Atheists and Freedom

Currently reading: Making Sense of It All, by Thomas V. Morris, a philosopher at Notre Dame.  He writes:

 

"Just as some atheists has sugested that religious believers are simply people who have a deep psychological need to think there is a benevolent and powerful caretaker watching over the world, some theists have returned the compliment and suggested that unbelievers are people who have a deep psychological need to believe that they are utterly free to do whatever they want with their lives, that there is no higher authority, no moral governor of the universe to whom they are answerable.  If you're afraid of what might be out there, you may not want to peek out from under the covers at all" (19-20).

 

Sure, it takes faith to believe in God, but it takes just as much faith, and probably more, to believe that there isn't a God, because by doing so, you are asserting complete confidence in a finite, meaningless, purposeless existence.  Which takes more faith?

 

In the end it's about control.  Are we willing to give up control of our lives to a higher power?  Are we willing to submit ourselves to a higher being, to voluntarily surrender our freedom in such a way? 

 

American culture is defined by freedom.  Freedom of choice, speech, religion, freedom to own a gun, to exploit 18 year old women, to burn flags and stick them on our cars.  Americans value freedom above all.  Are we really willing to give up that freedom in exchange for freedom in Christ?  Are we willing to submit ourselves to His authority, to trave our slavery to sin for a slavery to righteousness?

 

But Americans don't admire only freedom--we admire success as well.  So what do we tell ourselves and others?  "A life dedicated to Christ will be a succesful life, a blessed life, a happy and joyful life."  And all these things are true...but it isn't success or blessings or happiness or joy as America sees it.  The gospel is a gospel of blessing, but not a gospel of success.  The Bible says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, the mourners, the meek, the hungry, the merciful, the pure, the peacemakers and the persecuted." 

 

Isiah says that our sorrows will end, but not until we reach the gates of Zion.  Until then, we are called to perservere, to press on, trusting that our God will be with us all along the way.

 

Americans admire self-reliance.  We can do it on our own, right?  We can spread Christ's love, we can convert the fallen.  We can bring people close to Christ.  But this type of talk this type of self-relince, while admirable to most Americans, completely MISSES THE POINT.  It's isn't about us converting people.  It isn't about us being good.  It isn't about what we can do for God...it's about what God did for us.  It isn't about us converting our unsaved friends, it's about God using us, about God working in the lives of others.  It isn't about us DOING anything...it's about a God who has done EVERYTHING.  To think otherwise, to think that we can do anything for God, is to fall victim to the worst of sins, the root of all sin...pride.  To establish a man-centered doctrine, a man-centered reality is the ultimate insult to a God who has done all and who is all.  Without Him there is nothing, through Him we have everything.  To say otherwise is to place yourself on the same level as He who is above all.  To say otherwise is to make yourself God, when there is, was, and always will be One God, and only one God, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  Christianity has become a self-reliant entity, and a self-reliant Christianity is, I would argue, blasphemous. 

 

 

Wow, I don't know where all that came from.  :-) 

 

Grace and peace,

Mike