If you haven’t noticed, there’s a huge movement on to completely secularize all of western society and culture. As an example (and many people in Europe, the Islamic world and more, who think that the US is a “Christian nation” still don’t know this), prayer was banned in public U.S. schools in the early 1960s. Have you noticed a great improvement in the well being and quality of young people for it? Efforts continue to outlaw any mention of God in schools, and it’s the Christian God who takes the rap – Islam is the order of the day, and my son is currently being taught about the benefits and history of Islam. Atheists are happy for Islam to come in because it helps to dilute Christian influence in society.

Not content with mocking and degrading the Christian faith in their classes (as most universities and colleges do),Vanderbilt University recently banned the right of a Christian club within the university to choose Christians only as its leaders. Subsequently, a large number of atheists joined the club and then voted that it should be disbanded. At least sixty other universities are considering similar tactics, and Vanderbilt regards itself as the “tip of the spear” in anti-Christian policy making: so much for tolerance and non-discrimination.

http://aclj.org/free-speech-2/battle-vanderbilt-goes-national

Secularists are also going so far as having Christmas trees or any religious displays removed from all public places by suing cities and states. They have crosses removed from military graveyards. They want to deny a soldier’s right to have the chaplain speak to him about Jesus. They legally defend schools which chastise or suspend students for wearing Christian clothing or writing about Jesus instead of the latest movie star.

According to groups such as the ACLU crosses, Christmas trees and the like in public places are “offensive”, and a “violation of the wall of separation of church and state”. Such a phrase was not written into the constitution but in a private letter from Thomas Jefferson to a church:

http://www.postbulletin.com/news/stories/display.php?id=1490815

The so-called “establishment clause” was not an attempt to ban religion from public life, since many of the founders were Christians and theists, but to prevent government from becoming a theocracy (a good idea), and to protect the free practice of religion. Instead atheists are using the establishment clause to attempt to beat Christianity into a little corner, where some of them would like to finish it off completely.

The Establishment Clause, in the First Amendment of the Constitution, states that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion”.

The “Free Exercise Clause” continues:  “…OR PROHIBITING THE FREE EXERCISE THEREOF”.

THE LOWEST COMMON DENOMINATOR

In schools, colleges, and universities, and in almost all public media, there is a determined and organized effort to force feed us all-particularly our children- with the notion that they are just another form of animal like worms or mice or pigs.

http://www.answersingenesis.org/PublicStore/product/IndoctriNation-public-schools-documentary,6945,229.aspx

A few billion years ago there was a rock, then rain started to fall on the rock, then, against all odds, a little bit of low-life started wiggling around and eating stuff (where did that come from?) and having babies (with who?) and changing into other animals and well, here we all are, no more valuable than that first low life. By the way, did you know that animals resembling cows, or goats, or hippos, or deer, or wolves evolved into whales? Doesn’t that seem like totally ridiculous nonsense to you? It does to me.

http://h2g2.com/dna/h2g2/A1283186

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/03/4/l_034_05.html

http://www.icr.org/article/scientific-roadblocks-whale-evolution/

http://www.icr.org/article/flipper-mans-best-friend/

NATURALISM

Naturalism is the insistence that all of nature consists of and is solely originated by matter and energy – oh, and chance and coincidence. Science is literally governed now on this principle. All that we are and all that we observe can and must be explained by purely natural processes: Divinity must not come into any part of our consideration or studies. Any scientist attempting bring the supernatural into his equations will be ridiculed and ostracized.

God is also out of a job. In fact God, in contrast to wolves turning into whales, and dinosaurs turning into ducks, is a totally contrived concept. We know that, you see, because we can’t see any little old man sitting up there in the clouds, even with a powerful telescope. He doesn’t jump when we say “hop God”, and after all, we are the supremely intelligent ones, and know everything about the entire universe. Now if only we could cure cancer and heart disease and diabetes and violence and malaria and mental illness and birth defects and… death.

Death, to the adherents of naturalism, is extinction. Your personhood will cease to exist, and your body will turn back into chemicals. Death is a vital component of the evolution of life! Bye-bye everybody!

Love is just a matter of chemicals and energy acting on our bodies. Next time you’re with your wife or girlfriend and she asks if you really love her, tell her that you are experiencing some chemical reactions, and as long as they continue you will stick around.

Not all secularists are atheists, but they’re on the same team. Neither are they necessarily bad people. Some of them believe they have only the best motives for the future of mankind. John Lennon summed up the views of a large section of his and later generations, in his song “Imagine”, still sung and sighed over as if it’s some kind of a hymn or anthem, except that Lennon counseled the removal of religion from our consideration, so that we can end all war and “live as one”. Ahhh!

That’s a nice sentiment, but it’s hard enough to get three people to agree on what to have for dinner, let alone expecting seven billion people to agree on all things and live in love and harmony. Lennon, who sang “All You Need Is Love”, shortly thereafter fell out with McCartney, and what was arguably the most popular, creative, and successful band of the 20^th C fell apart. Lennon’s own son felt neglected by his father, saying that the peace and love which John talked and sang about “never came home”:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/1058638.stm

Such is human nature, and so goes the chances of universal love without God. I’ll agree that universal peace and love is worth working for, but we’ll never get there by ignoring our Creator.

