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THE FOUNTAINHEAD OF SATANISM
First Things ^ | 6/8/2011 | Joe Carter

Posted on 06/07/2015 5:38:13 AM PDT by Ethan Clive Osgoode

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To: Ethan Clive Osgoode
Ok.. so the author made an very large accusation..that Rand is satanic.. not just some errors in logic.. but satanic.......and then provided zero evidence or examples of even an error to back up the charge...

Satan is the slander.. yet if you make a charge but provide no evidence to back it up.. who is the slander?...

If you make a charge.. you need to make your case

God is a god of truth and reason..so provide it ...

I could make a better case against Rand then this.. it all accusations without evidence.

21 posted on 06/07/2015 7:13:43 AM PDT by tophat9000 (An Eye for an Eye, a Word for a Word...nothing more)
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To: Teacher317

Teacher, I agree with your post #8. I think Joe Carter is trying to foment a War About Nothing with the primary goal of self-promotion. Obviously he knows nothing about philosophy. I am not an Ayn Rand “follower” but I agree with much she wrote while recognizing her flaws.


22 posted on 06/07/2015 7:14:12 AM PDT by samtheman
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To: Springfield Reformer
"the idea that radical selfishness, no matter how enlightened, is the supreme good. It is not the model taught by Jesus."

And therein, ultimately, is the source of discomfort for many practicing Christians.

IN essence Christianity teaches collectivism, but one that is completely independent of government. Even transcending government.

What they fail to realize is that Rand's book addresses only the relationship between man and government. It does not address Judeo-Christian morality nor the name of the one true God...nor his sovereignty over earth and man.

To my memory, no such things were expressed.

23 posted on 06/07/2015 7:23:01 AM PDT by Mariner (War Criminal #18 - Be The Leaderless Resistance)
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To: Ethan Clive Osgoode
"They both wanted to eliminate Christianity,"

Can you cite an example where Rand advocated for or alluded to that in any of her books?

24 posted on 06/07/2015 7:24:33 AM PDT by Mariner (War Criminal #18 - Be The Leaderless Resistance)
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To: Springfield Reformer

You make a couple leaps here that I believe the author and others on this have made. Rand advocated for rational behavior in economic activity, and governence

I have found no dichotomy at all between conducting myself as a Christian in my own life and working for then cause of radical freedom, including the choice to be radically selfish, in he political realm.


25 posted on 06/07/2015 7:35:03 AM PDT by L,TOWM (Is it still too soon to start shooting?)
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To: Ethan Clive Osgoode

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2isCEoEmN8
Walter Cronkite: “glad to sit at the right hand of Satan”


26 posted on 06/07/2015 7:36:54 AM PDT by a fool in paradise (Funny how Hollywood's 'No Nukes' crowd has been silent during Obama's Iranian nuclear negotiations.)
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To: driftless2; SubMareener
It isn't that she has some personal quirks that are separable from her core philosophy of life.  As Submareener says, it is like leaven.  The rotten philosophic center corrupts the whole.  

Consider for example Rand's views on abortion:
An embryo has no rights. Rights do not pertain to a potential, only to an actual being. A child cannot acquire any rights until it is born. The living take precedence over the not-yet-living (or the unborn).

Abortion is a moral right—which should be left to the sole discretion of the woman involved; morally, nothing other than her wish in the matter is to be considered. Who can conceivably have the right to dictate to her what disposition she is to make of the functions of her own body?

From “Of Living Death”, The Voice of Reason, 58–59

Quoted from here:  http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/abortion.html
The premise is radical self-centrism, the absolute opposite of Christianity, in which we define love as the supreme good, and we define love in terms of making the other person more important than ourselves.  In the above quote Rand is deploying her core premise of radical selfishness as a very effective weapon against unborn persons.  Indeed, we could say that the radical left is using that very Randian logic to defend "abortion rights."  

So we cannot afford to give her philosophy a pass by trivializing her deviancies as merely "personal" issues.  They are a consistent and predictable outcome of her philosophy.  If you like aspects of what she said, that's fine. But if they appeal to you as a Judeo-Christian theist, you will find (if you dig at it a bit) that they are not built on the Randian premise, but on the theistic premise. In such a case Rand is merely borrowing what other, better, theistic thinkers have already said.

Peace,

SR
27 posted on 06/07/2015 7:41:12 AM PDT by Springfield Reformer (Winston Churchill: No Peace Till Victory!)
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To: Ethan Clive Osgoode

The author presents a false “Either - Or” argument. It is not “Either you are a Rand follower OR you are a Christian.”

A reasonable Christian can see the benefits of many of Rand’s positions and adhere to them without losing their Christianity. It’s called the middle ground.

The liberal media LOVES presenting the “Either-Or” type questions to conservatives. Ted Cruz is a master to flipping this around and throwing them right back into the face of the liberal puke reporter.


28 posted on 06/07/2015 7:44:53 AM PDT by Buckeye Battle Cry (Jeb and Hillary - Two sides of the same coin.)
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To: Mariner

Christianity does not teach collectivism. The sorry state of the Church at Jerusalem, when they tried it, is an example. Also the Pilgrims tried it when they first arrived, and it was a disaster. Only after they assigned land to each family were they able to have Thanksgiving. The Book of Revelation says that the government in the Millennial Kingdom will be a theocracy under Yahshua who will rule with an iron rod.


