Without doubt, dearest sister in Christ! My thinking on this topic FWIW:
The first thing the atheist gets rid of by "killing" God is the idea of universal truth as the measure of human reality. They wish to reduce us to "Pompous" Pilate's question: "What is truth?"; then argue because the problem Pilate addresses is insolulable on the basis of the "scientific method," no legitimate question exists at all. So don't ask it. (Or if you do, we atheists will look down on you with extreme disfavor — as the troglodytic, stupid, knuckle-dragging Dims that you are.)
With an objective universal standard of Truth gone — the most valuable and indispensably important part of the ratio, it seems to me — then all you have to go on is "opinion"; and as everyone knows nowadays (or have been told), one man's opinion is just as good as any other man's. No more and no less.
Of course — here's the fun part — they have deified their own opinion, and all else must worship it — otherwise, there will be lawsuits! (Go figure.... Talk about irrationality.... Or if it's not just irrationality, it is positive evil — The "Reverend" Barry Lynn (Lind?) — a proselytizing atheist for all that he holds himself out as "a man of the cloth" — comes to mind. Talk about a wolf in sheep's clothing!)
Then we get to the real nitty-gritty: With Truth gone, similarly so is the foundation of the moral order. Morality becomes "relativistic"; that is, each man is liberated to become his own truth-giver in the moral, as well as the intellectual realm.
Such "reasoning" from godless presuppositions is sick; it's absurd; it's irrational; it's insane. It is an abuse of reason.
Moreover, no free civil society can stand very long on such presuppositions. But I digress.
JMHO FWIW.
Thank you ever so much, dearest sister in Christ, for your as ever "spot-on" essay/post!
The RRRev-er-end (Limbaugh’s voice) Barry Lynn is a product of theological liberalism. Their beliefs are essentially that “Christianity is Myth” and that “Myth can be useful.”
Therefore, they talk with straight face about resurrection, prayer, faith, atonement, forgiveness, miracle, and all along they have been “beside themselves” speaking in our language but with their own meanings.
Many, who are not busy pastoring standard churches, will openly tell you that they believe all to be myth, but put them in a church where the next offering is important, and they suddenly go covert operative on you....wolf in sheep’s clothing.
No reflective Christian can ignore that prayer is speech and that all current religious issues confronting the legal realm are in truth free speech and free exercise issues and not establishment issues.
Therefore, Lynn lacks the “reflective Christian” piece. I daresay he is also devoid of the “Christian” piece.
And I owe you an apology. You are the one who originally pointed out that the root of the word "rational" is "ratio" and I have failed to give you credit for that crucial insight.
As a math geek, once I grasped the depth of it - that atheism has no ground for a relation, no ratio, not even to itself - it was glaringly obvious to me that atheism is irrational.
And atheists call themselves "bright." LOLOL!
The conceptual murderers of the transcendent Creator are motivated by monstrously-inflated jealousy and envy. In their conceit of ‘self’ they see ‘self’ as the equal and/or better than God. For example, consider Hitchens accusations-— they are judgments against God. Hitchens in other words, is sitting in judgement of his Creator, and as both judge and jury, Hitchens finds God guilty as charged. Hitchens is nothing but a self-inflated monster.
From Hegel to Comte, Feuerbach, Marx, Nietzsche, and others,all of these self-inflated monsters rejected the invitation to heaven and want no others to go their either. By way of the conceptual murder of God they have deceptively barred the way to heaven. Jesus Christ announced its’ opening; self-idolizing monsters closed it down by trickery.