the problem with atheism

i started reading Sam Harris' book today. if you don't know Harris, he is one of the "New Atheists" who has come to prominence in the last two decades or so, proclaiming again that religion is bad, specifically Christianity. Christianity is a lie. Christianity causes harm. the God of the Bible is an evil, bloodthirsty God.

now we see plainly the effects of such an anti-theology: communism has returned from the dead with a vengeance, and right here in America. Darwin published his origin of the species in 1859, giving atheists what they needed to be "intellectually fulfilled" as Richard Dawkins described. eleven years before this, Marx published his Communist Manifesto and in less than a century, the planet saw the rise of Hitler, who attempted to purge Europe of "undesirables" and responsible for 6 million Jews alone, and Joseph Stalin, whose regime murdered 20 million by some estimates and Mao Zedong, who historians estimate murdered between 20 and 46 million people. what do these murderers have in common? the anti-faith of atheism.

but hitler was a christian. hardly. hitler used christianity as a tool to cement his people together, to use the German church to gather them under his banner of Jew-hate, non-German hate, and rigid national socialism. he knew well the power of belief, and shrewd man he was, he knew how to manipulate that power for his ends, but by no means was he a follower of Jesus Christ. by the time the members of the german church understood hitler's purpose, hitler had already marched through much of europe. hitler understood too well Darwin's two-pronged message--the strong survive and God is dead. biology favors the ruthless and there is no God to judge between the holy and the profane anymore. deciding that the German race was the superior one, he sought to exterminate every single member of every race and he judged to be inferior--gays, blacks, jews, the infirmed, etc., etc. if God did not exist, then he did not create every man with equal value, in his image, and there must be some that are superior to others. 

if God does not exist, then he has not created some moral law by which he expects us to live and to which he holds us responsible. if men have no moral law to govern their actions, then might quite literally makes right. every man in power has the obligation, however amoral, to secure power and to wield it as he sees fit. whether he wields it for the good or ill of his countrymen is entirely up to him, but remember he does not believe in a God who will judge him for his actions. killing one man bears no eternal consequence and neither does killing a million

an avowed atheist, Karl Marx proclaimed religion "the opium of the people." religion pacifies men, he believed. in some sense, yes, religion brings peace to men, but the men who crossed the Delaware and rode through the country shouting "the british are coming!" signed the Declaration of Independence under threat of death, and threw tons of tea into Boston harbor were hardly atheists. Marx hardly needed to lift a finger to any threat, living in free England off the wealth of a friend who himself inherited his wealth. true religion gives strength and courage to men to fight injustice when necessary, for true religion removes the fear of death.

despite the lessons of communist china, russia, north korea, and cuba, communism has returned in the coddled, angry, self-centered, new atheism of organizations like antifa and black lives matter. please do not confuse the positive phrase "black lives matter" that should stand together with other obvious phrases, like "white lives matter," "brown, yellow, red, and olive lives matter," with the anarchist, marxist, murderous organization known as BLM. communism has not died because atheism has not died.

atheism and communism are at their core a replacement for christianity. they are the answer to protestantism/capitalism. where protestantism teaches that men are responsible to God, and God gives power to every believer to live rightly, and capitalism allows men the freedom to trade and prosper as they see fit, according to the strength, ambition, and wisdom God has given them, atheism teaches that there is no God that holds us responsible, who gives us strength to do right. in communism, the government becomes God, simultaneously providing a meager, impoverished existence while enforcing this existence through the all-pervading threat of force. communism requires this force because men have no God to hold them eternally accountable for their actions and beliefs, and men run rampant over each other, fighting each other for the scant resources their government does not confiscate. 

capitalism cannot exist without christianity because capitalism requires freedom and freedom requires faith in God. men who do not believe that God will judge them do not behave themselves. they do not care for their fellow man. they believe in the strength of their might and in what this might can steal for themselves--wealth, women, power, etc. men who behave in this way need the heavy and deadly hand of a ruthless dictatorial government to rule them.

