Hoopla

We do what we do because we believe what we believe. For the born-again believer, the real Christian (saved by grace through faith plus nothing), it is hard to understand the unbelief of our fellow man. Like knowing that the human mouth contains more microbiology than the population of the world, that the folded fiat currency in our pocket contains the microbiology of about every disease known to man; we cannot understand our love for money or our carelessness about our mouths.

Even the most heathen among us knows that death is just one breath away. Our salvation depends entirely on our gift from God in the atoning death of His only Son, Jesus Christ. It seems so insane for anyone to say they do not believe in God, anyone with eyes to see and ears to hear...when in life, and certainly in death, they must depend on the mercies of God. Much like the mosquito on the railroad track screaming at the approaching locomotive just before being squished, “I don't believe in you!”

Perhaps the world's best known atheist, Dr. Richard Dawkins, Oxford University biologist and evolutionist, has said that there are no absolutes of right and wrong, no life after death, no moral standards. He has said that raising children in a religious home is tantamount to child abuse. At least Dawkins has enough backbone to defend what he believes, he has said that he wants to promote his disbelief much as a television evangelist promotes his belief.

America's best known atheist is probably Christopher Hitchens. Like Dawkins, Hitchen is a prominent writer and speaker, proclaiming his disbelief and his disdain for believers. Hitchens has said that “any little toad can be called 'reverend'”, and that he “wishes there was a hell, such as they preach, for them to go to.” He has not mellowed in his disbelief, even in his present day fight with thoracic cancer. Hitchens has said that if Satan were looking for an Olympic team, he would be the first volunteer. “I don't believe in God and I am mad with him. Christianity is lies told to young children by old men.”

Atheism is nothing new. The great poet William Blake was considered crazy in his time. For Black, Jesus Christ symbolized a vital relationship between divinity and humanity. Many have said that America is a Christian nation, because 85% of all Americans polled claim to be Christian. As we know, there is a vast difference in claiming, pretending, and commitment. If everyone who claims to be Christian were Christian, America and the world would be a far different place, we would not have such large prison populations, decadence in society, corruption in government.

Numbers are often misleading. The gay community would have you believe that 3.5% of the population are gay, the actual number is about half of that, 1.4%. With professors and even possessors, it is better to make numbers count instead of counting numbers. There are 1.7 billion Catholics in the world, Catholicism is the largest religion in America, Catholics account for 64% of the American electorate, but 54% of American Catholics voted Democrat...voted for Obama, the most pro-abortion candidate in history! This is as difficult to understand as the Jewish population of America voting Democrat: Jews voted 74% for Obama, the most anti-Israel President in history.

The tourist should be the best ambassador for their country. Americans have the desire and money to travel abroad, but American tourists have proven to be our worst ambassadors...their behavior, their dress, their arrogance. I have been in American embassies all over the world. The American ambassador has one responsibility: to give America a good name wherever he is assigned. The land on which the embassy is located is considered American soil, guarded by uniformed marines, American flag proudly displayed. Christians are ambassadors (2 Corinthians 5:20).

In the hoopla of modern living, your limited contacts, your family, your friends; if you are Republican, you cannot understand why anyone would be a Democrat. If you are Christian, you cannot understand how anyone could be an unbeliever, or even a Buddhist, Muslim, or Hindu. If you are an academician or social scientist, you cannot understand the conservative. If you are a Bernie or Ruth Madoff, or a George Soros, you cannot understand the conservative patriotism of the Tea Party crowd.

In the intellectual bubble, you must reflect on the racial aspects of Darwin's Origin of Species and his efforts at the preservation of races. Eugenics began in America, went across the water to Europe, to Nietzsche, Hitler and others.

There are real scientists and then there are professional scientists. Professional scientists give science a bad name...leaving pure research for the reconnoiter of grants; government and industrial largess. Christians do not believe in the God that Richard Dawkins does not believe in. It is hard to believe in randomness any more than the random selection/creation of a Shakespeare play. The believer has the ability to appreciate the spiritual aspects of a piece of music, classical or gospel, that the unbeliever could never know. God has invested in the believer, a mind, soul and spirit. Only the believer can understand the psychological as well as the physical aspects of prison overcrowding, bullying of children, grief or the unkindness to one another.

The agnostic church does not know the power of prayer. New age religions do not change lives. In the hoopla of men's wisdom, their self-aggrandizement, one must know the joy of walking from darkness into light. (John 1:5)