Jeff Jacoby of the Boston Globe writes on Atheists' bleak alternative
First, the good news ...
FROM THE land that produced "A Christmas Carol" and Handel's "Messiah," more evidence that Christianity is fading in Western Europe: Nearly 99 percent of Christmas cards sold in Great Britain contain no religious message or imagery.
Now the bad news ....
What is at stake in all this isn't just angels on Christmas cards. What society loses when it discards Judeo-Christian faith and belief in God is something far more difficult to replace: the value system most likely to promote ethical behavior and sustain a decent society. That isbecause without God, the difference between good and evil becomes purely subjective. What makes murder inherently wrong is not that it feels wrong,but that a transcendent Creator to whom we are answerable commands: "Thou shalt not murder." What makes kindness to others inherently right is not that human reason says so, but that God does: "Love thy neighbor as thyself; I am the Lord."Good Heavens! Another deluded Judeo-Christian. And in Boston no less. How do these idiots manage to survive in a town with more than one traffic light?
The atheist alternative is a world in which right and wrong are ultimately matters of opinion, and in which we are finally accountable to no one but ourselves. That is anything but a tiding of comfort and joy.
Don't go to London, Jeff. The crime rates there must be outta sight.
Actually, as my mother has found out before, the crime rates in London are out of sight. It wasn't so much non-religiosity, though, as Eastern Europeans being recruited to steal from peoples' purses in major stores.
ReplyDeleteThings were still pretty bad in 2000.
However, the correlations between crime and non-religosity are pretty random. Finland has low crime and pretty poor church attendance (4% go at least once a week).
Perhaps since they have lemmings, they feel no need to be lemmings themselves ;)
Good grief.
ReplyDeleteHas Jacoby never read about the Euthyphro dilemma?
C'mon!
I can't believe that kind of garbage gets published.