When it comes to proselytising, Christianity sets itself apart from these other three in one very important way.
The first three of these belief systems all use subjugation, ridicule and peer-pressure to gain and maintain acceptance.
Those who lived in a Communist State had to forever be looking over their shoulder in a perpetual state of suspicion that their neighbours and even their own children may denounce them to the State authorities as ‘counter-revolutionaries’. Severe beatings and even death was a constant fear.
Similarly Islamic States use cruel punishment techniques for those who dare to question the status-quo. Women are kept on a horrifyingly short leash, being cudgelled by their husbands, brothers or fathers at the slightest whim. All this is not just condoned, but promoted by Islamic scripture.
Atheism fits right in with these two, only differing in the degree of chastisement. The primary tool in use by atheism to gain and sustain social and intellectual prominence is ridicule and scorn. Even the slightest mention of secular dissent is immediately countered with a pillory of public humiliation and castigation.
And this is where Christianity differs markedly. Christianity seeks to convince and cajole rather than use the atheist tactic of criticism and castigation. Christianity does not wish for domination and subjugation like Communism, Islam and Atheism. But instead endeavours to show the love and compassion shown to us by Christ.
We let our actions do the talking. Rather than force people to outwardly conform, we would much rather it to come from their hearts in an honest and willing display of acceptance.
I’m sure many people would object and point to various Christianised governments and institutions in the past who didn’t act this way, but rather adopted the methods of the other three worldviews.
Yes it is true that medieval rulers used Christianity to subjugate and even terrorize their peoples. And yes it is true that even this previous century saw Christianised governments enforce Christianity on the population through things such as Christian prayer in State run institutions, and the prohibition of teaching evolution in schools. But my point is that this is not what the teachings of Christ teach us as I will demonstrate.
Christ led the way, giving us an example of how we are to approach the heathen world around us.
A prime example is found in John 8:2-11. After answering the Pharisees in their challenge over a women caught in the act of adultery, He did not chastise and condemn the woman. He did not arrogantly pronounce the law that she must adhere to. And He did not ridicule and shame her into submission:
Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”
No, instead He showed her complete love and compassion, with only a gentle reminder of what she new to be wrong anyway.
A firm hand only serves to harden the heart against your rules, and guarantees hostile rebellion.
Conversely, a gentle and loving hand cajoles and convinces, and ensures honest devotion.
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Should Christians Follow the Old Testament Law?
A superficial reading of this passage seems to say that Jesus is affirming the validity of the Old Testament Law which would make them still binding for Christ’s followers.
But what did Jesus truly mean by this statement? One point is certainly true, Christ did not come to totally eliminate all the Old Testament laws and start from a blank canvass, we can certainly rule this out.
In this quote Jesus was really stressing the point that His mission wasn’t to invalidate all of God’s prior teachings and render them obsolete and defunct. He was making the point that the Law and prophecies of old were setting the stage for Christ’s arrival to fulfil them! God’s interactions with the Israelites of the Old Testament were only ‘Part 1’ of God’s ultimate plan. Jesus was explaining that He was here to instigate ‘Part 2’; the salvation.
So having pointed out that Jesus wasn’t going to scrap the Old Law, what then was his plan for the Old Law? Well, we know that Jesus did abolish many aspects of the old Law. For instance Mathew 5:38-39 states:
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also.”
Here Jesus is quoting Exodus 21:23-24 which says ”But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,”
So we can see that Jesus is definitely abolishing at least parts of the Old Law. So this begs the question as to what He really meant when He said that he did not come to abolish the Old Law.
The second part of Mathew 5:17 explains what He did come to do; fulfil the Law and the Prophets.
The whole of the Old Testament is full of prophecies of the Messiah’s coming and what He was to achieve. This would make sense if we look at the Old Testament as being a prelude, or setting the stage, for Christ’s arrival.