In naturalism, religion is a problem which humanity needs to solve. It’s a mental illness. It limits science. Religion is dangerous. When atheists tell you that, they’re not likely to mention the fact (and neither did Lennon) that at least 130 million people died in the 20^th Century as a result of the likes of Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot and Mao Tse Tung accepting the philosophies of men like Darwin. They murdered their own people. They killed those that didn’t agree with them and those they didn’t like. They killed the weak and those they considered to be “inferior”. They caused huge wars and national upheavals which resulted in the deaths of many millions more. For an example of the influence of Darwinian evolution behind mass slaughtering of humans, read this:

http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/tj/v13/n2/nazi

http://www.fixedearth.com/hlsm.html

MORALITY

I’ve related this story before, but it serves well to illustrate my point. It concerns a young man who once told me that Christianity is “just an excuse for morality”. I wondered if he would have been happy for someone to hit him over the head, abuse his girlfriend, and steal his belongings, because morality is about having universally accepted standards of behavior which protect us from those who would hurt us individually or as a society. Animals eat each other, and feel no remorse. Is it then alright for humans to eat each other? Surely if we are just animals it is, particularly if we are hungry and need to survive.

If we are poor and can’t pay all our bills, is it alright to steal? Surely, if we want to be true to evolution and if we want to survive, there is nothing wrong.

Where do we get our sense of right and wrong from? The atheists would have us believe that it has evolved with the human race. Alright, then why is there any crime? Why is there murder and theft? Is it because those who commit such acts are not so highly evolved as the rest of us? What about those nations where bands of people go around blowing other people into eternity – are they less evolved than we are? What happened to millions of years?

Darwin plainly taught that some races of men, particularly black people, were not as evolved as others, and referred to some as “savages”. This belief continued into the 20^th century. As an example, you can read about the life of a pygmy man who was put on display (while still alive) in the US as a specimen of human evolution:

http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/orob/darwins-plantation

GOVERNMENT

Who decides what is right and wrong? Who sets the standards? Who writes our code of ethics? If it’s not God who should decide what is good or bad for us, then we must do it. But when I say “we”, which “we” can I mean, because I find that I have no influence or power over my culture at all?

Is it the majority who should decide? If so, what about the minority? If the minorities should decide, as they often do these days, then what about the majority? It’s human nature to think that everyone should think our way, but what if they don’t? Increasingly, it’s our government which is dictating to us, by law, what we can do and cannot do, when we can do it, and how much we have to pay for it. Our government decides what is right and what is wrong. It has become our supreme power. There is no higher standard to refer to, or to hold the government to, but what they deem is right or wrong and then pass into law.

In order to illustrate the dangers of thinking that nothing guides us or makes us but matter, I’ll employ a little hyperbole here. In Taking our thought one step further, suppose we find ourselves with a government which doesn’t hold to the same code of ethics that we do. Suppose we suddenly have a government and a leader such as Germany had in the 1930s, and that a majority of the population is swept up in its philosophy. Who’s to say that we are right and they are wrong? The politicians, as your supreme power, have the right, in a world which lives and evolves by the survival of the fittest, to impose their views on you, and if you revolt violently, you are setting evolution back. If they send out the troops ans start shooting, are they not just ensuring that the fittest survive?

We may say that our culture is evolving its own set of ethics in which everyone will be treated equally (as they were in Bolshevik Russia for example). But what if some culture on the other side of the world evolves a different set of ethics, and refuses to live by yours? Suppose that one of the large religions of the world decides to move in on your part of the world, and change the way you live and think: is it not just a question of which way of life should dominate, because no-one can claim that their way of life is the “right one’? You may choose peace, but they may choose war and tyranny. Who’s to say that you are right and they are wrong?

Let’s take this to a personal level. If your wife or husband, boyfriend or girlfriend decides to leave and live with someone else, how can you even question what they are doing? They are living by their animal instincts, which tell them that in order to best thrive and prosper they need to live with someone they are more attracted to and who has more money than you. How can you complain? They are merely living out what you believe in – adaptation and the survival of the fittest. Now we are heading into a society where nobody wants to be committed to anyone unless that commitment benefits them: a society where nobody can be trusted, and where love is just a feeling – a chemical reaction which doesn’t last.

Imagine a future government deciding that only people under the age of thirty should be allowed to live. All others are no longer considered “attractive” or sexually desirable, so there is no more use for them. Not only that,  but babies are now produced in a test tube only, since in this way all offspring produced will possess the desirable IQ and good looks. Any not meeting the standards are thrown away. Is this not just humanity aiding the process of human evolution?

If your government were to do such a thing, there is nothing you can do about it, since they are in power and you are not. They are the fittest and you are just a weakling who should bow out-die- and allow the world to evolve.

THE EASY OPTION

It makes a lot more sense to me to acknowledge the obvious – that there is a Creator who knows how we can best thrive and how we are most likely to live in peace and love. “For best results, follow the Maker’s instructions”. The commandments in the Bible are not a set of principles designed to spoil our fun, but to protect us from fallen human nature. Doesn’t “Do not murder” sound like a pretty good idea? Likewise, “Do not steal” is a principle we wish everyone would hold to, particularly when it comes to our stuff. “Do not commit adultery” is designed to stop someone from using your wife for his pleasure, not to stop you from enjoying life. “Love your neighbor as yourself”. “Love your enemies”. Forgive one another”. ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with your soul and with all your mind” This is a simple, God given recipe for success.

By rejecting even a mention of God, we already see devastation all around us in broken homes, homeless and damaged children, disease, lonely and rejected people, crime, violence, greed and poverty, and prejudice. Our sense of community has gone. Our love and commitment has gone, our sense of meaning and purpose has gone, our prosperity has gone, and now it’s every man (and woman) for himself.

The God of the Bible has laid out His standards and recommendations for us. Acknowledging Him, and living by those standards can bring peace and love and commitment, and there is no other way.

• APOLOGETICS
• Evolution/Creation