I would add that the religious impulse in essentially universal, present in even the most zealous secular humanists, where, bereft of humility and conscience, it finds form in horror, a twisted perversion of itself.
Posted on 08/19/2008 2:38:07 AM PDT by goldstategop
We are constantly reminded about the destructive consequences of religion -- intolerance, hatred, division, inquisitions, persecutions of "heretics," holy wars. Though far from the whole story, they are, nevertheless, true. There have been many awful consequences of religion.
What one almost never hears described are the deleterious consequences of secularism -- the terrible developments that have accompanied the breakdown of traditional religion and belief in God. For every thousand students who learn about the Spanish Inquisition and the Salem Witch Trials, maybe two learn to associate Gulag, Auschwitz, The Cultural Revolution and the Cambodian genocide with secular regimes and ideologies.
For all the problems associated with belief in God, the death of God leads to far more of them.
So, while it is not possible to prove (or disprove) God's existence, what is provable is what happens when people stop believing in God.
1. Without God there is no good and evil; there are only subjective opinions that we then label "good" and "evil." This does not mean that an atheist cannot be a good person. Nor does it mean that all those who believe in God are good; there are good atheists and there are bad believers in God. It simply means that unless there is a moral authority that transcends humans from which emanates an objective right and wrong, "right" and "wrong" no more objectively exist than do "beautiful" and "ugly."
2. Without God, there is no objective meaning to life. We are all merely random creations of natural selection whose existence has no more intrinsic purpose or meaning than that of a pebble equally randomly produced.
3. Life is ultimately a tragic fare if there is no God. We live, we suffer, we die -- some horrifically, many prematurely -- and there is only oblivion afterward.
4. Human beings need instruction manuals. This is as true for acting morally and wisely as it is for properly flying an airplane. One's heart is often no better a guide to what is right and wrong than it is to the right and wrong way to fly an airplane. The post-religious secular world claims to need no manual; the heart and reason are sufficient guides to leading a good life and to making a good world.
5. If there is no God, the kindest and most innocent victims of torture and murder have no better a fate after death than do the most cruel torturers and mass murderers. Only if there is a good God do Mother Teresa and Adolf Hitler have different fates.
6. With the death of Judeo-Christian values in the West, many Westerners believe in little. That is why secular Western Europe has been unwilling and therefore unable to confront evil, whether it was Communism during the Cold War or Islamic totalitarians in its midst today.
7. Without God, people in the West often become less, not more, rational. It was largely the secular, not the religious, who believed in the utterly irrational doctrine of Marxism. It was largely the secular, not the religious, who believed that men's and women's natures are basically the same, that perceived differences between the sexes are all socially induced. Religious people in Judeo-Christian countries largely confine their irrational beliefs to religious beliefs (theology), while the secular, without religion to enable the non-rational to express itself, end up applying their irrational beliefs to society, where such irrationalities do immense harm.
8. If there is no God, the human being has no free will. He is a robot, whose every action is dictated by genes and environment. Only if one posits human creation by a Creator that transcends genes and environment who implanted the ability to transcend genes and environment can humans have free will.
9. If there is no God, humans and "other" animals are of equal value. Only if one posits that humans, not animals, are created in the image of God do humans have any greater intrinsic sanctity than baboons. This explains the movement among the secularized elite to equate humans and animals.
10. Without God, there is little to inspire people to create inspiring art. That is why contemporary art galleries and museums are filled with "art" that celebrates the scatological, the ugly and the shocking. Compare this art to Michelangelo's art in the Sistine chapel. The latter elevates the viewer -- because Michelangelo believed in something higher than himself and higher than all men.
11. Without God nothing is holy. This is definitional. Holiness emanates from a belief in the holy. This explains, for example, the far more widespread acceptance of public cursing in secular society than in religious society. To the religious, there is holy speech and profane speech. In much of secular society the very notion of profane speech is mocked.
12. Without God, humanist hubris is almost inevitable. If there is nothing higher than man, no Supreme Being, man becomes the supreme being.
13. Without God, there are no inalienable human rights. Evolution confers no rights. Molecules confer no rights. Energy has no moral concerns. That is why America's Founders wrote in the Declaration of Independence that we are endowed "by our Creator" with certain inalienable rights. Rights depend upon a moral source, a rights giver.