Jesus further fulfilled the Old Testament by taking the Ten Commandments and further refining them:
“You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment.” Mathew 5:21-22
Also:
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” Mathew 5:27-28
So knowing what we now know, we see that when Jesus said “I have not come to abolish“, He meant that He had no intention of totally wiping away the Old Law and starting fresh, but instead He used it as the foundation of the God’s new Covenant, and built upon it. The Old Law served as a vital basis for Jesus’ new message. He verified parts, trimmed parts and embellished other parts.
So to answer the original question; “Should Christians Follow the Old Testament Law?”
No. We are not to follow the Old Law, but we are to follow Christ’s fulfilment of it. We are to follow Jesus’ new teachings over the superseded Old Law:
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Gay Marriage
The issue of gay marriage has recently been given significant attention in the parliament and media by the radical Green party in Australia.
The most common word that is heard alongside the term ‘gay ‘marriage’, is ‘progressive’, a term which is also used to justify it. But what is never defined is what ‘progressive’ actually is. The word is just crudely swung around in an attempt to cudgel those ‘backward’ traditionalists who dare to hold tight to old fashioned religious values.
But the real question is if gay marriage is progressive, then what about polygamy? What about incestuous relationships? Why would these not be progressive ideals too?
The only criteria that these self-proclaimed ‘progressives’ are advocating for defining ‘marriage’, is ‘love’, that’s it! So if reciprocal love is the only defining criteria, then on what basis do they reject brothers and sisters from demanding the same rights to marriage? What basis do they then have for rejecting the claims of discrimination against those who want to wed into polygamous marriage? None.
As soon as you redefine marriage away from the obviously harmonious match between one man and one woman into a cohabitation of only ‘love’, then you open the flood gates to any and all variations of cohabitation. If rejecting gay marriage is discrimination, then so isn’t rejecting all other forms such as polygamy, incest, bigamy, bestiality, objectophilia? What is stopping a landslide of subsequent marriage redefinitions to encompass all these different forms of cohabitations? Nothing, in fact according to the logic of the gay marriage advocates, discriminating against all the above forms of relationships who wish to marry is just as bad as discriminating against gay marriage.
Even if marriage is only redefined to include gay unions, then this has a significant impact on those people who don’t want their own marriage vows to be diluted to include gay unions. There are many people who don’t want the marriage bond that holds them together to be some motley hotchpotch union that lacks any form of coherent meaning or significance. They certainly don’t want to be married under a form of union that they find offensive!
This raises the obvious solution of having a totally separate form of union distinct from heterosexual ‘marriage’. It is certainly feasible to have a separate form of union that the ostensibly named ‘progressives’ find comfortable. This would seem to me to be a win-win scenario. It would keep the traditionalists happy as well as those advocating gay marriage.
But what I really don’t get is why those advocating gay marriage, who would almost exclusively be secular atheists, would want to adopt the Christian tradition of marriage anyway? The institution of marriage in the West has always been a Christian tradition, one deeply rooted in Christian ethics, morality and tradition.
Why would those advocates of gay marriage want to hijack this explicitly Christian institution when they openly ridicule every aspect of Christianity? They routinely mock the conservative values of Christianity and even more severely mock the people who hold them. It is for this reason that I simply do not see any sense in them adopting marriage in the first place.
The most diplomatic and practical solution seems to me to create another distinctly separate form of union that encompasses gay unions, heterosexual unions if they wish and every other form of union that they deem progressive.
They would obviously have the same rights as traditional religious marriage, but would have a legal union that they find far more appropriate to their ideas of ‘social progression’. This would certainly keep the vast majority of the religious population happy, giving them the important distinction between hetero and homosexual unions.
The most common word that is heard alongside the term ‘gay ‘marriage’, is ‘progressive’, a term which is also used to justify it. But what is never defined is what ‘progressive’ actually is. The word is just crudely swung around in an attempt to cudgel those ‘backward’ traditionalists who dare to hold tight to old fashioned religious values.
But the real question is if gay marriage is progressive, then what about polygamy? What about incestuous relationships? Why would these not be progressive ideals too?
