Sep 10 2008
Everyone Is Religious
I received a comment from someone on this post from the Coalition for Secular Government. They called the amendment I was touting in Colorado, “a monstrous evil.”
I found the contradiction ironic. Secular government coalition using the term “monstrous evil.” How do they know? What constitutes a monstrous evil? How do they know that this is evil?
I believe that the killing of defenseless people is murder, and therefore it is evil. Murder is a violation of God’s law (6th commandment, 5th for my Lutheran readers), and God says it’s wrong. Throughout God’s Word he elaborates on why and when killing is murder, and when it is not. And killing Jews because you don’t like them is murder (Hitler). Killing citizens because they might rise up against tyranny is wrong (Stalin). And killing your baby because he might change your life in a way you don’t like is murder (3,500 babies today, tomorrow and the next day).
And I can say this beyond doubt because I’m relying on a standard outside myself. This is evil. Life is good. End of argument.
For the Coalition for Secular government, defining good and evil is somewhat more complicated. Who gets to decide what is good and evil? Majority vote? Nine men and women in black robes? The Coalition for Secular Government?
You see, neither Hitler nor Stalin believed what they were doing was wrong. And they religiously attacked those who they hated, and used their power to kill.
People who do not love babies viciously attack the unborn and kill them. And other women are either fooled into believing their babies are not human or are lead to think they have no other options when in fact those options exist. To the tune of 1 baby murdered for every 3 babies born.
God created us to be worshiping beings. It’s written into our makeup as creatures created in His image. We were created to worship Him. homo adoranis. homo sapien is inadequate.
And that natural proclivity to worship is undeniable and inescapeable. Even the rebellious who turn their backs on God worship something. It may be a baseball team. It may be an ideal, even an ideal that is a good ideal like personal liberty. It may be personal peace and affluence. For everyone, there is something in your life that is worth more than anything else. Even if that something is yourself.
The Coalition for Secular Government worships secularism. They want to be freed from all reminders that they were created by a sovereign, loving, just, holy God. And they want to make laws with no foundation. And their false worship will drive them further from God as they try to bury His image into something unrecognizable. And Jesus Himself, in David’s Psalm 2 tells us that this will happen, even among the kings of the earth:
Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against his Anointed, saying, “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.”
(Psalms 2:1-3)
But they can’t. Because it’s inescapable. God exists. The next verse in Psalm 2 says He laughs at these efforts. His image in man exists. And so even they will use the term “monstrous evil,” even though they don’t have any way to define what is evil and what is good.
True religion involves turning to the creator and submitting to Him.
Sad thing is that you can’t. Not on your own at least. And that is why the loving, holy, sovereign God sent His own Son to become a man and to pay for the rebellion of people like you (and me!), and to bring into the world the power to turn from death and darkness and evil to a loving Son who takes us to the Father in forgiveness.
I know what is good and evil because Jesus came to divide the waters and to give evil people like me life for death and a heart of flesh for a heart of stone. May those at the Coalition for Secular Government turn to and honor King Jesus, and may each of us do this today and every day.
Amen and Amen!
UPDATE: At the advice of a friend (and good advice it was!) I toned down one of the paragraphs. It is my intention with this post to express the willingness of God to forgive all crimes and misdeeds–including murder. Paul murdered those who were brethren to those he later was called to minister to, and Paul, like me, was forgiven.
There is no sin too great that God cannot or will not forgive for those who give themselves to Christ Jesus.
This is by far the stupidest thing I’ve read all day. Congratulations on your prize.
Thank you, that is the nicest comment I’ve gotten all day.
What’s the prize?
Oh, and could you elaborate? It seems to me that if what I’m saying is “the stupidest thing” you’ve come across today and intelligent fellow like yourself should have no problem at all putting together a cogent rebuttal of the main points above.
Either way, thanks for speaking your mind. I try not to have an overdeveloped sense of my own intelligence so this will help.
Even smart people can say dumb things. Since that happened to be the case in this situation, I thought it was an excellent icebreaker. If I came off as harsh, sorry, I have this reflexive reaction to blatant, shameless bigotry. Specifically, it started with “The Coalition for Secular Government worships secularism.”
First off, you have a pretty broad definition of “worship.” Nobody worships secularism. Secularism, by its very definition, is the rejection of religion and religious-type worship.