29 posted on 06/07/2015 7:45:10 AM PDT by SubMareener (Save us from Quarterly Freepathons! Become a MONTHLY DONOR!)
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To: Ethan Clive Osgoode
Rand's writings conveyed some good anti-collectivism, pro-market, and pro-individualism ideas. To agree with those ideas does not make me a 'follower' of Rand.

If Hitler had a line in Mein Kampf that read 'beer is yummy', I'd whole-heartedly agree with that. The article's author would probably then call me a Hitler follower.

30 posted on 06/07/2015 7:51:45 AM PDT by DesertSapper (Becoming more libertarian (small 'l') by the day)
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To: tophat9000
I would ask a different question......what is the fundamental different between a Libertarian and an Anarchist?....

its big problem because many so called Libertarian has cross over because they do not know this fundamental

Rand and atheist have this same flaw..

31 posted on 06/07/2015 8:05:08 AM PDT by tophat9000 (An Eye for an Eye, a Word for a Word...nothing more)
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To: tophat9000
what is the fundamental different between a Libertarian and an Anarchist?.

An anarchist doesn't pretend to be a conservative.

32 posted on 06/07/2015 8:10:25 AM PDT by Ethan Clive Osgoode (<<== Click here to learn about Evolution!)
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To: L,TOWM

See my post #27:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3297766/posts?page=27#27

As I said, there can be thoughts in any author that are worthwhile. The true “leap” is going from the noble idea of rational economic activity to “radical selfism.” Her premise is not the holy grail that will lead to rational economy and political freedom. Radical selfism is idolatry of man, and cannot be reconciled with any reasonable view of Scripture.

Peace,

SR


33 posted on 06/07/2015 8:31:09 AM PDT by Springfield Reformer (Winston Churchill: No Peace Till Victory!)
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To: Ethan Clive Osgoode

William F. Buckley had Rand’s number. Joyless atheist. Nothing there for me.


34 posted on 06/07/2015 8:44:36 AM PDT by Oratam
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To: Ethan Clive Osgoode

Ayn Rand believed that sovereignty rests in the individual (as did our Founding Fathers) and that the ultimate expression of freedom can be found in the concept of “No”. In these areas, she is spot-on.

Ayn also understood the enemies of person freedom perfectly. I don’t know of anyone who painted the Progressive movement better or who could see the logical outcomes of that philosophy better than her.

I was initially enamored with Ayn’s “me for myself” individualism but I came to understand that at its core is excessive pride and hollow selfishness. Her philosophy is Satanic in that it places Man as God, answerable to no higher power. We’ve been down that road and it didn’t end well for humanity.

I would also point out that Rand’s characters never try to embrace the organs of power in their pursuit of excellence and achievement. She constructs a fantasy world where the superior, unfettered by any moral restraints other than being true to oneself, reject power in their pursuit of individual goals. Unfortunately, oligarchy is the inevitable outcome, proven by history, when Human nature develops its selfish motives, develops means, and creates its opportunity.

Even Ayn’s philosophy of the individual sovereignty has no objective basis in the absence of a creator-God.

Rand has a voice at the table of Philosophical discussion, but in the end, I rejected her selfish vision for the loving vision of Christianity.


35 posted on 06/07/2015 10:06:43 AM PDT by PTBAA
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To: PTBAA

Rand, La Vey, Nietsche, etc., are caught up in the great fishing net of self vs. other. The issue is simple to reconcile. If your society provides lots of lounge time, you can muse on aspects of the self and independent action. If your society enters a period of emergency, you start choosing a team to play with in collective action. The subject hinges on the levels of emergency or, even more dictatorial, the PRESUMED levels of emergency.

More interesting is Rand’s sense of esthetics which revolves around living in an ethically principled manner. You just better damned well choose your ethics carefully and make certain that they don’t keep you from learning from new and better data.


36 posted on 06/07/2015 10:53:34 AM PDT by Yollopoliuhqui
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To: ADemocratNoMore; Aggie Mama; alarm rider; alexander_busek; AlligatorEyes; AmericanGirlRising; ...

This essay from a religious magazine from 2011 equates Ayn Rand and Objectivism with Satanism.


37 posted on 06/07/2015 11:14:35 AM PDT by Publius ("Who is John Galt?" by Billthedrill and Publius now available at Amazon.)
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To: Publius

Yes, the idiotic circular firing squad. Shoot freedom-loving people who don’t subscribe to all your religious beliefs.

I don’t agree with everything Ayn Rand said or wrote but she was on the right side.


38 posted on 06/07/2015 11:18:28 AM PDT by Larry Lucido
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To: Publius

It is leftist belief that is equivalent to satanism. Carl Marx was an athiest when he wrote the communist manifesto, but later he became a devil worshiper. Look at the dedication of Saul Alinsky’s book Rules for Radicals. He dedicates it to the first radical...Lucifer.


39 posted on 06/07/2015 11:22:24 AM PDT by MtnClimber (For views of Colorado scenery and wildlife, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: bigbob

Two crocks!


40 posted on 06/07/2015 11:47:24 AM PDT by wintertime (Stop treating government teachers like they are reincarnated Mother Teresas!)
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