The only criteria that these self-proclaimed ‘progressives’ are advocating for defining ‘marriage’, is ‘love’, that’s it! So if reciprocal love is the only defining criteria, then on what basis do they reject brothers and sisters from demanding the same rights to marriage? What basis do they then have for rejecting the claims of discrimination against those who want to wed into polygamous marriage? None.
As soon as you redefine marriage away from the obviously harmonious match between one man and one woman into a cohabitation of only ‘love’, then you open the flood gates to any and all variations of cohabitation. If rejecting gay marriage is discrimination, then so isn’t rejecting all other forms such as polygamy, incest, bigamy, bestiality, objectophilia? What is stopping a landslide of subsequent marriage redefinitions to encompass all these different forms of cohabitations? Nothing, in fact according to the logic of the gay marriage advocates, discriminating against all the above forms of relationships who wish to marry is just as bad as discriminating against gay marriage.
Even if marriage is only redefined to include gay unions, then this has a significant impact on those people who don’t want their own marriage vows to be diluted to include gay unions. There are many people who don’t want the marriage bond that holds them together to be some motley hotchpotch union that lacks any form of coherent meaning or significance. They certainly don’t want to be married under a form of union that they find offensive!
This raises the obvious solution of having a totally separate form of union distinct from heterosexual ‘marriage’. It is certainly feasible to have a separate form of union that the ostensibly named ‘progressives’ find comfortable. This would seem to me to be a win-win scenario. It would keep the traditionalists happy as well as those advocating gay marriage.
But what I really don’t get is why those advocating gay marriage, who would almost exclusively be secular atheists, would want to adopt the Christian tradition of marriage anyway? The institution of marriage in the West has always been a Christian tradition, one deeply rooted in Christian ethics, morality and tradition.
Why would those advocates of gay marriage want to hijack this explicitly Christian institution when they openly ridicule every aspect of Christianity? They routinely mock the conservative values of Christianity and even more severely mock the people who hold them. It is for this reason that I simply do not see any sense in them adopting marriage in the first place.
The most diplomatic and practical solution seems to me to create another distinctly separate form of union that encompasses gay unions, heterosexual unions if they wish and every other form of union that they deem progressive.
They would obviously have the same rights as traditional religious marriage, but would have a legal union that they find far more appropriate to their ideas of ‘social progression’. This would certainly keep the vast majority of the religious population happy, giving them the important distinction between hetero and homosexual unions.
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Atheism-The Social Parasite
Atheism and society in general can be accurately portrayed metaphorically as the symbiotic relationship between a parasite and its host.
Atheism thinks of itself as being a fully functioning, self sustainable, belief system that should be the sole worldview in society, a society that has rid itself of religion. As a metaphor, this is akin to a parasite believing that it could survive, and be better off, without its host.
But we all know that a parasite can’t live without it’s host, because by definition, for a parasite to propagate and survive on its own, it needs various things from its host that it is utterly incapable of providing by itself. A parasite who espoused such beliefs would be said to be in a state of megalomaniacal delusion.
The same can be said to be the case for atheism. For any belief system or worldview to propagate and survive on its own, it must possess certain qualities that fulfil the human psychology and thus nurtures a functioning society. It must offer secure moral and ethical foundations to prevent nihilism from wrecking society. Foundational aspects such as sound reasoning for adhering to rules and laws; treating others with respect; liberty to allow basic human freedoms; etc. Without these basic aspects of a functioning society, society and civilization would quickly breakdown.
But In fact, atheism provides none of these things! Atheism only provides a subjective existence. You do what you want, when you want, why you want, how you want. If there is no god to set and enforce the rules, then the rules are made by the strongest.
This is thoroughly demonstrated when you look to societies from history that have replaced religion as the their social compass with atheism and science. Nazi Germany, Stalin’s Russia, Mao ZeDong’s China, Pol Pot’s Cambodia all eliminated their native religions as their moral and ethical compasses and instead followed their self fulfilling subjective doctrine of atheist driven Communism. We all know what horrors ensued thence.
