"Both religious and secular "authorities" are used by them and it's unwise to mistake the cause from the effect."
Your bolts are a bit tight, Spinestein. Just because your experience with gold has been tainted with alloy does not mean that pure gold does not exist.
But, it does bring up a very good point. To what depth has Screwtape influenced those whom God "So loved that He sent His only begotten Son" to save. And Why?
Jealousy, the sister of envy is the why.
"Let Us create man in Our image and after Our likeness" Gen 1:26
What God is by nature, man shall become by grace. A message, not only of salvation, but one of purpose. Man, a partaker of the Divine gift has what Screwtape can never obtain. Therefore, misery loves company. The irony...by man's own free will.
The depth however, I must concede, does include all the counterfeit religions found in the world today. Gold tinted with worthless alloys. Tinted to the point of being unrecognizable. Tinted to the point where again by man's free will, and lack of searching from a shipwrecked heart, he becomes as far off course as those purporting evolution.
Worse, two ships, hopelessly off course and destined for doom, collide in the courts of human pride and foolish wisdom, while Screwtape looks on from the Emperors chair in the arena, satisfied that his outcome will prevail.
TRUTH does exist and can be found if one searches for it with all their heart. Not accepting counterfeits along the way. With a willingness to bend and flow where TRUTH leads them.
For those truly searching for TRUTH, may I suggest the following link:
http://www.orthodoxpress.org/parish/river_of_fire.htm
For all others, it will just be a river of fire.
[The depth however, I must concede, does include all the counterfeit religions found in the world today. Gold tinted with worthless alloys. Tinted to the point of being unrecognizable. Tinted to the point where again by man's free will, and lack of searching from a shipwrecked heart, he becomes as far off course as those purporting evolution.]
I can't disagree with this as far as morality and ethics goes with regard to "true" religion, but I don't include the topic of evolution versus creationism in the realm of ethics or morality. As a scientific theory, it's morally neutral.
[TRUTH does exist and can be found if one searches for it with all their heart. Not accepting counterfeits along the way. With a willingness to bend and flow where TRUTH leads them.]
That's my philosophy and it's led me to conclude that evolution best explains the diversity of species, regardless of how some have hijacked the theory to support their own political beliefs even to the point of using it as an excuse for genocide.