Last week I discussed the passionate
debates in which I engaged many years ago. The forum was the “letters to the
editor” page of a now defunct local newspaper. And one of my primary debate
opponents was Mr. A., a devout atheist. (I don’t call him “Mr. A” because he
was an atheist; his last name actually began with the letter “A.” Also, I found
out recently that Mr. A. died a few years ago, so I’ve begun praying for his
soul. Maybe on his deathbed, his atheism wavered and he started to realize the
amazing complexity of life on earth truly REQUIRES a divine Creator.)
Anyway, one of Mr. A.’s regular claims
was that organized religion has been the source terrible violence and murder
throughout history, and if the world were only atheist and enlightened (like him),
then there would be peace and harmony and technological advancements, rather
than ignorance, superstition, and religious-inspired death.
Like many secular people nowadays, Mr.
A. loved to cite two historical events as proof that Christianity, especially
Roman Catholicism, is violent and evil. The two events are the Crusades and the
Spanish Inquisition. Various claims are made by opponents of the Church as to
how many people were actually killed during these two periods of history—either
hundreds of thousands on the low end or many million on the upper end.
In one of Mr. A.’s letters, he cited a
very high death count, and here is an excerpt from my reply the following week:
I’m
not sure where you got that figure, Mr. A., but a much more reliable statistic
is the 100 million people who were slaughtered in the name of godless secular
philosophies—in just the 20th century alone!
The
real issue, however, is not playing Body Count Bingo. The real issue is this:
when Christians commit atrocities in the name of Christ, they are behaving in
direct opposition to the teachings of Christ. But when godless secularists
commit atrocities, they are merely bringing their secular philosophies to a
logical conclusion. Darwin taught the “survival of the fittest,” and said it
would be perfectly natural for the “superior” races to exterminate the
“inferior” races. (An idea Hitler adored.) Marx and Lenin taught that political
goals must be achieved through violent and brutal means.
The
great Secular Century which just ended, the most bloody century in human
history, is ample evidence that a purely secular, religion-free world would not
have already cured cancer, colonized the moon, and made life fuller and richer,
as you theorize, Mr. A. No, I’m afraid that if mankind had been completely
godless and secular during the last 2,000 years, there would be no mankind in
existence today, and you and I would not be around to debate the topic.
No true follower of Christ would ever
claim that Christians are sinless, since that’s the exact opposite of the basic
Christian principle that all people are sinners. This is why we need a Savior.
No doubt, it is a scandal when Church
leaders and/or followers of Jesus do horrible things. But as I said in my
letter almost two decades ago, when those tragedies do occur, the people engaging
in horrible behavior are acting in direct opposition to the teachings of Jesus.
On the other hand, the godless atheistic worldview always and inevitably leads
first to totalitarianism, and finally to genocide. Always. It is simply that
particular view of reality taken to its logical conclusion.
So, I pray for Mr. A’s immortal soul.
And I pray that everyone else realizes a godless secular society would not be a
scientific and enlightened utopia, but rather it would be (and has been) a
brutal “culture of death” nightmare.
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