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morality (2)

What is the meaning of life?

                                            What is the meaning of life?

 

                                                                                Atheism;

 

   You live 70-80 years if you’re lucky, then you die. Unless you’re a handful of famous/infamous people, after a couple of generations, nobody remembers you anymore. So, what is the real purpose of your life?
If you’re an atheist, there is no real purpose. You may say that you want to make the world a better place. But you’re just a bunch of electrons, protons and neutrons randomly thrown together. Where did this idea of making the world a better place come from? Certainly not from a bunch of matter randomly thrown together.
In fact, you act the way you act because your genes (which are just a bunch of electrons, protons and neutrons) tell you how to react. Atheist philosopher Michael Rise says “…ethics, as we understand it, is an illusion fobbed off on us by our genes, to get us to cooperate…ethics is a shared illusion of the human race.” One wonders how our genes know how to get us to cooperate.
Atheist philosopher William Provine says, “There is no ultimate foundation for ethics, no ultimate meaning for life, and no free will for humans either (because our genes determine our actions).”
Atheist filmmaker Woody Allen says in a Newsweek magazine article, “I make movies not to make any type of grand statement but simply to take my mind off the existential horror of being alive.” Allen numbs this bleakness with humor.
Atheists say that;
– you’re nobody special. You’re just a conglomeration of chemicals.
– there’s no special purpose to your life. You live, you die, you cease to exist. There is no afterlife.
– there’s no right and wrong. Just an agreed upon set of morals to live by that can and will change over time.

                                                   


Yet humans do have a universal morality. Its expressions may vary but there are certain universals. Where did these morals come from? Humans are a hopeful group. Where does this hope come from? Why do we consider suicide an unfortunate option, one that is looked with pity on? Why do we look on adultery as wrong? Because we violated our promise to another person, you say. But if there are no absolute morals, why is adultery wrong? So you temporarily changed our mind, so what? But we do feel guilty when we commit adultery. Any morality atheists have is borrowed from other religions.

     If you don’t believe in God, there is nothing to live for, no afterlife to look forward to, no reason to live a good life because there are no absolute morals, only an agreed upon set of opinions. Its all vanity of vanities (Ecclesiastes 1:2-11). But you say, mankind is getting better. There are brighter days ahead. What makes you say that? Its just the chemicals in your brain saying that. But what makes chemicals think? After observing the 20th century where more people were killed than in any other century, what makes you think so positively about our chances of survival? Humanity’s actions speak otherwise. Your heart’s desire that humanity will get better but why do you think that? If there is no God, where does that thought come from?  If there is no purpose in life, after a devastating event (like the death of a spouse), then suicide becomes a rational option.

     Any way you look at it, atheism doesn’t square up with reality on just about anything.

                                                                                     Christianity;

     It is universal that everyone has a yearning to feel that they matter, that their life and what they did with it matters. We all want meaning and purpose in our lives. Where does this yearning come from? We have a desire for our children to live a good, productive life. Parents are protective of their children. We will sacrifice for them. Why? Where do these feelings come from? If our spouse or child is drowning, why would you try to save them? Where does this feeling come from? We have an innate desire to be productive. Work satisfies this. We desire friendship and being part of a good community of friends. Why do we have these desires? Where do they come from? Atheism has no answer for these yearnings, but Christianity does.
Christianity says we’re made in the image of God, that we’re made with eternity in our hearts. That’s why we look forward to a better world here and now but also in the afterlife. It’s also why we don’t consider suicide a rational alternative. We love other people because God loves us and we’re made in His image. We sacrifice for our loved ones because God sacrificed His son, Jesus, for us. We have hope because He instilled it in us. We have a certain morality because we’re made in His image and He’s a moral God. We feel bad when we fall short of His morality. Only when we repeatedly violate His morality on a constant basis can our consciousness become “seared”. This is what happens to serial killers and people like Stalin, Mao and Hitler. We are protective of our spouse and children because He is protective of us and He sacrificed His only son to be in a relationship with us.
We want to learn and advance our society because God gave us dominion over the created cosmos (Genesis 1:26-28) and wanted us to rule it according to His standards. But because we are fallen human beings, we fall short of this mandate. Yet we still strive for it.
Christianity squares up with reality. Atheism doesn’t.


For the sake of the Name,
Dave Maynard

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You can't legislate morality

 Sure you can! We do it all the time. Laws are either moral or immoral but they’re not amoral (without any morality). For example, speeding laws are moral because we want people to drive & arrive safely. Murder is against the law because we want to protect people so they can live in safety. If you don’t legislate morality, what are you legislating? Warm fuzzy feelings? Traditions? Platitudes? The question shouldn’t be can you legislate morality. It should be whose  morality are we going to legislate? Historically, America has replied on Christian morality. This has helped to produce the freest nation on Earth. We started getting away from this morality in the early n20th century. Now in the 21st century, we’ve made things legal that we wouldn’t have made just a few years ago. We’ll cover whose morality we should legislate in another FAQ.