atheism is the faith of fools. i cannot answer all of harris' objections. yes, God commits acts that are not "nice." but good is not always nice. good often destroys evil, and it must, in ways that are not pleasant. many men have written many books detailing the historic and even scientific evidence for christianity. today we witness the sociological evidence firsthand against atheism in the hearts of men and women en masse who have not placed their faith in Christ.

gross

 good ol' small-god theologian leighton flowers tells us that calvinist theology makes God responsible for sin. arminians typically object to God's sovereignty. God cannot ordain/decree/desire everything that happens in the world. he cannot be in control of creation because that would mean that

GOD ORDAINS CHILD RAPE

arminians love this one. they love to think of the most atrocious thing and say, well if God is sovereign then he wants kids to be raped. yes it's horrible. it's an evil thing by far. but is it the most evil thing?

I respond

why do you always default to the rape of children? is that the worst thing you can imagine? Calvinists say that God rapes little kiddies. have you read the Bible? God told the Israelites he would judge them and they would end up eating their own children. This was his judgment. Yet if in spite of this you do not obey Me, but act with hostility against Me, then I will act with wrathful hostility against you, and I, even I, will punish you seven times for your sins. Further, you will eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters you will eat. Leviticus 26.27-29. You know what else is worse than raping and eating children? ETERNAL DAMNATION. Guess what? God also does this. He ordains our damnation. He ordains that some deny him, at the same time holding them responsible. How can he? Is this not unjust? Scripture makes it clear. How can he do anything? How do you expect to understand anything he does? Now Eli was very old; and he heard all that his sons were doing to all Israel, and how they lay with the women who served at the doorway of the tent of meeting. He said to them, “Why do you do such things, the evil things that I hear from all these people? No, my sons; for the report is not good which I hear the Lord’s people circulating. If one man sins against another, God will mediate for him; but if a man sins against the Lord, who can intercede for him?” But they would not listen to the voice of their father, for the Lord desired to put them to death. 1 Samuel 2.22-25. You have to toss aside, ignore, distort, dismantle a lot of scripture in order to create this system you have, where your will and purpose equals God's. You can't accept that God has a purpose in atrocities because his ways cannot possibly be beyond your human imaginations and you cannot possibly conceive that he could ever bring about eternal divine justice in the face of such tragedies outside of what you perceive so you mold God into your image so that everything makes sense to your small human mind. you refuse to trust him beyond what you understand. You do not worship the God of the Bible.

 this guy just pisses me off. there is absolutely no depth in arminian theology. no room for God to be God, to leave any question unanswered or any uncomfortable thought unresolved. they cannot abide with anything outside their comprehension. if anything lies beyond them, it isn't true. they will only accept a god that conforms to their comprehension. anything beyond themselves, they deny. complete arrogance.

the next undertaking

 ...which i do not look forward to.

writing pains me. it is a difficult, time-consuming, soul-grieving process. i might write on...say...the merits of the marvel cinematic universe and many would disagree and my feelings may suffer for a bit but honestly, who cares? they're movies. if i write about things that don't matter, then the jabs that i receive for expressing these opinions matter even less.

however, if i write about the things that matter most to me, the things that matter to all people whether or not they believe they matter, and in fact, the things that most people believe matter least of all, then my feelings take a severe hit when others either disagree, call me an idiot, or ignore me completely. this last one hurts the most.

imagine abandoning yourself to your beliefs, desperate in anticipation for everyone to acknowledge your wisdom, wit, and unfathomable intelligence, to be delivered from their absolute ignorance and stupidity, only to be ignored not just by people you do not know and will never meet, but by everyone close to you. no one wants to know what i have to say. yes. i am a bit full of myself. isn't everyone? to have an opinion is to have an opinion that you believe is correct and that everyone who disagrees is incorrect. i do not have opinions though. i have beliefs about God, man, and his eternal destiny. opinions do not matter but the truth does. i have the truth but no one wants it and now i feel this push to write again, more truth that no one will receive, want, or thank me for.

