sufficient or necessary to jumpstart the universe and get the temporal ball rolling. However, the Atheist has no metaphysical problem with an infinite chain of causality. Yet the laws of thermodynamics might dictate otherwise as these fundamental principles of physics hold that there is only a finite amount of energy available within a closed system.

So even though the Atheist may not have an intellectual objection to a material universe that is infinitely old, such an assumption smashes eventually against the hard wall of reality. However, seldom has that ever stopped anyone adamant about adhering to their favored delusions no matter what the evidence might say.

The next set of arguments for Atheism against belief in God center around a set of moral objections. All must confess these have crossed our minds at low points in each of our lives.

The most objective of these centers around the nature of goodness and God’s relationship to it. This argument was developed by Bertrand Russell (218).

The moral disproof for God states that good must result because either God decrees it or He does not. If good is good simply because God says it is and no one can argue against Him since He is the biggest guy on the cosmic block, good is not really good since God has willed it so arbitrarily. However, if God declares something good because of its own inherent nature or compliance with a standard beyond Himself, doesn’t that mean that the standard rather than God is ultimate? Thus, at best, God ends up being demoted to the status of Plato’s less than omnipotent demiurge.

Geisler counters, though, that this is really putting the ethical cart before the theistic horse. Geisler writes, “Rather than flowing from God’s arbitrary will, the moral law may be seen as rooted in God’s unchangeably good and loving nature, then the apparent dilemma is resolved (226).” Thus, good is something God is rather than something God decides or does. This brings to mind verses such as John 8:58 where God proclaims “Before Abraham was, I am.”

Other moral objections to the existence of God are a bit less ethereal and considerably more visceral and marked by the pain those leveling them have experienced or witnessed living here in an obviously fallen world. One such objection raised by Albert Camus in The Plague uses the backdrop of an epidemic to make the point that theism is inherently anti-humanitarian. The story posits the dichotomy that, if one assists the suffering, one is siding against God by interfering with the work of His judgment, and if one wants to be in His will and not stand in His way, one is therefore opposed to human well being (221).

Other related objections to God over the problem of evil dismiss His existence all together. A number of Atheists deny the existence of God on the grounds that, because people often suffer disproportionately to what they have done wrong, an all powerful and all good God does not exist. It is argued a God possessing these attributes would not allow evil. But because evil is rampant, that is proof that either God is not all powerful and cannot do anything about evil or that He is all powerful but does not do anything about the evil in the world because He is not good enough to care.

Though it is not always a comfort to someone that has befallen an overwhelming tragedy such as the murder of a loved one, the existence of evil does not by default disprove the existence of God. It does, however, toss the apologetic ball into the theist’s court to provide a plausible reason as to why an all-powerful and all-good God would allow suffering to exist.

Known as “theodicy”, these explanations attempt to reconcile the simultaneous existence of both God and evil. It is at this point that the theist must counter claim that the evil in the world is solvable or redeemable. The Christian especially can point out that God has indeed done something about the evil by sending His only begotten Son into the world to do something about this tragedy in the most personable of ways.

If the Atheist presses this objection too vigorously, the wily apologist ought to turn the argument back on his unbelieving compatriot. To even make the claim that God does not exist, because the world is not as good as we think it would be if He really did, is actually an indirect argument that He really does.

For to argue that things are not good enough is to assume some kind of standard exists beyond the earthly fray we find ourselves in. If this material universe was all there ever was, the highest good we could ever know is what we see around us and we’d be unable to criticize anything as the “is” automatically becomes the “ought” in such a context.

Yet there is a deep dissatisfaction that compels most human souls onward towards a better world. Romans 2:14-15 says, “…when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves even though they do not have the law, since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts…”

Secondly, Atheists claiming disbelief in God because, in their view, He has not done enough to stop or prevent suffering in the world often want to have things both ways. These theophobes not only deny God over the imperfections they see in the world but then hypothesize that, if God existed, man would not be free because human freedom would be, as Geisler puts it, “circumscribed by his divine determination (231).”

