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Militant Atheism. Part 2 The War in the West – Culture Wars. Session 2.9 The Fight for the Soul of the West Session 2.10 Freedom Is Rooted in Biblical Theism Session 2:11 Militant Atheism Session 2:12 The Consequences of Atheism 2:13 “The Days Have Come Down in the West!”. Outline.
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Part 2 The War in the West – Culture Wars • Session 2.9 The Fight for the Soul of the West • Session 2.10 Freedom Is Rooted in Biblical Theism • Session 2:11 Militant Atheism • Session 2:12 The Consequences of Atheism • 2:13 “The Days Have Come Down in the West!”
Outline • The New Atheists • Freedom vs. License • Atheism - A Secular Religion • The “Separation of Church and State” • The Propagation
Definition of Atheism • A'THEISM, n. The disbelief of the existence of a God, or Supreme intelligent Being. • Atheism is a ferocious system that leaves nothing above us to excite awe, nor around us, to awaken tenderness. Noah Webster 1828
Death of God “When people stop believing in God, they don’t believe in nothing, they believe in anything.” G.K. Chesterton
Death of God “If you were to destroy in mankind the belief in immortality, not only love but every living force maintaining the life of the world would at once be dried up. Moreover, nothing then would be immoral, everything would be lawful, even cannibalism.” Feodor Dostoevsky The Brothers Karamazov
Death of God If God is dead All is permitted!
Deny God for Sexual Freedom “I had reasons not to want the world to have meaning, and as a result I assumed the world had no meaning, and I was readily able to find satisfactory grounds for this assumption... for me, as it undoubtedly was for most of my generation, the philosophy of meaninglessness was an instrument of liberation from a certain moral system. We were opposed to morality because it interfered with our sexual freedom” [emphasis mine]. Aldous Huxley Confessions of a Professional Free-Thinker
Freedom - the opportunity to do good Internal Self- Government Freedom OF Religion “Social Conservatives” License – “the right to do wrong” “Follow your nose!” Self indulgence Freedom FROM Religion “Social Liberals” Freedom or License
Liberty and License “License is the freedom to follow one’s instincts and do as one desires, as naturally as cats and dogs do. Liberty is the duty to do what … one knows that one ought to do.” Michael Novak
New Definition • Old Definition – disbelief in God • New Definition – Anti-theism • Militant Atheist • Secular Fundamentalist • Dogmatic Atheism – no discourse with opposing views • Not content with level playing field of ideas - freedom of religion • Freedom from religion • Stamp out all religious beliefs • Ideological tyranny
Religion • Webster’s 1828 - “Any system of faith and worship” • Webster’s New World Dictionary – “A system of belief”
Atheism a Secular Religion • Atheism is a belief system – its first principle is: There is no God! • It has faith that there is no God. • It puts “man” as the center of worship.
Atheist’s Bible • Humanist Manifesto 1- 1933 • Humanist Manifesto 2 – 1973 • Humanist Manifesto 3 - 2000
Secular Humanism a Religion • The Table of Contents of A World Religious Reader (2nd Edition) 1. Purpose and Method. 2. SecularHumanism. 3. Hinduism. 4. Buddhism. 5. Chinese Religion. 6. Shintoism. 7. Judaism. 8. Christianity. 9. Islam. 10. Sikhism.
Humanism’s “Religious Positions” • Theology – Atheism • Ethics – Moral Relativism • Biology – Spontaneous Generation and Evolution • Philosophy – Naturalism • Social Theory – Survival of the Fittest • Economics – Closed System • Political Science – Power and Intimidation • Anthropology – Cultural Relativism • Language – Politically Correct
Separation of Church and State • There is to be institutional separation of the fundamental institutions of society: Church – State – Family • But it is impossible to have a separation of the moral and metaphysical foundations of a society from the institutions of society.
Separation of Church and State • Therefore: • There is an institutional separation between church and state • But never an ideological separation between “theology” and the basic institutions of society • The world will be governed either by the: • Freedom of Judeo-Christian Theism • Tyranny of: • Militant Atheism • Jihadism
The Propagation - Books • 500,000 - Richard Dawkins - "The God Delusion" (2006) • 296,000 Christopher Hitchens - "God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything" (2007) • 185,000 - Sam Harris - "Letter to a Christian Nation" (2006) • 64,100 - Daniel C. Dennett's "Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon“ • 60,000 - Victor J. Stenger - "God: The Failed Hypothesis: How Science Shows that God Does not Exist" (2007)
The Propagation Education
The New Proselytizers “The classroom must and will become an arena of conflict between the old and the new -- the rotting corpse of Christianity, together with all its adjacent evils and misery, and the new faith of humanism.” John Dunphy A Religion for a New Age
The State - “The New Parents” “How much do we regard children as being the property of their parents? It’s one thing to say people should be free to believe whatever they like, but should they be free to impose their beliefs on their children?” Richard Dawkins The God Delusion
Reflection • What is your reaction to Dunphy’s and Dawkins’ statements? • How will this change your priorities and actions?
Propagation Language
The Use of Language to Change Culture • Abortion – from “murder of babies” to “woman’s right to choose” • Euthanasia – from “murder of the infirmed” to “death with dignity” • Morals – from “sexual immorality” to “lifestyle choices” • Marriage – from “one man and one woman” to any “consenting adults”
Propagation Intolerance
Redefining Tolerance • Old definition from Judeo-Christian Ethic – We accept (tolerate) individuals even if we disagree with their ideas. • New definition from Atheistic Paradigm – Accepting everyone’s ideas as equally valid.
The End - Power “[A] vulgar form of Nihilism has a remarkable influence in our educational system through our universities. The consequences of the victory of such ideas would be enormous. If both religion and reason are removed, all that remains is will and power, where the only law is that of tooth and claw.” Donald Kagan Historian, Yale University
The End of Militant Atheism • German – Nazism • Italian and Japanese – Fascism • Soviet and Chinese – Communism