The atheist convention

The atheist convention

Hundreds flock to Seattle atheists' convention Wow, hundreds! And 16,000 nationwide...well heck even we minuscule Orthodox outnumber them, so there's some comfort in that. Angry "Origin of Species" thumping atheists are as intolerable as those who thump Bibles...perhaps worse - I can say that because to some degree I've been both, especially the former. But here's the line that really cracked me up:

Freedom from Religion wants to "keep religion out of law-making." Haha! Good luck with that, for as long as religious people VOTE, religion will be involved in lawmaking! How many do you suppose presently support the health care reform on religious grounds?

And then this: With less religion, less God, less belief, there's more opportunity for morality, more opportunity for knowledge, more opportunity for true human value.

Now I have no idea what he means by "true human value", but I have my suspicions. And therein lies the problem, it's up to personal interpretation. The very fabric of the atheist moral construct is held together by subjective personal opinion. Whereas "true human value" in the Christian world view is incalculable. It is not something you can quantify, because if you could then "true human value" implies that it varies from person to person just as surely as math equations do. A child with down syndrome as compared to a child prodigy?

Human value is derived NOT from personal interpretation, but by the very nature of the fact than humans are created in the Image and Likeness of God and are loved by Him. Everyone of them.

"more opportunity for morality" really means (for the secular person) that you have greater ability to add variable to morality. It isn't set in stone, it's written on a chalkboard and YOU wrote it and YOU have the eraser. I have my moral values and Ted Bundy has his own. I cannot say mine are "right" and his are "wrong" because morality is FULLY subjective. This moral bankruptcy and disconnect caused for me - as an atheist - a profound worldview crisis that eventually led me to consider that I could not fathom a world in which Darwinism was the only moral foundation. That moral code (the very thing that brought us humans into being and into dominance) is quite simply competition and victory at the expense of others. Dominate and subjugate is the rule it teaches.

I ended up having to ask: Could there be more? Because if there isn't, then who am I to criticize an Adolf Hitler as anything other than someone doing what his evolutionary inclinations led him to do. He died and lost in the end...end of story. No morality tale here, except to say one ought to consider being more discreet with their hedonism if they wish to be truly successful. That's just plain common Darwinian sense.

But if there is more to life. Something transcendent. A greater good. A a Creator and "Lover of mankind." It changes everything. Everything suddenly has a real objective value.

So, I suppose I can agree with the atheists' idea that without God that have "more opportunity" for morality and human value. Indeed, the are thereby freed to have opportunity to believe whatever they may choose about them. Say hello to the cattle cars, those of you with less human value.