However, it is because God loves us so much and respects us as individuals that in the vast majority of instances He does not directly interfere with most actions but rather permits their outcome to propel the world onward to His ultimate plan for all of His creation. Geisler writes, “If love is persuasive but never coercive, then allowing men to freely determine their own destiny would seem to be the loving way to make them (231).”

Unfortunately, some are in such a state of rebellion against God that they take this animus out on others. Foremost among such deeds would no doubt rank murder.

Some would respond that, if God really loved the innocent, He would intervene to prevent this crime. However, as C.S. Lewis hypothesizes in The Problem Of Pain, for our own benefit God has created a world that operates in the vast majority of instances by a series of repeatable and verifiable principles.

For example, according to this moral “steady-state theory”, I am able to pick up a knife to either slice a steak or slit my neighbor’s throat for the purposes of providing man with a rational world where we will not go mad. Faced with such, the Christian must embrace Romans 8:28 as a comfort in a world that often does not seem fair to our finite minds.

Frederick Meekins

 

WesternFront America

…Earth Day is Celebrated on Lenin’s Birthday

“It is no accident that April 22, Earth Day, is also the birth date of Vladimir Lenin, an acolyte of Karl Marx, the lunatic who invented communism as an alternative to capitalism.

Earth Day is naked communism.”

The above quote is by Alan Caruba from his article entitled: ‘The Naked Communism of Earth Day.” We urge you to click over to Alan’s site and read this very fine article. You will find it HERE.

Freedom to worship as you please is one of the hallmarks of, and rights guaranteed to, the citizens of the United States.

The Pilgrims came to the New World not to guarantee freedom of religion. No, they came to guarantee that THEY could worship, as THEY saw fit… not, necessarily, anyone else.

So we have a hodge-podge of religions is America. Some are uplifting and others are just plain goofy.

On of the discoveries, made by anthropologists, is that the human animal will, somehow, create a religion. It seems the human animal must have belief in something that gives meaning to his, or her, existence.

In this century, and the last, so many have turned from the worship of a supreme being, we call God, to what we used to call “paganism”… the worship of nature, or the environment, or… more specifically… Environmentalism.

Yes, Environmentalism has become a religion. Well, actually, it always was, it has just come back into favor in the past 100 years, or so.

One thing I want to set straight before continuing, nature is not God. It is my belief that GOD created nature. Now, we can continue.

Many so-called atheists are worshippers of nature, or the environment. If one worships it… it is your god. Seems to me, those atheists are not true atheists. They DO have a god; only it is a pagan god, the environment.

Michael Crichton, in his “Environmentalism as Religion” remarks, made before the Commonwealth Club, in San Francisco in 2003, summed it all up.

“The believers in environmentalism believe and preach that we should live in unity with nature, or the environment. They believe that in the beginning we did. They believe that we are now living in sin because we have polluted the earth. We will be visited with a judgment day and the judgment will be death, for the whole planet, unless we repent, (which means to turn around and go the other way) and make our way back to sustainability. You see, in the environmentalism religion, sustainability IS salvation.”” … Michael Crichton

See Crichton’s remarks here: HERE.

It is important to understand that, for the most part, those who would worship nature have never really experienced it.

Want to go camping? Out comes the insect spray, the mosquito netting, the snakebite kit, the calamine lotion, sunscreen, and on and on. The urban environmentalist tends to think of nature as something, with which, man can live in harmony. So far, that has never happened … in the history of mankind.

Animals eat other animals to stay alive. Then, of course, we humans, at the top of the food chain, eat the animals which ate the, you know, smaller animals. The weather is a constant threat to humans.

The harmony of nature and man is a myth. It has never been so. If you want to learn about nature, talk to a farmer, or a hunter. They know about nature. Most people don’t.

