Will Atheism Bear its Own Special Fruits?
According to a survey conducted by Penguin Books, Great Britain, two thirds of the UK teenagers do not believe in God.
According to a survey conducted by Penguin Books, Great Britain, two thirds of the UK teenagers do not believe in God.
Regarding this survey Hanne Stinson, chief executive of The British Humanist Association, concluded,
It confirms that young people - like adults - do not need a religion to have positive values. The 'golden rule', which is often claimed by religions as a religious value, is in reality a shared human value - shared by all the major religions and the non-religious and almost every culture - that predates all the major world religions.
Indeed, the golden rule is written on our hearts (Romans 2:15). Paul explains that it’s this fact that makes us guilty and accountable (although not good and virtuous). Nor will our inner sense of the golden rule alone produce “positive values” in a culture where all values have been relativized or emptied of any higher truth content. Why is this so?
1. Even though Stinson is correct that the golden rule is shared by “almost every culture,” this is not enough to justify it. Jealousy, hatred, gossip and cheating are also a part of “almost every culture.” However, no one would suggest that because of this, hatred and gossip are justified.
2. If the golden rule is just a matter of something that touches us, perhaps it’s just a matter of cultural conditioning or a guilty conscience – nothing that would command our allegiance. Who then could blame us for taking a drug to dull our conscience! In a world without God, there is no reason to regard the conscience as any more than a collection of chemical reactions, some rather unpleasant.
3. If the golden rule is no more than a feeling, we have no reason to place it any higher than our other feelings—revenge, jealousy, hatred, or apathy.
4. If the golden rule is something that makes us feel good about ourselves when we follow it, there are also other things that make us feel good about ourselves. Many atheists try to justify the golden rule by “enlightened selfishness.” They claim that by doing good for others, we also do good for ourselves. Although it is true that God, in His mercy, has made us this way, “enlightened selfishness” can also lead us to do some very selfish things and destructive things. (I’d guess that Bernie Madoff was motivated in this way.) Nor from it can we justify self-sacrificial giving.
Ideas have their consequences. If two thirds of British youth don’t believe in God, it will have a profound effect on society. Perhaps we might not see this right away. Ideas percolate slowly, but they will eventually saturate the entire life and produce their inevitably fruits, as A.W. Tozer affirmed:
“The history of mankind will probably show that no people has ever risen above its religion, and man’s spiritual history will positively demonstrate that no religion has ever been greater than its idea of God…We tend by a secret law of the soul to move toward our mental image of God.” (Knowledge of the Holy)
What we esteem is what we become. Everyone regards something as pre-eminent, whether it’s themselves or God. When a society raises a crop of youth who believe that there’s nothing more important than their own feelings, hold on to your pocketbooks.
Daniel Mann
http://www.mannsword.blogspot.com/
