Posted on 11/16/2010 10:21:55 AM PST by pastorbillrandles
Did you know that the English-speaking world is in the midst of an Atheistic revival? It is fueled by a small but widely celebrated group of authors and thinkers who call themselves “the Brights”, and who lecture, debate and write best-selling books which have a wide following among young college and University students.
These are not your father’s atheists either. They are articulate, impassioned, and effective at the use of the media, and the internet. The “new Atheists” believe that the old atheists were too tolerant of religion, and not aggressive enough in their attacks upon it. To them, religion is not benign it is a retrograde evil which society can no longer afford to tolerate.
They also insist that one doesn’t need God to be moral, and in fact they posit that morality without a fear of punishment or hope of reward is purer and more virtuous than that which is motivated by religion. “Be good for goodness sake” was the slogan put on atheistic advertising on public transport in London England.
The danger to beware of is not their arguments, which are not much different from the worn out , long discredited talking points of everyone from Voltaire, Hume, Nietzsche, down to the bitter village atheist of yesteryear. All have been and hopefully will be rebutted by Christian apologists for this generation.
The reason I say we should beware of them, is twofold; first because of their suave packaging and sophisticated use of multi media and internet. These people come across like they know what they are talking about.
Secondly, to put it bluntly, the youth for the most part, are all too ill-equipped to think through these specious arguments, and are proving to be vulnerable to these modern sophists. Frankly, the decay in standards of education, the shift from Logos centered thought, antithesis,logic, facts and reason, to consensus and image based education has left many open to these attacks at the University.
Shockingly it is almost a fad for young people raised in traditional christian homes to “come out as atheists” at university, and there are websites and you tube videos that teach them how best to “break it to their parents”.
There are popular you tube videos such as “What if I’m Wrong”, in which young people rationalise that if their choice to become an Atheist turns out to be wrong, they would still reject the christian God on philosophical and moral grounds, marshalling accusations against the God of the Bible, such as His command to slaughter Canaanites, or his statutes against homosexuality.
More shockingly, there is a video “blasphemy challenge” , in which students are offered a DVD of the Atheistic ‘documentary’, called THE GOD WHO WASN’T THERE, to anyone who makes a DVD of themselves “deconverting”- specifically calling upon them to “renounce the Holy Spirit!
Here is the challenge from the website :
The Rational Response Squad is giving away 1001 DVDs of ”The God Who Wasn’t There” the hit documentary that the Los Angeles Times calls “provocative — to put it mildly.”
There’s only one catch: We want your soul.
It’s simple. You record a short message damning yourself to Hell, you upload it to YouTube, and then the Rational Response Squad will send you a free The God Who Wasn’t There DVD. It’s that easy.
INSTRUCTIONS:You may damn yourself to Hell however you would like, but somewhere in your video you must say this phrase: “I deny the Holy Spirit.”
Shocking, isn’t it? I am showing you this not to shock you but to alert you to the reality of the assault upon your children and the naive.
But furthermore I show this to also pull back the covers on the underlying spiritual essence of this movement. There is something more going on here tan just “free thought” and humanism. Here is the given reason for the specific instruction to “deny the Holy Spirit”, by the so-called “Rational Response squad”,
Why? Because, according to Mark 3:29 in the Holy Bible, “Whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; he is guilty of an eternal sin.” Jesus will forgive you for just about anything, but he won’t forgive you for denying the existence of the Holy Spirit. Ever. This is a one-way road you’re taking here.
The point is that this movement is spiritual in its essence. This is Satanic,it is an assault on the faith by the Father of lies, designed to blaspheme God and to damn souls. They have free rein on our campuses and places of higher learning. Unfortunately a good many young people are seeing these New Atheists as rock stars, they are emulating them mimicking their arguments, and renouncing their faith. Hopefully these reports will strengthen those who are tempted by this phenomenon, giving them arguments and the answers that have stood the test of countless similar attacks and accusations over the centuries. “Always be ready to give a reason for te hope you have in you with respect and gentleness”(I Peter 3:15) We will be looking next at the so-called “four Horsemen of the Atheistic revival, the Brights” as they call themselves, Christopher Hitchens , Sam Harris,Richard Dawkins, and the lesser known Daniel Dennit.
Today’s “atheists” are tomorrow’s bloody fascist butchers of humanity.
Meet the new atheists...
...same as the old atheists.
Then who gets to decide? A Hitler? A Stalin? An Aztec?
“These are not your father’s atheists either. They are articulate, impassioned, and effective at the use of the media, and the internet.”
Nevertheless... Though you grind a fool in a mortar, grinding them like grain with a pestle, you will not remove their folly from them.
Dangerous folks, these.
Take away morals and meaning, and all that’s left is who has the power.
A humble bunch of jerks, aren't they?
This is not a new notion. About the time of the first Great Awakening, this was a sort of college fad. Guys would get themselves into all sorts of bondage by muttering some such formula as this under their breath, thinking it was better to have all the doubt over with than wonder if they would ever "make it" into heaven.
Only it doesn't work that way.
One of the biggest mistakes we make is handing our kids over to our ideological opponents and letting them educate our kids all throughout their youth.
Not only do they largely fail in the basic task of educating them, they also have free reign to undercut everything we believe. Its amazing that any of our kids come through it with their souls intact. Many that do, it takes years of living to find their way back to the faith of their youth and the faith of their fathers.
The most important thing churches can do is take the lead in educating their kids. Sending missionaries to the third world is great, its necessary, but its also pointless if at the same time you lose your own kids.
If churches will get involved in education, their reach goes farther than just their own, as non-members also enroll their kids, looking for something better than the disastrous public schools, and in so doing the door opens for you to reach people you otherwise would not reach.
More churches are doing this, and its good, and more need to.
It seems that with this challenge to “damn yourself to Hell”, the atheists are in a way admitting there is something beyond this life...
Every generation going back to the start of the 17th century has had it’s “Brights” who believed that they alone understood reality, and that the rest of humanity were benighted superstitious idiots.
Nothing changes.
If the fools in question were happy with just themselves being in the mortar & pestle, there would be no problem. The problem is they want to take everyone else with them. They delight in stripping young people of their beliefs in God and making them hate Him and all those who believe on Him.
Perhaps. But I would suggest that one needs a God in order to be happy.
How does an Athiest even know what is moral beyond their own personal preferences?
So who decides what's "good"?
Last Summer,I had a discussion with a 73 year old liberal who is also an atheist.
He was kicked out of a local atheist group for actually defending religion. He believe organized religion was very good in helping many people with it’s emphasis on food distribution,homeless programs and counseling services.
Although not a believer in religion and not anti-religious at all,he recognized the positive aspects of organized religion.
he claimed The group that kicked him out was more interested in bashing religion, especially Christianity then discussing ‘philosophy of life’.
The fact that they call themselves “Brights” is a sure sign they are morons. What a ridiculous crew of idiots.
The only sin that cannot be forgiven is not wishing to be forgiven.
I would argue that it goes back further than that:
“For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness” 1 Corinthians 3:19
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