Most of us live in an insular world. We have created an oasis away from nature. Occasionally, we think we want to commune with nature so we take a road trip or a camping trip… and we take as much, or as many, of our amenities as we can cram in the SUV right along with us. If we actually come into contact with nature, it is by accident.

Man has always been at odds with nature. Nature is unforgiving. It will kill you in a split second.

So, the environmental religionists are calling for us to repent. We are doomed as a result of pollution, global warming, running out of oil, the whole list of tribulations the faithful are so sure are coming.

They have been wrong, so many times. Remember the ice age, which was to begin in the 1970’s? Where is it? It reminds me of the “nut” pacing the sidewalk with his “Repent, the world is coming to an end!” sign. When the world doesn’t end, he changes the date and keeps on pacing. The environmentalist simply changes the reason the world is coming to an end, and they keep on preaching doom and gloom.

You see, as with all religions, the environmentalist bases all these horrible things on faith. Yes, faith in his belief. He believes he is correct. It is his faith, his religion, and he will not be shaken.

So, we have all the preachers of the Church of Environmentalism, preaching at us none stop. They preach fear. They preach gloom and doom. They preach forsaking progress and returning to the days when man lived in harmony with nature, even though no such period ever existed in the history of mankind.

As a believer in one God, the Creator, I cannot buy into their religion. I believe that this planet, this ecosystem, if you will, was given to man, as his home, by the Creator. We are charged with being good stewards of our home. But, when we take such good care of it that we come to worship it, we have sinned and fallen short. And that, Dear Reader, is wrong!

To protect our home, the earth, we need to use hard science, not some knee jerk reactionism. We need to rely upon our common sense. To think that man, himself, can destroy the earth is laughable. It is the height of arrogance. The earth can wipe humankind out in a moment, in the blinking of an eye. Like a dog shaking it’s wet coat and flinging water droplets hither and thither, the earth could rid itself of it’s temporary visitors at anytime.

No, it’s time for clear thinking people to step back and take a serious look at the claims the fundamentalist preachers of environmentalism are making. Check the science, not the pop science, but hard science. There is where their claims will be proven, or dis-proven and hopefully discarded.

In the meantime, for those who profess to believe in nature’s God, the scriptures tell us that man cannot serve two masters. You cannot subscribe to the faith of environmentalism and maintain your faith in the God of, and the creator of, nature. You will serve one and forsake the other. Which will it be?

© J. D. Longstreet

J. D. Longstreet blogs daily at INSIGHT on Freedom at: http://www.csadispatch.blogspot.com/

 

WesternFront America

There are people who have many misconceptions of Christianity. Some believe it is a heavy weight of do’s and don’ts piled upon one’s shoulders. Others believe that it’s an “if you sin, you’ll go to hell” doctrine.

Some believe that preachers are only in the pulpit to make money. There is the proverbial lie that God is always watching to catch you when you make a mistake, and there’s the pesky inconvenience of attending church in the first place.

The human mind can create a list of impossible expectations that lead to fear and a spiritual disconnect of hopelessness. Eventually, people who feel this way close their Bibles and never darken the doors of a church. They make the decision simply not to believe in God anymore.

I suppose one could say some “divorce” God and banish Him from their lives forevermore, but do these same people become born-again atheists? Too often, non-believers come face to face with a hell of their own making.

Living with occasional doubt

I realize that my thoughts are probably not going to reach many atheists. However, my writings proclaim the existence and the power of a loving God. Often, I do touch the hearts of skeptics, doubters, and a few scoffers. Most likely, you are a person who fits the profile of the believer in God who is sympathetic to the idea that there is a Creator who cares. You probably believe as I do, and want to live your life as Jesus did when He was here on this earth.

I believe in God and His word. However, doubts occasionally sneak in. They really do. I then begin to wonder if it’s all true. Did God come to Earth? Will there be a Second Coming? At times, do preachers and the founders of our churches unknowingly deceive themselves and others? Could it be that their faith is merely wishful thinking?

