Mark Steyn: O come, all ye faithless

The Spectator (U.K.) ^ | 12/17/05 | Mark Steyn

[AmishDude]

General compassion for my fellow man makes you live after death in the legacy you leave behind.

If there is no God, this is wholly irrational.

[RightWingAtheist]

Myers is an embarassment to me, both as an evolutionist, an atheist, and a Gopher.

[alwaysconservative]

LOLOL! Well said!

[AmishDude]

You said that very well.

[Starter]

This is very similar to the suggestion put forward by the Quirmian philosopher Ventre, who said, "Possibly the gods exist, and possibly they do not. So why not believe in them in any case? If it's all true you'll go to a lovely place when you die, and if it isn't then you've lost nothing, right?" When he died he woke up in a circle of gods holding nasty-looking sticks and one of them said, "We're going to show you what we think of Mr. Clever Guy in these parts..."

Terry Pratchett, "Hogfather"

[pgyanke]

Luke 9: 49 "Master," said John, "we saw a man driving out demons in your name and we tried to stop him, because he is not one of us."

50 "Do not stop him," Jesus said, "for whoever is not against you is for you."

Before the Reformation, the Christian world was nearly all "Catholic" in their beliefs and practices. Even today, the Catholic Church is the glue which holds Christianity together as the largest body (by far) of Christian believers. We were given the Deposit of Faith and Institution of the Church directly from Jesus Himself following His Resurrection from the dead. We don't understand all that we do (and so we have "mysteries") but we do as He instructed because He instructed us to do so for the sake of His Kingdom. We believe we are called to eternal life in Jesus and He gave us the Sacraments and His very Body and Blood as food for the journey.

Those who are outside of our communion and yet preach in the name of Jesus are not our enemies. If they are not our enemies, can they be enemies of God? Then I'll leave it to God to separate the wheat from the chaff in the time of his choosing and not presume to know who else has wedding invitations.

[r9etb]

Myers is an embarassment to me, both as an evolutionist, an atheist, and a Gopher.

Yeah -- every group's got a few.

Myers does sorta prove the overall point of Steyn's article, though.

[r9etb]

Altruistic athiesm is an individual choice, but one that thrives only under the shadow of a moral culture, and in good times.

I've been struggling to put that into words for years. Nicely done, sir.

[r9etb]

Sadly, there are Christians who remember the redemption but forget Jesus' instructions on how to live

True... and, sadly, that encompasses all Christians including me.

[AmishDude]

I've always wanted to meet Maureen Dowd just so I could say, "You're no Mark Steyn."

[r9etb]

If someone belongs to a group, (lets say Catholics) as Gods creations why are his good deeds good enough to get him into heaven, whereas an equal creation of God (a Protestant) will not enter the kingdom under these terms. The Protestant must repent. That makes no sense.

All of this assumes, of course, that our ultimate fate depends on our opinions on these matters, more than does God's opinion about us.

Once you toss God's opinion into the mix, none of that particular controversy makes a lot of sense.

[Restorer]

Paul makes it pretty clear that the fleshly relationship of master/slave is far less important than that of being brothers in Christ.

You are correct that he asks Philemon to forgive and free Onesimus, his runaway slave, who apparently also stole items of value to finance his escape.

However, the important point is that there is not a hint in Paul's letter that slavery as an institution is wrong or unChristian.

[Steel Wolf]

On a more humdrum level, I'm old enough to remember when "Look out for Number One" was considered a despicable philosophy of life.

There's nothing wrong with looking out for number one, except that in times of crisis, number one doesn't have a lot of pull on his own. That's why our ancestors developed things like traditions, culture, and concepts of allegiance and sacrifice.

Philosophies of 'every man for himself' are fine for selfish individuals during times of comfort, but no society can survive on such ideals.

[Pokey78]

You both have been added.

[Ducere]

.........Eutopia.....I love it....

[DCPatriot]

"Religion .... the opiate of the masses" - A. Hitler

[betty boop]

Malignant narcissism Tammy Bruce calls it.

Indeed. That works for me.

What is encouraging to me is that today, people seem to have rediscovered the good sense to call the thing "by its name." And malignant narcissism seems like a very apt "handle."

The word's getting out, Rummyfan.

[BTW, I'm a big Rummy fan. :<) ]

Thanks so much for writing!

[TChad]

Sorta like the Bach of punditry?

Much as I enjoy punditry, I think that it is a lesser art form than music. So, maybe he is the Roger Corman of punditry, or the Raymond Chandler of punditry -- king of the (lesser) genre. Whatever, he is ridiculously good at what he does.

[irv]

thanks for the ping. Steyn slams another one out of the park.

[Victoria Delsoul]

It's funny how secular rationalists keep forgetting this little aspect of history: “In fact, in the 20th century, it was. Europe’s post-Christian pathogens of communism and Nazism unleashed horrors on a scale inconceivable even to the most ambitious Pope. Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot: you’d look in vain for any of them in the pews each Sunday. Marx has a lot more blood on his hands than Christ — other people’s blood, I mean — but the hyper-rationalists are noticeably less keen to stick him with the tab for the party.”