The fact is that they disavowed the existence of a higher power, thus they saw fit to do whatever their power over the population allowed.
The nature of atheism is such that it does not provide any form of moral or ethical basis. It is at heart ‘amoral’. This means that by itself, atheism could never survive. The only reason that atheism is as prevalent as it is in society today, is because it is benefiting from 'sucking the moral blood' of the religious society; It is incapable of providing the sustenance of morality that Christianity, and religion in general, DOES inherently have at its core.
Atheists claim to be self fulfilled only because it crudely copies Christian morality, whereas atheism alone actually provides NO grounds for any morality or ethics; atheism is only seen to be 'intellectually fulfilling' because it hijacks, and hides behind, the good name of science. It is only when you look closely that you see that science offers no support to the atheist faith what so ever.
Abortion
accessed from: http://www.hollow-hill.com/sabina/2009/06/ |
If the population actually knew what was really happening, then I’m sure some action would be taken (one only has to Google Image search ‘abortion’ for a wake up call. ONLY IF YOU ARE OVER 18!!!). But being human, we tend to look the other way and pretend that it isn’t actually happening for some reason. How can we do this?
The abortion of ‘a blob of cells’ is one thing (though it is still wrong), but abortion in the manner that is occurring at present is nothing short of an absolute abomination.
I am often confronted with the allegation that the ancient Hebrew’s laws and customs were harsh and immoral, my response has always been that their contemporary civilizations were much worse because they practiced abominable rituals like infanticide, amongst other things. We all look at this and think ‘how horrible’, ‘what savages would do that’, ‘thank goodness that this doesn’t happen now’. But it IS happening, right now, in all western countries, right under our noses, and in much the same gruesome manner!!! How can we simply look the other way?
Even Hitler would look at us with disdain, and this is no exaggeration either. I have read a lot into the eugenics policies of Nazi Germany and I can tell you that they were far more moral when it came to the treatment of their own citizens. While they certainly treated others with cruelty, they would have instantly jailed or even sentenced to death those responsible for such horrific treatment of mature foetuses.
That a person as demonized and hated as Hitler is could condemn our culture, should be a wake up call for us to mobilize against these atrocities. Talking about it and condemning it on forums is great, but if we really have an opinion then we need to make it known and do something of substance. Write letters to the politicians, give donations to appropriate action groups (try and avoid the extremists groups), deliver pamphlets that detail the atrocities that are occurring, we are obliged to do something.
I don’t know what the motivation of an atheist would be, but personly, I don’t want to get to the ‘pearly gates’ and give God the excuse that “I was too busy with work” while His beloved children are being slain before they even get a chance to demand their own right to life. I just can’t stand by and do nothing.
Links:
http://www.survivorsofabortion.org.au/
http://www.abortionfacts.com/abortion/q_facts.asp
http://www.cherishlife.org.au/
Monday, November 15, 2010
Does Consensus Determine Truth?
Quite often in life we will have our beliefs challenged by others. A Christian may hear an atheist justify his belief with the statement that ‘the majority of scientists believe ……’.
While the truth of something can certainly be indicated by the opinions of the majority of scholars, it is often the case that the majority of scholars are wrong, history is certainly replete with examples of such examples. (1)
So what does constitute ‘truth’? Well, we can be sure of one thing; that the popular opinion of learned men at any one time does not determine the true state of something. I will explain:
All scientists believe that the earth is spherical. Now does the shape of the earth actually depend on what the majority of scientists believe? Of course not. If it did, then 500 years ago, before the Copernican revolution, the earth would have actually been flat, because this is what all the scholars believed at that time.
The true shape of the earth cares nothing for the opinion of human scholars. The opinions of scientists and scholars only form an explanatory thought as to the truth of something. They may be right, they may be wrong, but the truth of any particular thing is not determined but the opinions of men!