The famous author Clive Staples Lewis found faith late in life. After many years of a fulfilling Christian walk, he confessed that, at times, he had his doubts. This is common among believers while on their way to becoming mature, well-grounded Christians. The pendulum swings for many. There are days when it is easy to believe in the existence of God. Then there are times when we wonder where God is. However, it is interesting that the pendulum of inner doubts and questioning does not just affect Christians. It swings for atheists, also. For you see, it was C.S. Lewis’ direct admission that he lived on both sides of the fence. He was an atheist who eventually became settled in the knowledge of Jesus Christ and lived out the rest of his life as a believer in Him.

Please understand that whichever view you embrace, your feelings will continually attack your convictions. Just as Christians have their moments, atheists have their misgivings.

If you believe in God, there will still be times when it seems that this material world is the only reality. Disbelieve in the Almighty God, and you must face hours when the material world seems to shout God does exists. That is the atheist’s often-undisclosed dilemma.

Lewis explained that if we are believers, we need to fortify ourselves against doubts. He used a phrase “train the habit of faith.” Daily prayer is a must, and spending meaningful time giving great thought to Who we believe in strengthens us. In other words, fixing our minds on God’s love for us becomes factual truth. Christ died so we could have eternal life and live life here “more abundantly.” Meditate on the cross of Calvary, and consider how the Savior of the world, who left the glories of heaven, rendered us an enormous gift that came at an agonizing sacrifice.

Leaping into the void

It is amazing that atheism has become such a force in our world. It is truly sad when many intelligent men and women who are philosophers, educators, and scholars trust only in their human wisdom. They’ve taken the leap of faith into the void of an empty universe. In Psalms, God’s Word says: “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God’” (Psalms 14:1).

We love to call the atheist a fool. And our history books are full of colorful stories of brilliant people who have gazed at the stars and foolishly said, “It means nothing. The planets and galaxies got here by themselves, and so did we.” Strange that these leaders, authors, historians, and statesmen often don’t seem to be fools. I suppose some could make the argument that if these brilliant human beings don’t believe, how can you and I stay on the safe path of righteousness?

There is a well-written book I find very helpful called The Real Face of Atheism, by Christian apologist Ravi Zacharias. In his writings, he portrays an interesting picture of us. It begins way back in the late 1950s, when the Soviet Union beat America into space with its first rocket, Sputnik.

In fact, cosmonaut Gherman Titov, speaking to reporters and fascinated crowds at the World’s Fair in 1961, boasted that he never saw God up there. Someone in the crowd retorted that if Gherman would have stepped out of his space capsule for a closer look, he might have been surprised. Gherman glibly said: “I saw no God. There is no God.”

Seven years later, our country made its mark in the space race when we sent Apollo 8 to the moon and back. The people of the world saw an astonishing picture on their television screens. For the first time, we could view earth rise over the horizon of the moon, which glistened in the light of the sun against the black void of space. As this wondrous experience occurred, the world heard, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”

Take a good look at these two philosophies. There they were, two groups of highly-trained and well-educated people. When given the opportunity to hurtle through space, one group saw God, and the other saw nothing but darkness and the occasional large rock.

I’ll borrow the words of philosopher Mortimer Adler: “More consequences for life and action follow from the affirmation or denial of God than from any other basic question.”

Surrendering to God’s promises

Allow me to lean in a bit closer and give some of you encouragement. If you’re going to put God on a shelf and walk away, wait! Don’t allow the craziness of this world’s events, or the hurts you harbor, stop you from surrendering to love, faith, and commitment. Have confidence in “peace that passes all understanding.” Please give God’s promises a second glance. A deep abiding relationship with God will grow.

I understand there are many hurt people who have had the unfortunate experience of living under a cloud of religious oppression. People are not perfect, but the Almighty certainly is. Sit down and consider the possibility that God is loving and good, but that there are times when His imperfect children and His self-appointed representatives are not.

