Debra Rae | 14 Apr 2016
Free
thought and pride attract atheists, agnostics, and skeptics to the largest secular
association in North America—the non-profit, educational Freedom from Religion Foundation.
FFRF Co-President Dan Barker opines, "Much of the
movement away from religion in America is being driven by Millennials, many of
whom will be voting for the first time this year."[i] Hence,
Parker adds, "We need secular voters to be vocal about their beliefs, or
lack thereof, while rejecting efforts to push religious dogma on the
nation."
This, of course, is no small effort. The
Foundation boasts 23,500 members, 20 chapters across America, not to mention secular
student alliances. Nearly
8,000 secular voters are reaching out to educate the public about their
beliefs. FFRF awards thousands of dollars in prizes for winning student
essays; and they distribute "I'm Secular and I Vote" buttons,
T-shirts, bumper stickers, and educational material.[ii]
What Exactly is Religion?[iii]
To be freed from something requires
grasp of what is being discarded. So what exactly is the illusive concept of religion? Surprising to some, whether
Judeo-Christian, Marxist-Leninist, secularist, or Islamic, all worldviews by
nature are religious. Each defines an ultimate point of reference that
dramatically influences every possible discipline from science to the arts,
ethics to law, geo-politics to economics. All
speak to an ideology, or movement, that offers some overarching approach to
comprehend God (god), the world, and man’s relationship to both.
“Freedom from religion” is better
understood as switching religion from one brand to another. Allow me to
explain. Classical orthodoxy, Christian or Jewish, broadly typifies “religion,”
as most perceive it, but so does secular humanism. By definition, religion sports
its own distinctive vocabulary, sacred symbolism, grand metanarrative, exclusive
truth exercised by faith, code of ethics/morality, creed, rituals, evangelism,
and discipleship. Logically, to discard religion is to separate from the above;
secularism instead exhibits all of them.
Judicial Acknowledgment
In The Church of the Holy Trinity v. U.S. (1892), the Supreme Court
ruled that our civilization and institutions are emphatically Christian.[iv]
In the early sixties, however, two landmark U.S. Supreme Court cases made way
for secular humanism by giving the proverbial boot to traditional faith (in the
form of school prayer and Bible reading). It was then that secular humanism
emerged as a non-theistic religion whose organized system of beliefs is upheld
devotedly by some 7.3 million humanists, and counting.[v]
Both Christianity and secularism have received judicial acknowledgement.
Distinctive
Vocabulary
Keep in mind humanism may or
may not center on a supernatural being. Cosmic- and secular- humanism both are
organized systems of beliefs and rituals upheld or pursued with zeal and
devotion. Their relativistic values exalt human worth based on
self-determination through reason.
By censoring God-speak
and pilfering biblical phraseology, secularists craft their own
lexicon. Take the word, “conversion,” meaning “a turning”—whether literally or
figuratively, ethically or religiously. In the Bible, conversion is associated
with repentance and faith.[vi] In
the secular world, Harvard Professor Steven Pinker boldly testifies, “I never
outgrew my conversion to atheist at thirteen.”[vii]
Honorary FFRF Board
member Julia Sweeny argues, “How dare the religious use the term ‘born again’?”
Sweeney reserves the phrase for fellow freethinkers who,
like her, have ostensibly thrown off the shackles of religion. The Greek word for “born again,”[viii]
used first by Jesus and plagiarized by Sweeny, means “to beget again into a new
life.”[ix]
More specifically, “to be born from above.”
In challenging the
phrase “under God,” born-again convert to secularism Mike Newdow complained to
the U.S. Supreme Court, “I am an atheist. I
don't believe in God. And every school morning my child is asked to stand up,
face that flag, put her hand over her heart, and say that her father is wrong.”
Apparently, in Newdow’s
world, affirmations other than his own are personally demeaning and, thus,
universally offensive. This freethinking father knows best when it comes to a
god that, in his view, doesn’t even exist.[x]
Grand Metanarrative (“Big Story”)
Defined by Huston Smith as “the
clearest opening through which the inexhaustible energies of the cosmos can pour into human existence,” the
religion of secularism merges
symbolism with mythology and Jungian psychology espousing the “higher self.”[xi]
By self-identifying as “Mother Earth’s consciousness,” cosmic humanists blur
the line between physics and metaphysics. Theirs is a pseudo-Christian
patchwork of spirit-ism and avant-garde, “fourth-force”
psychology.
For these,
all life is energy; composite energy is god; and the promised expectation is
“life beyond the grave” by becoming
god. Most often by means of meditation, achieving an altered state of
consciousness enables the Imperial Self to give way to collectivist
spirituality. Cosmic humanists attain to cosmic- or group- consciousness by
aligning and then fusing with the universal life force. The spiritual climb
upward (evolution from embryo-god to “Christhood” through multiple
reincarnations) is one grand story![xii]
Secular humanists embrace perhaps an
even bigger story by reasoning there once existed absolutely nothing. Nothing
happened to that nothing until it magically exploded (for no known reason) and
thereby created everything and everywhere. A bunch of the exploded everything unpredictably
rearranged itself (again, for no known reason) into self-replicating bits,
which (to make a long story short) turned into dinosaurs. This constitutes yet
another tall tale, or “big story.”
