KUHNER: IF GOD IS DEAD, AMERICA IS IN TROUBLE
Firefighters retrieved this statue of Jesus from the Sacred Heart of Jesus Polish National Catholic Church in Madison. Ill., after it was destroyed by fire June 13. Photo Credit:AP Photo/St. Louis Post-Dispatch, J.B. Forbes
A recent survey by the Pew Research Center finds that belief in God has dropped dramatically among so-called millennials — those born after 1980 — during the past five years. In particular, the Pew poll found that 31 percent of respondents say they doubt whether God exists. On college campuses, secularism and science are the new orthodoxies. According to Pew, this is in stark contrast with other older generations, which continue to believe in God in high numbers — ranging from 81 to 89 percent.
Influenced by prominent atheist and agnostic intellectuals, such as Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins, young people are slowly abandoning traditional values. They are following the road paved by anti-Christian Europeans, sacrificing God at the altar of neopaganism and shallow humanism.
In some ways, this should come as no surprise. For centuries, human beings understood that the purpose of life was to submit to God’s will and the natural laws of the universe. Since the 19th century, however, Western elites have sought to create a godless society. Socialism, fascism, Nazism, communism, collectivism and New Age liberalism — all are ideological offshoots of the same idea: achieving utopia on earth through man’s rebellion against the divine moral order. The result has been a sustained, relentless assault upon religious faith, especially Christianity. Europe, the cradle of Western Christendom, has become a secular wasteland — decadent, hedonistic and in spiritual and demographic decline. Having jettisoned God, Europeans are turning to statism and sex to fill the void.
“God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him,”said the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche.
Although he was a virulent pagan (and anti-Semite) nostalgic for the restoration of ancient Greek greatness, Nietzsche embodied modernity’s revolt against God. It has taken America longer, but secularism is now crashing upon our shores. We are fated to walk in Europe’s footsteps.
Yet, American Christians are fighting back. Carl Gallups, a Baptist preacher and prominent conservative Christian radio talk-show host, has produced a must-read book. In “The Magic Man in the Sky,” (WND Books, 2012) Mr. Gallups explodes the numerous myths advanced by atheists. Lucidly written, cogent and compelling, the book is a muscular defense of the Christian faith. Its unique strength is that it provides readers — in particular, college students — with an arsenal of powerful rebuttals against Christian-bashers.
Its central theme can be distilled to one seminal idea: the secular argument that Christianity is an outdated, primitive institution peddling a superstitious faith in God — the“magic man in the sky” — is false. In fact, Mr. Gallups shows it is atheism that requires much greater, almost blind faith. The author demonstrates that modern science — contrary to myth — proves that the universe, human DNA and the solar system are so perfect and yet immensely complex that only a higher all-powerful being — God — could have created them. In short, Darwinian evolution or the Big Bang theory is a hoax.
“The Christian has no need to be intimidated by the atheist and/or the evolutionist who attempts to assert that evolution is settled science,” Mr. Gallups says. “It is not. It is fascinating speculation, but it is not settled science.”
He argues there are three dominating philosophies of life: the secular worldview, the religious worldview and the biblical worldview. Secularists believe that the individual is the sole arbiter of human meaning. Only individuals can decide what is right and wrong, good and evil, legal and illegal. They deny the transcendental nature of man; that humans are created in the image of God and indelibly stamped with a spiritual purpose and moral identity. The religious worldview acknowledges a higher power, but rejects the disciplined pursuit of God. Wiccans, Satanists, Pantheists, Shakers, believers in UFOs — all of them embrace the reality of the supernatural. But they reject the seminal truth of humanity: Following Jesus Christ is the path to salvation.
For more than 1,500 years, the biblical worldview was the foundation of the West. It understands that life should be measured through the Word of God — the Bible. Mr. Gallups rightly stresses that, in particular, it champions several key principles. God is the sole creator of the universe and human existence. Man is born with original sin; our nature is predisposed to be selfish and commit evil. And that Christ embodies suffering goodness in a wicked world; His crucifixion has offered humanity the means to transcend sin and attain personal salvation. This biblical worldview has infused how every major institution ought to function — the family, marriage, church, courts, the nation-state and society.
Since the 1960s, America’s elites have imposed a liberal secular revolution. The results have been catastrophic. Abortion has led to the murder of more than 50 million unborn babies. Sexually transmitted diseases, such as AIDS, have killed millions. Divorce rates have skyrocketed. The family is breaking down. Drugs, pornography and out-of-wedlock births are rampant. Like ancient Rome, we are going down a path to civilizational suicide. Mr. Gallups understands there is only one solution to our moral crisis: Christian renewal.
Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky once wrote: “If God does not exist, then everything is permitted.” He was right. We are abandoning God and as we do so, we are losing the very best of our American heritage. Only by re-educating the nation in the truths of Christianity can we prevent the collapse of our republic.
Jeffrey T. Kuhneris a columnist at The Washington Times and president of the Edmund Burke Institute.
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