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Religion See other Religion Articles Title: Happy Easter [Classic: 4/5/2007] — It’s nearly Easter, and the atheists, God bless them, are writing bestselling books to prove the good Lord’s nonexistence. Truly, they have their reward. One of the most famous of them, a British professor named Richard Dawkins, says atheists are generally smarter than Christians. I wouldn’t doubt it. After all, St. Paul says God has chosen the foolish people of this world to confound the wise. I don’t know how many times some simple soul has put me to shame when I thought I was being clever. Oops! Maybe polished professors never have this experience. Of course, atheists are clever! People who spend a lot of time justifying themselves generally are. If you devote your waking hours to seeking reasons not to believe, you’ll find plenty of them. Darwin sold a lot of books to clever people like that. Then there is the argument from comparative religion. Religions are a lot alike, they can’t all be true, so isn’t it probable that they are all false? By that kind of reasoning, you can prove not only that we don’t know who wrote Hamlet, but that it was never written at all. Was Jesus just like a lot of other religious leaders? Such as? Do other religions have prayers like the Our Father? Did the ancient Greeks ask Zeus to “forgive us as we forgive others”? Did the Aztecs pray like that? How many other religions command their votaries to rejoice, be of good cheer, have no fear? (“Trust in Poseidon”?) And many other religious figures, we are told, have performed miracles every bit as impressive as those attributed to Jesus. Really? Did they cure blind men and cripples while assuring them that their sins were forgiven? And did they, even after they had died (and risen again, it goes without saying), make converts who would die for what they had taught? Did any of them ever give a speech like the Sermon on the Mount? If so, where can I find a copy? For that matter, did any of these impressive religious teachers, who seem to have been very numerous, match Jesus in what has been called his “command of the moment,” making memorable retorts, still quoted centuries later, to enemies trying to trap them with trick questions? Have any of their reported ad libs endured as permanent moral teachings, like “Whoever among you is without sin, let him cast the first stone”? Come to think of it, the atheists could strengthen their case somewhat by producing the prayers of other religions to show how much they resemble, or even surpass, Christian prayers. Why don’t they? Just asking. But I have my suspicions. Just as President Bush says Islam is a “religion of peace” because he assumes that all religions are pretty much alike (and like Christianity) by definition, so the atheists seem to assume that all religions share the features of Christianity they detest. I wish they would go all out and really press the analogies — honestly, not selectively. When you point to the rather horrid regimes run by atheists in the twentieth century, you can count on the atheists to disown them, on the pretext that men like Stalin were the “wrong” sort of atheists because they were just as “dogmatic” as Christians. With people who argue this way, you’d better cut the deck before letting them deal the cards. They’re saying that empirical evidence is inadmissible — except when they want to use it. If Hitler and Stalin believed in Darwinism, that doesn’t count against Darwinism, because they “abused” it. You get the impression that Darwinism can be safely applied only by people who practice Christian morality — but of course, that such people are mostly atheists. In other words, atheists make better Christians than Christians do. Well, at least, they are smarter. How can God be both good and omnipotent, when there is so much evil in the world? I can’t answer this one, and it has tormented believers so deeply that the Scriptures themselves ask it many times. It’s known as the Problem of Evil. I can say only that it’s trumped by the real mystery, the Problem of Good. This was posed, in a way, by a woman whose name I forget: “If there is no God, who do we thank?” Only a woman would think of that. And by the way, if there is no God, who do we thank for creating woman? Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
#1. To: All, neoconsnailed (#0)
Joe Sobran ping
It takes more faith to believe there is NOT a God than to believe there IS. Romans 1: For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error. And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them. U.S. Constitution - Article IV, Section 4: NO BORDERS + NO LAWS = NO COUNTRY
At any rate, I am thankful to God to still be alive after all I have been thru with my health. I should have been dead long ago. But, here I am still kicking. And there is no one else to thank but Him above. ;)
"When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one." Edmund Burke
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