     The people who say you can’t legislate morality just don’t want you legislating your morality. They’re fine with legislating their own morality. The person who says you shouldn’t force your morals on a woman who wants to get an abortion, will force their morals on the unborn baby. They will also force you to pay increased taxes to support their ‘pet’ projects, whether it be welfare spending, global warming or supporting Planned Parenthood.  They’re being selective in their outrage and in the application of the law.  Once again, they’re telling you not to force your morals on someone else, but they’re more than willing to force their morals on you.

 

 

 

     Slavery is a good example of something that’s been socially acceptable for thousands of years. No religion before Christianity had EVER proposed that all people are equal. Even many religions started after Christianity, like Islam, supported slavery. In fact, Mohammed gave his wife 40 slaves. The American & British idea that slavery was wrong was a moral & religious value right from the start. Whose law was slavery against? Not man’s laws as it was legal. It was against God’s law. So to those people who say the Church should stay out of politics, they’re saying the Church shouldn’t have spoken out against slavery. Are you really willing to say that? If the Church isn’t qualified to address these issues, who is? Someone else who will be forcing their morality on you, that’s who.

     No one is saying that the Church has to weigh in on everything. But they should weigh in on matters that directly affect our beliefs.

 

 

 

     Some people say that if a law doesn’t directly affect you, you shouldn’t speak out against it. This is particularly true in the abortion debate. If you don’t like abortion, don’t have one but don’t stop another person from getting one just because you’re against it. What a weak argument this is. I’ll switch the participants to show you the fallacy of this line of reasoning. In pre-WW II Germany when the Nazi’s were rounding up and killing the Jews, you shouldn’t complain because, hey, you’re not Jewish. While you may think the Nazi’s are wrong and you would NEVER kill a Jew, you don’t want to force your morality on the Nazi’s. Doesn’t make a lot of sense, does it? Edmund Burke’s comment comes to mind about “All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing”. Martin Niemoller, a Lutheran pastor in WW II who survived a concentration camp, said First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

 

     Here’s a very partial list of practices that Christians helped to make illegal thru the political, governing system:
– infanticide (the killing of infants)
– child marriage
– child prostitution
– purchasing of wives
– killing special needs children
– killing of widows
– the superstitious killing of twins
– slavery
– polygamy (one man marrying multiple wives)
– the gladiatorial games
– child labor
– etc., etc.

     Up until 374 A.D., it was still legal in Roman society to kill any baby you didn’t want. Then a Christian pastor named Bishop Basil of Caesarea convinced Roman Emperor Valentinian to outlaw infanticide. Do you still want to Church to stay out of politics now?

 

 

 

     Another example is when people try to use the idea of human rights to justify same-sex marriage. A good response would be to ask them, “Why do you think all humans have equal rights?” This idea of all people having the same rights comes from the Bible (Galatians 3:8). Some might say that equal rights are a modern concept. Aside from being wrong, isn’t it nice that we’ve just discovered this modern concept now (said very sarcastically)?So now our own moral standards are just our own preferences? But our preferences change over time. What was illegal 40 years ago is now legal. What is illegal now may be legal 40 years from now….like polygamy or lowering the age of sexual consent (don’t laugh, both of these are making their way into the court system and they’re being argued on the same basis that same-sex marriage was). So our moral standards become like shifting sands. Without an external, transcendent moral standard, our national morality becomes whatever we decide at the moment. It didn’t work for Israel (Judges 17:6 & 21:25) and it won’t work for us. Why aren’t we learning from biblical history (1st Corinthians 10:6, 11,12)? What a recipe for disaster!

     So how far should we go in legislating morals? Should we make kissing on a date illegal? This is where wisdom comes in. We don’t want to be legalistic (2nd Corinthians 3:6). Many rules make for many transgressions (Galatians 5:19-23). We don’t want a Christian Taliban. But our moral system needs a foundation. This moral foundation in America has, in the past, been Christian. While we can’t dot every ‘i’ and cross every ‘t’, we can provide a framework from which to work. Wayne Grudem’s book, listed below, provides an excellent overview of what standards to apply and how to apply them.

 

 

Book references:
“Politics according to the Bible” by Wayne Grudem
“Jesus is involved in politics” by Neil Mammen
“True for you but not for me” by Paul Copan

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