Posted on 10/10/2014 5:57:13 AM PDT by xzins
First, nihilism can’t condemn Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, or those who fomented the Armenian genocide or the Rwandan one. If there is no such thing as “morally forbidden,” then what Mohamed Atta did on September 11, 2001, was not morally forbidden. Of course, it was not permitted either. But still, don’t we want to have grounds to condemn these monsters? Nihilism seems to cut that ground out from under us.Second, if we admit to being nihilists, then people won’t trust us. We won’t be left alone when there is loose change around. We won’t be relied on to be sure small children stay out of trouble.
Third, and worst of all, if nihilism gets any traction, society will be destroyed. We will find ourselves back in Thomas Hobbes’s famous state of nature, where “the life of man is solitary, mean, nasty, brutish and short.” Surely, we don’t want to be nihilists if we can possibly avoid it. (Or at least, we don’t want the other people around us to be nihilists.)
Scientism can’t avoid nihilism. We need to make the best of it. For our own self-respect, we need to show that nihilism doesn’t have the three problems just mentioned—no grounds to condemn Hitler, lots of reasons for other people to distrust us, and even reasons why no one should trust anyone else. We need to be convinced that these unacceptable outcomes are not ones that atheism and scientism are committed to. Such outcomes would be more than merely a public relations nightmare for scientism. They might prevent us from swallowing nihilism ourselves, and that would start unraveling scientism.
To avoid these outcomes, people have been searching for scientifically respectable justification of morality for least a century and a half. The trouble is that over the same 150 years or so, the reasons for nihilism have continued to mount. Both the failure to find an ethics that everyone can agree on and the scientific explanation of the origin and persistence of moral norms have made nihilism more and more plausible while remaining just as unappetizing.
- A.Rosenberg, The Atheist Guide to Reality, ch.5
>> Christianity is being formally repressed by governments and power elites. Deny it all you want, but the evidence is overwhelming.
As our pastor is fond of pointing out, a first step is to substitute in the public mind “freedom to WORSHIP” (a watered-down version) for “free EXERCISE of religion” (what is ACTUALLY guaranteed by our constitution).
Even the Soviets had to some degree freedom to worship. Free exercise of religion is much more than that, and it’s what they’re afraid of.
Treating Christianity as a mental illness is not a new problem, though. Hey, in the first century, Festus thought Paul was nuts, and said so out loud. :-)
Thanks for the thought-provoking post, God’s rich blessings on you in JESUS’ name, and FRegards.
Ping.
Our "mental health system" no longer has mental health as its objective.
Remember there has been massive purcheases of guns and ammo the last couple of years now, meaning Americans are ARMED to the teeth.
Revolt is coming down the road, mark my words.
There is no substitute or equal for the happiness that Christianity brings and I say that from personal experience. It does trouble me that there is evil in the world, but it does not trouble me that I do not participate in the pursuits driven by pride and envy.
Elitists can only achieve utopian happiness by eliminating unhappy people. That would include people who do not embrace happiness as they define it. The elitists, in their minds are as close to gods as any human could hope to be and they see vanquishing opposition as vanquishing evil. In that respect, they are no different than Islam. I agree with you and what you say is worth repeating:
How does a Christian fight it? The same justification as put forth in the Declaration: when the abuses and usurpations of culture deny freedom, then God's grant of freedom makes a war for freedom justifiable.
Amen.
the left hates Isiah as much as they despise God!
Bring Out Your Dead
Post to me or FReep mail to be on/off the Bring Out Your Dead ping list.
The purpose of the “Bring Out Your Dead” ping list (formerly the “Ebola” ping list) is very early warning of emerging pandemics, as such it has a high false positive rate.
So far the false positive rate is 100%.
At some point we may well have a high mortality pandemic, and likely as not the “Bring Out Your Dead” threads will miss the beginning entirely.
*sigh* Such is life, and death...
... and the left thinks that the counsel of sexual restraint is a religious superstition, and guilt over sexually irresponsible conduct is a mental illness.
There is indeed a mental illness at work here, but it is not what the left supposes.
“We treat racism and homophobia as delusional disorders,” said Shama Chaiken, who later became a divisional chief psychologist for the California Department of Corrections, at a meeting of the American Psychiatric Association. “Treatment with antipsychotics does work to reduce these prejudices.”
There are many more examples where they come from. Once “homophobia” becomes a mental condition it is easy to see how you can be ordered into a medical facility and your children can end up in foster care with “normal” families.”
FEMA camps have nothing on this.
I am an agnostic and have been warning of this for 20 years. There is a war on Christians. It is clearly well under way and gaining speed swiftly. I stand with Christians and with Judeo-Christan/Western Culture.
I see the internecine warfare between Christian denominations as one of the biggest stumbling blocks in fighting the onslaught against Christianity. Look no further than the pages of FR to see the distraction provided by this fratricidal behavior.
Ahhh, right on cue.....
Absolutely armed to the teeth. This anti religion thing is not going to fare well in fly over country, especially the South. I was recently with a group when one person (from California) said they were offended by religion. You could have heard a pin drop. Everyone looked at them like they had grown horns. Then one lady reached over , patted their shoulder and said “Well, bless your heart”. Lord, I love the South.
right on cue.....agreed...As if this article were about denominational infightings
.....You got it. I see it myself on FR and it BREAKS my heart when Christians from different church backrounds fight over the smallest stuff. It has to stop. We have a BIGGER WAR going on. Ask the Middle Eastern Christians.
Dang, I was agreeing with you. Your post, so I will bow out. Best wishes.
None so blind as those with the blindfold on and knife at their throat.
That’s what I said....
Agreed
I was agreeing with you.
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