There is too much at stake. God does exist, and He most certainly cares for you. Understand that He has a wonderful purpose for your life. Believe in His amazing grace and everlasting love. Wrestle with questions and doubts no more. Believe because the loss is too costly, but the rewards are unimaginable.

The Way, the Truth, and the Life

It has always been my belief that the human race began in a garden called Eden. I have believed that with all my heart since I can remember. I believe what the Word of God says in Genesis, Chapter 1, is completely true. How did we depart so far off course that men and women, made in the image of God, stopped believing in a Savior? “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

I’ve been going to church since I was a little tot. I have learned to understand that there are sinners in the church. I’m one of them myself. Atheists, on the other hand, often will look on in horror while their own lives slide right past them into heartbreak and eventually total disaster. “There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death” (Proverbs 14:12).

America is facing some very real problems. Put your trust in Him alone. Man will always let you down. God has said: Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you. So we say with confidence, The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.

“The Lord will never leave you or forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5-6).

There is nothing more comforting than holding on to the promises of God. Stop doubting. I don’t pretend to know how to explain every verse, but still, hold on. When you feel your confidence slipping away, hold on and have faith to ask God to give you faith. He promises to do it, right now.

Song: “Thank You For The Cross, Lord”

America’s Revival will grow only when our people firmly believe and without hesitation return to an allegiance with our Almighty Father. Only then can our liberties and freedoms be preserved and restored. Upon this depends the future of our nation, free from despotism and tyranny.

An enemy generally says and believes what he wishes. — Thomas Jefferson

Please sign the Pledge for America’s Revival right now. To read the “Pledge for America’s Revival,” click here.

Related Readings:

Man was created in God’s image

Our country’s moral and spiritual crossroads: Same-sex marriage

© Marie Jon

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WesternFront America

From at least 1994 when I remember writing my first column on the subject, despisers of the Almighty and liberals of the most spineless of stripes have conspired to undermine Christmas as a national celebration in the attempt to downplay and ultimately eliminate public recognition of God in general and His only begotten Son Jesus Christ in specific.  These efforts have been so widespread that I was able to compile columns written about them over the years into a book titled “Yuletide Terror & Other Holiday Horrors”.

Though the American people have been manipulated and their resistance worn down on a number of fronts to the point that they now let slide any number of outrages that would have caused considerable uproar in the past, for the most part citizens have been quite vocal about attempts by secular leftists to ban acknowledgement of the Christmas season.  However, now that traditionalists have asserted the right to publicly affirm their god-given heritage, secularists are responding with alternative displays of their own promoting their own particular worldview.

Foremost among these is an ad campaign targeted at Washington, DC’s public transportation system.  The posters sponsored by the American Humanist Association read, “Why believe in a god?  Just be good for goodness’ sake..”  This simple question and accompanying reply are in need of a complex response.

For starters, whether we like it or not, if an atheist front group wants to pony up the cash, they have the same right to buy public advertising space like any other organization with too much money on its hands.  Responses such as the one presented in a 11/17/08 USA Today article titled “Atheism: A Positive Pillar” where an Illinois state legislator told an atheist activist, “It’s dangerous for our children to even know that your philosophy exists!…You have no right to be here!  We believe in something.  You believe in destroying.”

Such an attitude may itself be of a greater danger than the outright atheism.  For it is wrong on a number of philosophical and apologetic grounds.

For starters, it is not really all that dangerous for children to know atheism exists. Granted, one might not want to, as in the example used by D. James Kennedy in a classic sermon, hand one’s child over to a thoroughgoing secularist who on the first day of kindergarten proceeds to indoctrinate the hapless pupil as to the alleged reasons why God does not exist and why Jesus Christ is not His Son.

However, part of protecting children is to warn them of the dangers out there bent on destroying them in body and soul.  Thus, just as parents eventually one day have to have that discussion with their young ones about the existence of pedophiles and where to aim the kick should some sicko every try to rob the young ones of their innocence, parents also have the obligation to warn to warn that there are those out there that hate God so much that they’d like nothing more than to persuade you to give up your belief in Him as well.