So the next time somebody tries to prove their position by stating that the majority of scientists believe this, or that, then humbly remind them that the scientific consensus have got things wrong many times before, and major revolutions in science take place all the time. The fact that science textbooks are rewritten every couple of years is ample proof of this.
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superseded_scientific_theories
While the truth of something can certainly be indicated by the opinions of the majority of scholars, it is often the case that the majority of scholars are wrong, history is certainly replete with examples of such examples. (1)
So what does constitute ‘truth’? Well, we can be sure of one thing; that the popular opinion of learned men at any one time does not determine the true state of something. I will explain:
All scientists believe that the earth is spherical. Now does the shape of the earth actually depend on what the majority of scientists believe? Of course not. If it did, then 500 years ago, before the Copernican revolution, the earth would have actually been flat, because this is what all the scholars believed at that time.
The true shape of the earth cares nothing for the opinion of human scholars. The opinions of scientists and scholars only form an explanatory thought as to the truth of something. They may be right, they may be wrong, but the truth of any particular thing is not determined but the opinions of men!
So the next time somebody tries to prove their position by stating that the majority of scientists believe this, or that, then humbly remind them that the scientific consensus have got things wrong many times before, and major revolutions in science take place all the time. The fact that science textbooks are rewritten every couple of years is ample proof of this.
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superseded_scientific_theories
Monday, November 8, 2010
BC/AD vs BCE/CE
http://www.kman.me/bc-ad-bce-ce |
Dates of history have always been measured with regards to the BC/AD (Before Christ/After Christ) demarcation point.
But since the modern rise of secularism, atheists have sought to eliminate all evidence of the West’s Christian heritage, and as such they are advocating the elimination of the religious reference in BC/AD by changing it to BCE/CE (Before Common Era/Common Era).
This is just another in the long line of secular driven 'sanitizations' of what culture is left of the Western world.
But why bother changing BC/AD to BCE/CE for the ostensible ‘secular reason’ when the religious event of the birth of Christ is still kept as the arbiter between BCE and CE anyway?
The traditional BC/AD 'system' is at worst just a nostalgic cultural tradition that still functions perfectly well. I do not see any reason to replace it. In fact, I think it would be a damn shame to see it fade into disuse simply because of the arrogant intolerance of a small atheist minority.
The traditional dating labels are a beautiful remnant of our undeniable Christian heritage.
Of course in isolation this is a trivial point. But this habit of capitulating to aggressive secularism is becoming far too common and extensive. Christianity has given far too much ground to the secularists.
It seems as though they want to cleanse the Western world of all things religious for no apparent reason. They would probably replace the 24-hour time system too if it was found to be rooted in religion!
The loss of the BC/AD label would be just as mournful as the loss of any building or monument of our heritage.
The thing that makes the Western world so interesting is these remnants of it’s past. Things like the BC/AD labels and the Latin roots of our language. How boring would this world be if it is force to conform to some bland and mundane style of clinical secularism? Quite boring I would think.
It seems to be nothing more than a pitiful ploy to deny our own Christian heritage.
This type of juvenile behaviour is reminiscent of the insecure machinations of teenagers who, when reaching the start of adolescence, go through a final stage of immaturity of rejecting their family as embarrassing and even shameful.
In disavowing their origins, many teenagers try desperately to forge a new, separate and unique identity, purging all that is familiar. Only to find that in the years to follow, that their family, while certainly containing objectionable aspects, really isn’t that bad, and is actually something to be quite proud of.
The same is true of the Christian origins of Western culture. While there are certainly aspects that we are to be ashamed of, by and large this Christian heritage is a beautiful and rich period of our past. And once the societies in the Western world mature past its current stage of cultural adolescence, we will certainly look back at our religious roots and acknowledge the rich role that Christianity has played in the formation of who we are.
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Evolutionist and Creationist Science
http://www.nwcreation.net/intro.html |
Contrary to this quote, both are wedded to evidence as well as to doctrine. Creationism is wedded to the biblical doctrine of origins, while naturalistic evolution is in turn wedded to naturalistic philosophy.