14. "Without God," Dostoevsky famously wrote, "all is permitted." There has been plenty of evil committed by believers in God, but the widespread cruelties and the sheer number of innocents murdered by secular regimes -- specifically Nazi, Fascist and Communist regimes -- dwarfs the evil done in the name of religion.
As noted at the beginning, none of this proves, or even necessarily argues for, God's existence. It makes the case for the necessity, not the existence, of God. "Which God?" the secularist will ask. The God of Israel, the God of America's founders, "the Holy God who is made holy by justice" (Isaiah), the God of the Ten Commandments, the God who demands love of neighbor, the God who endows all human beings with certain inalienable rights, the God who is cited on the Liberty Bell because he is the author of liberty. That is the God being referred to here, without whom we will be vanquished by those who believe in less noble gods, both secular and divine.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
This is an excellent article. He looks at the question from a different perspective, and I don’t think there’s a thing he says that could be contradicted.
I would add that the religious impulse in essentially universal, present in even the most zealous secular humanists, where, bereft of humility and conscience, it finds form in horror, a twisted perversion of itself.
Just think - if there is no God then why bother with AIDS in Africa since it will just wipe out the population and we can then take it over and plunder the resources. We don’t need to worry about the poor or the diseased since they take up so much of the Federal budget.
And we sure don’t need to drop a dime in foreign aid or bother trying to stop drug use - or put up with Madonna music!!!!
Hell, let’s just become atheists and destroy the democrat party!!!!
Of course you don't. People of faith will believe anything. You didn't notice that all of these statements were statements of opinion, not fact? I could rattle off a similar list for Christians. Here's one. 1. Christians cannot be said to be moral because they act not out of objective ethics, but out of fear of divine punishment or out of desire for divine reward.
Irrational comment. Of course they won't believe "anything."
Without God - I can do what I want and not feel guilty about it!
Soliton’s confused...I think instead of “anything”, he means “nothing”.
Oh wait, that’s what HE beleives, nevermind.
“christians cannot be said to be moral because they act not out of objective ethics, but out of fear of divine punishment or out of desire for divine reward.”
atheists/secularists cannot be said to be moral because they act not out of objective ethics, but out of fear of punishment by those around them who would be victimized by their hubris, condescension and arrogance.
That is a false statement
Please name something that faith would rule out
Hi Soliton,
Could you please help me understand why you have written that this is a false statement?
1) “One of the first axioms of logic is that ‘nothing comes from nothing’...”
Are you saying that this is not one of the first axioms of logic?
2) “or stated otherwise, there is a cause for all observed phenomena.”
If 1 is true, are you saying that this is an incorrect paraphrase of 1?
3) “Therefore, logically, since there is an observation of ‘existence,’ it has a cause.”
Are you saying that this conclusion does not follow from 1 as paraphrased in 2?
“People of faith will believe anything.” is what you said.
I can think of lots of things that I will not believe. (And, although your statement was future...”will”... I can think back through history of others who have not believed just anything.) And I know that of those living today that I can offer each of them something that they will not believe.
Your accusation applies to each of the people of faith. If each of them has something they will NOT believe, then it is falsified that they will believe “anything.”
I stand by what I said. Faith is a flawed methodology for establishing truth.
People of faith I know believe in ghosts, demons, evil spirits, magic, virgin birth, resurrection of the dead after a thousand years or more. All of this seems normal to them in spite of the complete lack of evidence for any of it.
These same people are confident that other people’s religious beliefs are fale. They think the Muslim heaven full of virgins is ridiculous. They call the ancient religious stories of other religions “myths”.
People of faith will believe any kind of nonsense if it helps them with the difficulties of life. This is true of Hindus, Buddhists, Christians, Muslims, and Mormons.
The good news is that for the most part it has no effect. Religious countries are no more moral in action than those that are more secular. The United States has one of the highest percentages of people who claim belief in God and we have one of the highest murder rate too.
And those very same people each have something “they will not believe.”
You said they will believe anything.
You need to rephrase.
You might want to say that people of faith have believed lots of strange things.
I said that they would believe anything, not that the would believe everything.
We don’t believe you in you.
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