In comparison, the grand
metanarrative of Jews and Christian is this: “In the beginning, God.”[xiii]
Vision[xiv]
for a Utopian Ideal
Simply put, the overarching vision
for a Christian is humanity united with (and conformed into the likeness of)
God’s Son, coupled with full restoration of the universe to its rightful order
under God the Father.[xv] In contrast, evolutionary theory at the
epicenter of secularism self-characterizes as an expression of “merciless
hate.”[xvi]
By
specifically excluding
“useless eaters,”[xvii]
“miserable, degraded savages,”[xviii]
and those deemed “unfit and defective,”[xix]
the
progressive utopian ideal sidesteps the Golden Rule[xx]
and Great Commission.[xxi]
In the
words of the Trilateral Commission’s founding director Zbigniew Brzezinski,
“Marxism represents a further vital and creative stage in the maturing of man’s
universal vision.” American writer and editor Whittaker Chambers once fingered
communism as the “second oldest religion.”[xxii]
Understand that “non-sustainable non-producers” relegated to the low end of
humanity’s totem pole include the elderly, stay-at-home moms, and those
incapacitated physically or mentally. In the Marxist paradigm, all human rights
are granted, controlled, and/or withdrawn by government consisting of elitists
deemed more highly evolved and enlightened than the masses.
Conclusion
Toward
developing our thesis (Freedom from religion is better
understood as switching religion from one brand to another.), we’ve established that secularism and religion are
accompanied by judicial acknowledgement, a distinctive vocabulary, grand
metanarrative (“big story”), and vision for an ideal—all of which inform voters
and influence the course of a nation.
More to follow in Part 2.
[iii]
Scripture
describes us as body, soul (i.e., mind/ feelings) and spirit (i.e., that which
yearns for, and relates to, God). On the other hand, “religion” generally speaks
to ritual—a means by which man seeks to please God and, thus, win over His
favor by self-effort. In contrast, Christianity is a loving God’s reaching out
to man. “We love Him because He first loved us,” the Bible says. Christ came to
“seek and save” the lost, not to reward ritual. Many Christians (myself
included) do not identify with being “religious” (representing man’s lame
attempts at reaching God). We are, instead, “spiritual” in that we respond to
His unconditional favor as we yearn for and relate to God “in spirit and in
truth.” The Christian God initiates relationship through His son, Jesus. In a
word, it’s all about Him, not human effort, although good works naturally
follow faith (James 2:18).
[iv] 143 US 457-458, 465-471,
36L ed 226, United States Supreme Court, 29 February 1892
[v]
Walter R. Martin. The Kingdom of the Cults (Minneapolis: Bethany Fellowship, Inc.,
Publishers, 1977). 18-23.
[vi]
Acts 3:19 & 26,
11:21, 20:21, 26:20
[ix]
The
classic biblical passage references a conversation Jesus had with a prominent
Pharisee and member of the Sanhedrin, whom Jesus instructed to become “born
from above,” John 3:1-21.
[xi] Huston Smith. The Religions of Man (New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1965).11-12.
[xii] The
process of mystical (cosmic) evolution holds promise for humanity to awaken to
esoteric knowledge. Presumably multiple reincarnations with upward mobility
(called transmigration) provide opportunities needed for the modern mystic to
ascend from embryo god to pantheistic oneness with divine essence.
[xiii]
Genesis 1:1
[xiv] “Where there is no vision, the people
perish: but he that keeps the law, happy is
he,” Proverbs 29:18. "Vision" prophecy denotes the revelation of
God's will. Teaching a higher than mere human morality, prophets stood as
witnesses to the power of truth. Its absence is marked by confusion, disorder,
and rebellion. Uncontrolled, people fall into grievous excesses, which nothing
but high principles can restrain (Pulpit Commentary).
[xv]
Introduced in
Genesis 1:26, the Plan of God destines believers to spiritual maturity,
wholeness, and completion (Ep. 4:13) with Christ Himself being formed within
yielded vessels (Ga. 4:9) until self-life gives way to the Christ-life; and
supernatural works, as His, are accomplished in and through them (Jn. 14:12;
Ga. 2:20). Although, in God’s Plan, believers partake of the Divine nature (2
Pe. 1:4), God’s awe-inspiring Deity and humankind’s frail humanity remain
indisputably separate. Jesus Christ receives all the glory although He honors
His Bride as one whose light is like unto a stone most precious (Re. 21:11).
Indeed His Name will be in their foreheads, describing well the singularly
focused thought life of His devoted, loving Bride (Re. 22: 4), “whom the heaven must
receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by
the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began” (Acts 3:21).
[xvi] In a 1905 speech, the great statesman, William
Jennings Bryan claimed “the Darwinian Theory represents man
reaching his present perfection by the operation of the law of hate, the
merciless law by which the strong crowd out and kill off the weak.”
[xvii]
Planned
Parenthood’s Margaret Sanger presumed blacks, immigrants, and indigents to be
“useless eaters,” "...human
weeds,” and “reckless breeders,” “spawning ... human beings who never should
have been born," Pivot of Civilization.
[xviii]
On 17 December 1832, as part of his
world tour aboard H.M.S. Beagle, Charles Darwin arrived in Tierra del Fuego at
the southernmost tip of South America. Here he got his first view of the native
inhabitants, whom he described as “miserable degraded savages,” a phrase
he repeated often in his journal concerning these people.
http://creation.com/charles-darwins-savages (Accessed 29 January 2013)
[xix] Dean
Pernkopf (“National Socialism and Science”) used the phrase, “unfit and defective,”
while addressing university faculty and students of Vienna, stronghold of the
new Reich (from selected essays of Gerald Weissmann, 1998).
[xxi] Mark 16:15—“And he said to them, ‘Go
you into all the world, and preach the gospel (good news) to every creature.’”
[xxii]
Animal Farm Revisited with "Heavy 100" Radio Talk
Host, Chuck Morse, on TRUTHTalk Beyond the Sound Bite with Debra Rae. Link: http://tobtr.com/8469599 (5 April 2016).
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