Note also here, that secular naturalists will usually glorify themselves by adopting the term ‘science’ as the title of their worldview.
Science is only a dispassionate method of investigation though, but they use it interchangeably with ‘evolution’, as if they were one in the same. But evolution is only a model of origins-like creationism- which uses the method of science.
Both evolution and creationism are worldviews that are imposed upon the scientific method to discern events in the past.
Evolutionists try to hide this fact but highlighting their adherence to the scientific method, while hiding the creationist’s use of it. At the same time they hide their philosophical adherence to their doctrine of naturalism, while highlighting the creationist’s adherence to design.
The fact is that creationists are the only ones who are up front about their model of origins. They are quite happy to show that their scientific investigation is guided by the Biblical doctrine of design.
Evolutionist’s on the other hand, go to great lengths to hide the fact that they too are guided by a philosophical doctrine; naturalism. If pressed hard enough, and the questioner isn’t tricked by their many diversionary tactics, educated evolutionists will admit their adherence to naturalism, albeit very begrudgingly.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Medieval Church Atrocities
I’m part way reading through Sam Harris’ book ‘The End of Faith’. In many ways it has nothing new to say.
It follows virtually the same line of reasoning as Hitchens’ ‘God is not Great’. They both mainly take the form of what I will term ‘Whinge literature’. What I mean by this is that they have very little of substance to say, they are totally devoid of any form of argument against the existence of God. Rather these types of books merely serve as outlets for the author to release torrents of whinging.
That’s all that one reads in The End of Faith. Whinge, whinge, bloody whinge.
Now I totally get what the authors are trying to say, but they don’t tell me something that I don’t already know.
What prompted this post is when Harris starting whinging about the abhorrent torturing that the medieval Church committed. Now don’t get me wrong, I find these facts of history utterly repugnant, just like Harris. But what I find almost as repugnant is Harris’ egregious attempt at blaming Christianity alone as the source of such atrocities. He paints the picture that this type of thing was original to Christianity and just didn’t happen anywhere else in the world. He is basically attributing Christianity as the sole source of such abhorrent behaviour.
Any historian will tell you that this type of behaviour was rife throughout the ancient world. Such inhumane tactics were practiced by all forms of power in almost every civilization on earth. This by no means is an excuse, but goes to prove that the Church was a product of it’s times. It was very weak in it’s ability to withstand the influences of wider society.
One only has to briefly look at the pacifist teachings of Christ to see that this type of behaviour is patently anti-Christian. One can find no such justification of this behaviour in the teachings of Christ.
This type scholarship from Harris is appalling. What he is doing is deliberately spreading false information. This is basically fraud.
It follows virtually the same line of reasoning as Hitchens’ ‘God is not Great’. They both mainly take the form of what I will term ‘Whinge literature’. What I mean by this is that they have very little of substance to say, they are totally devoid of any form of argument against the existence of God. Rather these types of books merely serve as outlets for the author to release torrents of whinging.
That’s all that one reads in The End of Faith. Whinge, whinge, bloody whinge.
Now I totally get what the authors are trying to say, but they don’t tell me something that I don’t already know.
Accessed from; http://www.askwhy.co.uk/christianheresy/burningalive01.jpg |
Any historian will tell you that this type of behaviour was rife throughout the ancient world. Such inhumane tactics were practiced by all forms of power in almost every civilization on earth. This by no means is an excuse, but goes to prove that the Church was a product of it’s times. It was very weak in it’s ability to withstand the influences of wider society.
One only has to briefly look at the pacifist teachings of Christ to see that this type of behaviour is patently anti-Christian. One can find no such justification of this behaviour in the teachings of Christ.
This type scholarship from Harris is appalling. What he is doing is deliberately spreading false information. This is basically fraud.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
The Prosaic Threat of Atheism
Accessed from http://thesignalinthenoise.wordpress.com/category/ignominiously-defining/ |
To be honest I am starting to see why Michael Ruse, a prominent atheistic philosopher, said that Dawkins makes him embarrassed to be an atheist! Their approach to critiquing religion is very poor on most levels.