Don’t get me wrong, I see the point you’re trying to make, but possessing a certain mindset is infinitely different from worshiping that mindset and it is foolish to label it a religion.
I happen to enjoy reading classic books. I spend much time on this, but I do not worship the abstract concept of literature. Holding something in high regard and treating it as important not only doesn’t involve nor imply worship, neither does it mean the same thing. For an ideal, it might be called principle. If it’s a sports team or some kind of group, it could be called fandom or loyalty, perhaps brotherhood. If it’s an activity, we call it a hobby.
To illustrate, I’d challenge you to find one person who prays to Mike Ditka before every Bears game.
Second, your whole take on secular intentions is positively absurd. An atheist, for instance, is not an atheist because they’re running from the angry bearded guy in the sky. They don’t believe because they reject the notion of the supernatural in favor of the empirical or the rational. The reason secular organizations exist is not because they’re some sort of religion (as you apparently fancy them), but as a reaction to the kind of bullying and chiding by the religious as displayed on this very blog. Then there’s the subversion of laws and customs by injecting religion into them (mandatory school prayer, “one nation under God,” government-funded churches, etc.). And that’s to say nothing of the consistent and meritless attack on science and the progress of the human race.
Third, “…they want to make laws with no foundation.” This one really takes the cake. Do yourself a favor and look up the Greek philosopher Thales. The entire basis of logic and Western thought originated with this man, as did the ethics and the Western notion of morality.
That’s right–Western thought and civilization as we know it was based on principles that were irreligious in nature, predating the birth of Christ and Christian morality. The foundation? Our ability to reason and agree upon standards of behavior for the purpose of surviving as a culture or civilization.
Not murdering someone because we wouldn’t want to be murdered makes sense, so we agree on not murdering each other, and those who break this social contract are punished. Showing kindness to one another is an example of compassion because we tend to be empathic creatures. Frankly, doing it because some God says so seems remarkably hollow to me, not the other way around.
Hi (fill in the blank because I don’t know what to call you):
Harsh? Maybe. I wasn’t offended.
I don’t think I’m going to get into a protracted debate, since the purpose of this post wasn’t at all to debate issues as much as to look at foundations. Maybe in another context, on another post, I’d be glad to. Or I can buy you a beer (or stop by for a homebrew) and we’ll have the good discussion when we could do it face to face.
Two things. I’ve read Thales. And Plato. And Aristotle. And Dewey. And Schliermacher. And Nietzsche. And a few others. So I’m not an uneducated, thoughtless, reliigious person who can’t carry on a conversation about philosophical underpinings. (For the record from glancing at your blog I don’t think you are an uneducated anti-religious person who can’t carry on a conversation about philosophical underpinings.
Second. I glanced at your blog and you have a quote at the top that I used just the other day (after seeing it on your blog), “A lie is a lie even if everyone believes it. The truth is the truth even if nobody believes it.” I agree wholeheartedly with that statement. The issue is that you think truth is something different than I think truth is. And what we think is truth is wrapped up in where we think we can find truth. And I am convinced by faith and the testimony of His Word that truth can only be found in God and His Word. And you find what you believe is truth in “what makes sense.” And lots of things in the past have “made sense” to people and societies as a whole that are out and out lies. And they’re lies whether anyone doubts them or not, right?
This would be a nice topic over a pint, if you’re ever interested let me know.
Oh and I lied. Three things.
I’d still like my prize. :0)
Most people call me reno. Not sure why.
To be honest, I’m not interested in a ridiculous debate either (ridiculousness is always the natural outcome, let’s not kid ourselves).
The only post I even have a problem with is this one about secularists. I think I can speak for most (if not all) secularists when I say we’re tired of being maligned as running from what people think “we know deep down to be true.” It simply isn’t the case.
Also tiresome is this idea that we’re devoid of ethics or morals. You didn’t go anywhere near that far, but did assert there’s no foundation behind them. There really is, just not yours.
Anyway, my little diatribe up there wasn’t meant to attack you or your religion or anything, but to defend what I thought was a misrepresentation of secular views, something I’m familiar with. Hell, I only remembered this blog exists because I liked the name. Just passing through.
I lied too: tuition goblins and winged childcare monkeys have taken all my prizes. I might require a pint to forget about it.
Hi Reno:
Thanks for the interaction. I’m sorry about the goblins and the monkeys. I was really looking forward to that prize.
Feel free to stop by again.