is that why i wrote the first book? gratitude, admiration, adoration? partly, yes. ultimately, no. i wrote it because i could not do anything else. i love what i wrote and i love the ideas. i believe they are the truth and  everything that contradicts them is a lie. i believe they contain the foundation of my faith and a small measure of the greatness of my God but there is more truth to be had, to be expressed, regardless of whether or not anyone receives it. i must leave that concern to God. i must give myself to this even if no one wants it, no one reads it, no one congratulates me, or thanks me, or says "you changed my life," because ultimately, i am no one. i change nothing. i deserve no thanks or congratulations.

And what right do I have to speak on any topic with any sort of weight? I'm no one. Why do I feel like my words matter as much or more than any other person's? Many better men have written on these matters with far more intelligence, wit, and wisdom. What can I possibly contribute? Every minute of writing, I waver between self congratulatory admiration and insecure self doubt. 

The Outline

Christianity is the Truth
historic/scientific
philosophic
sociologically/psychologically
Everything else is a Lie
atheism
every false religion
catholicism
christianity-like cults

just looking at this, i realize how far beyond me this is. the first book, i studied that material for years. i don't look into and haven't investigated apologetics because i don't care about it. God saves by his Spirit not by reason, but this...i have to. i didn't care about it but now i do. i just need more books and some things i don't even know where to find. i am so unequipped to do this...

atheism and politics

the political left has no father.

from our fathers, we receive courage, acceptance, and value. fathers give us boundaries and discipline. with these, we build the strength we need to go into the world, build healthy relationships, and contribute to society in meaningful ways. while the mother gives us unconditional acceptance, our father's acceptance has certain conditions that we must meet and this becomes a limiting factor in our lives.

fathers must simultaneously give direction and limits while also showing us that we are capable and brave. while a mother's presence gives us assurance and comfort, fathers have the necessary emotional separation to tell us no and enforce consequences when we disobey. this teaches us right from wrong; it teaches us how to treat others respectfully and also how to place boundaries in our relationships when necessary.

our mothers always accept us and it is precisely because our fathers accept us only conditionally that they validate who we are. we must listen to them, heed them, and respect them in order for them to truly accept us and these conditions prepare us for a civilized world that rewards honesty, integrity, and a respect for authority. when neither parent enforces proper expectations, the child grows up self-centered, disrespectful, and unprepared for responsibility. the child has no identity--male, female, accepted, rejected, loved, unloved--and he is left to create whatever identity his environment creates for him or whatever identity his emotionally crippled mind creates for itself. when a child is free to do as he wishes, he remains a demanding, deceitful, undisciplined child and he cannot contribute in any positive way to society.

the political left has no father on earth and certainly not in heaven. they know they do not have any acceptance because either no father has imposed any conditions for acceptance or they have rejected any such conditions. 

they have no acceptance from their fathers so they demand acceptance from everyone. they demand acceptance of their sinful choices and their selfishness. they impose their will on their children and parade them before the world to further manipulate others to accept their obnoxious perversions. they "protest" and riot and parade their choices and tell us if we do not accept them that we are hateful bigots. ultimately, they hate themselves because they know that God hates them for their defiance and holds their feet to the fires of hell. they refuse to trust in the Father who created them and who commands them to live righteously. they deny his very existence while they scream for his validation. they will not receive it this way.

God saw fit to bless me enough with a father, however imperfect, who spent time with me, who placed walls around me as he saw fit, and who gave me some measure of encouragement. my father gave me a flawed idea of the Father who created me and I am thankful for him. i still long for my father's acceptance and i am thankful that i have it. i also have the acceptance of my Eternal Father. i could not live without that. all of you who deny your Eternal Father will forever long for his approval whether or not you accept it and you can only accept him on his conditions:

Repent and believe in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.