One militant atheist trend is constructing a sophistic model of Christianity specifically fabricated to be invalid and indefensible which no Christian actually advocates or would defend.
They are egregious artifices, and only goes to show that an honest and accurate critique is inadequate to depreciate the legitimacy of Christianity. Thus atheists are left with the only option of the distortion and manipulation of religion and it’s Scriptures to try and discredit it.
I am getting more and more secure in my faith as a result of these books. Atheism really poses no challenge at all.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Theist vs. Atheist Atrocities
We never cease hearing from these militant atheists about the many deaths that have occurred throughout history in the name of religion.
They delude themselves with the idea that the all of the worlds problems are due to theism, and the world would be far better off without it. They base this idea on the delusion that theistic worldviews have been responsible for all the worlds atrocities.
Yet they seem to have selective amnesia when it comes to all the atrocities that have been perpetrated by the many infamous anti-theistic atheist tyrants of the last century.
The inconvenient fact that they so often try to sweep under the rug is that in only half a century these tyrants were able to engineer vast massacres which totally out-killed all the religious atrocities in ALL OF HISTORY COMBINED!
Atheists can berate theists all they want, but their atheistic worldview is responsible for far more carnage than any theistic worldview.
They have no basis what so ever for rejecting theism as being responsible for war violence and atrocities. Their worldview has far more to answer for than theism.
The following text and tables were all accessed from http://www.godandscience.org/apologetics/atrocities.html
They delude themselves with the idea that the all of the worlds problems are due to theism, and the world would be far better off without it. They base this idea on the delusion that theistic worldviews have been responsible for all the worlds atrocities.
Yet they seem to have selective amnesia when it comes to all the atrocities that have been perpetrated by the many infamous anti-theistic atheist tyrants of the last century.
The inconvenient fact that they so often try to sweep under the rug is that in only half a century these tyrants were able to engineer vast massacres which totally out-killed all the religious atrocities in ALL OF HISTORY COMBINED!
Atheists can berate theists all they want, but their atheistic worldview is responsible for far more carnage than any theistic worldview.
They have no basis what so ever for rejecting theism as being responsible for war violence and atrocities. Their worldview has far more to answer for than theism.
The following text and tables were all accessed from http://www.godandscience.org/apologetics/atrocities.html
What percentage of these killings were due to religious democide? It is less than 3% of the totals. The surprising thing is that these killings occurred during a period of time when virtually all the peoples of the world were involved in some sort of religion. Here is the data for the 20th century:
Vox Day, in The Irrational Atheist, lists 22 atheistic regimes that committed 153,368,610 murders in the 20th century alone:
What percentage of this democide was due to religious conflict? It turns out that religious democide doesn't even make the top 20 (although I am sure there is some in the "lesser murderers" category. Still, the total religious killings is less than 2%. In fact, the top two killers were specifically atheistic states (which had never existed before in human history). Should atheism be blamed for more than 50% of the atrocities committed during the 20th century? The answer of course is No! If one examines the nature of the regimes that committed these atrocities (even the religious ones), the key factor is absolute power (see Figure 1, right). According to Professor R.J. Rummel, in the 1816-2005 period there were 205 wars between non-democracies, 166 wars between non-democracies and democracies, and 0 wars between democracies. Lord Acton's warning that "power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely" seems to be more than just a trite saying.
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Authority and Truth
Obtained from http://pw0nd.com/tag/faith |
A Christian will no doubt place his faith in God. He does this because the Christian God is considered omniscient, omnipotent and wholly benevolent. These traits ensure that God is capable of knowing all things, and is not going to lie to us. Thus Christians put their faith in this God that anything He says to us, such as in the form of the Bible, will be considered to be wholly truthful.
Atheists on the other hand, have no such source of truth, so they must transfer this yearning for truth and authority to some other source; science.