The cause of Christ is not served by hiding these things from young minds and then finally exposing them to such apostasies upon adulthood.  It’s challenging enough when you are taught about these things and then find your self surrounded by the products of an education system advocating such a viewpoint reeking of what you always heard pot smelled like and another hooligan wearing a t-shirt with decals of copulating skeletons as I remember the first day of college.

Secondly, lack of a belief in something is a belief about it.  For too long, Christians and allied theists have played into the hands of atheists and agnostics by going along with the notion that those professing unbelief are objective and unfettered by preconceived epistemological commitments and that the believers are the ones holding onto bedrock dogmatic foundations.  Many atheists are just as rabid in their assumptions as the most zealous of pulpit-pounding evangelists.

The anti-God Christmas placards intone the reader to “Just be good for goodness sake.”  But without God, can good truly exist?  For if He does not, mankind is left with the alternatives of either nihilistic anarchy or regimented totalitarianism.

For example, if God does not exist, who is to say whatever the individual thinks or does is right or wrong?  As has been said, in some cultures they are suppose to love their neighbors and in others they eat them.  To the cannibal the adage is not so much finger licking good but rather good to lick fingers.

Furthermore, if God does not exist, on what grounds do the institutions of society such as the government have the right to tell you to do anything whatsoever?  Without God and His revelation, the “IS” automatically becomes the “OUGHT” with rules and laws merely being those promulgations which keep the strongest in power.

But what about the individual, the timid may ask unsettled by the door that has been opened but too prideful to grasp Christ’s outstretched hand.  What about the individual?

If the individual is no better than all the other animals who are themselves just products of random chance, his welfare means nothing in comparison to the welfare and even the convenience of the larger group.  Though it is a somewhat different philosophy, according to a  Caryl Matrisciana column titled  “An Enlightened Race?” New Agers who believe similarly to atheists that there are no absolutes rooted in the character of an eternal personal God don’t really don’t even want to say Hitler did anything wrong but rather merely things that were misguided at worst.

The New Atheists claim that the suspicions their worldview elicits are unfounded because as humanists they only have the betterment of the species in mind and that traditional religions are the ones responsible for the atrocities of history.

Margaret Downey of the Atheist Alliance International is quoted in the USA Today article as saying, “We atheists simply add an ‘o’ to our belief system — we believe in good.”  However, that is in spite of rather than because of their unbelief.

If anything, what atheists exhibit when they manifest goodness is remaining Judeo-Christian moral capital.  These individuals professing godlessness remain largely good because they have been acculturated in a milieu largely Biblical in its underlying ethical orientation.

However, as time marches on and these foundations are eroded as succeeding generations will become less familiar with this heritage.  Future atheists will not be as eager to embrace the balanced approach to life we in the West have come to categorize as good.

Incidents where traditional forms of religion have been invoked to justify abridgements of individual liberty are horrifically tragic but because they betray the values espoused by the founders of these systems of belief.  However, by default, that does not make those claiming to lack a religious faith are not necessarily more laid back in their approach to life and less prone to violence.

If anything, lack of divine restraints seems to send man’s compulsion to prey (not pray) upon his fellow man into overdrive.  One only need to look at the histories

of regimes with an explicit antipathy towards the God of the Bible such as Soviet Russia, Red China, and Nazi Germany.  And even in the United States where human dignity is for the most parts respected, numbers are appallingly high in terms of the millions slaughtered in the names of abortion and so-called “reproductive rights”, a charge led primarily by the godless along with the wishy-washy easily whipped up into a frenzied enthusiasm over the joys of baby-killing.

As commuters putter about this Christmas season and viewers watch the battle of the broadsides, there is more on the line than an esoteric debate as to the nature and origins of goodness.  Both their very lives and their eternal destines could very well be on the line.

 

WesternFront America