In fact, they will boast that their source of authority is a superior source of truth than putting ones faith in an invisible God. But is it really? Does it take any less faith to believe that science is the fountain of all truth?
The fact is that all sources of truth and authority have to be taken as such by faith, especially science. The scientific method of investigation is not some sort of holy and infallible fountain of truth. It simply can not be if it is operated by fallible and biased operators. The truth of this is demonstrated in the fact that science textbooks go out of date every few years or so. Very few texts last longer than a decade, and you can be sure of the fact that they too will be superseded at some point in the future.
You can be guaranteed that what is known to be scientific truth today will most certainly be overturned some time in the future. Is science really an appropriate source of authoritative truth? Only through faith, can so many atheists say yes.
The Christian has faith that our God is the ultimate source of truth, which is what would be expected from an omnipotent and omniscient creator deity. But atheists only have the scientific method which is constantly in revolution.
Faith in God or faith in science, take your pick.
Separation of Church and State
On issues such as opening parliament with a Christian prayer, we often hear the claim from secularists that all forms of prayer should be dropped in favour of a position of religious neutrality.
It is claimed that, to have a Christian prayer in a state institution, is exclusionary of other religious and risks offending them. So, they reason, we should adopt a neutral position of no prayer.
In fact they would have all forms of religion totally wiped from all state institutions.
On the surface this seems like a reasonable proposition. To have the State clinically scrubbed of all vestiges of religion seems like a reasonable diplomatic solution.
But the fact is that such a solution is not neutral at all. Rather than it being a position of neutrality, it is actually a staunchly anti-religious and dogmatically atheistic position.
In a country where the vast majority of people are religious, does it really makes sense to force it’s elected body to adhere to a religiously sterile and atheistically biased position? Surely not.
In a country where the vast majority of it’s population identifies itself as Christian and only a very small minority with atheism, does it really make sense to force our government to adopt a vastly marginalized position?
If a country is still vastly Christian, then it is entirely appropriate to have Christian prayer. It is a beautiful tradition that appeals to most people. So if it ain’t broke, then what’s there to fix?
Islam, Judaism and numerous other religious cultures have brought untold riches to our society, we all experience them to a certain degree, and most of us enjoy the fruits of these extremely aesthetic cultural riches.
It will be a sad day if religion is scrubbed from society in the impossible ploy to please everyone. Who seriously wants to live in the secularist’s sterile world, devoid of the rich religious traditions that our Western society was founded upon?
Surely there is a far better solution to accommodating our religiously pluralistic society in our State institutions than adopting the position of one of the smallest minorities!
It is claimed that, to have a Christian prayer in a state institution, is exclusionary of other religious and risks offending them. So, they reason, we should adopt a neutral position of no prayer.
In fact they would have all forms of religion totally wiped from all state institutions.
On the surface this seems like a reasonable proposition. To have the State clinically scrubbed of all vestiges of religion seems like a reasonable diplomatic solution.
But the fact is that such a solution is not neutral at all. Rather than it being a position of neutrality, it is actually a staunchly anti-religious and dogmatically atheistic position.
In a country where the vast majority of people are religious, does it really makes sense to force it’s elected body to adhere to a religiously sterile and atheistically biased position? Surely not.
In a country where the vast majority of it’s population identifies itself as Christian and only a very small minority with atheism, does it really make sense to force our government to adopt a vastly marginalized position?
If a country is still vastly Christian, then it is entirely appropriate to have Christian prayer. It is a beautiful tradition that appeals to most people. So if it ain’t broke, then what’s there to fix?
Islam, Judaism and numerous other religious cultures have brought untold riches to our society, we all experience them to a certain degree, and most of us enjoy the fruits of these extremely aesthetic cultural riches.
It will be a sad day if religion is scrubbed from society in the impossible ploy to please everyone. Who seriously wants to live in the secularist’s sterile world, devoid of the rich religious traditions that our Western society was founded upon?
Surely there is a far better solution to accommodating our religiously pluralistic society in our State institutions than adopting the position of one of the smallest minorities!
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