My friend Jason posted a comment in a recent post where he said:
I think he’s onto something (and this seems to satisfy a certain penchant for the Libertarian side of things that you’ve always showcased… )
He’s absolutely right. I have libertarian leanings. I had beaten this inclination out but apparently is still obvious. First and foremost, none of the popular political parties in this country represent my ideals. Fact is, I have two conflicting ideals. The first is that I believe a Christian nation should live in Christian freedom. The conviction of God’s Law is enough to keep us mostly in line in the civil realm. Treating our neighbors respectively and in kindness would go a long way towards civil order than regulations and rules established by government can do alone. In this way i prefer the libertarian ideals which places the responsibility for order into the hands of the populus and not in the hands of a wealthy elite.
It should be noted that this idylic scenario is impossible due to the corruption of human nature by sin. Simply said, we do not live in a Christian nation. We cannot expect our nation to fit the perfect model. We are surrounded by pagans and atheists who have little or no respect for God’s Law. Divorcing their attitudes and ideals from the reality of God places us all in grave danger (which are manifested in the selfish attitudes of selective breeding, abortion, entitlement, and more.) So while I hold to a reality of government in the hands of the populus, I respectively understand that this is an impractical ideal, hence my second conflicting view. I still prefer minimal intervention but the frank reality is that authoritarian government is essential in our pluralistic society. We cannot expect any respect for the innate Law of God on all human hearts. Consequently, God places over us a government that may be overbearing but protects us all the same.
The conflicting view is represented in the following posts. Both posts are examples of author’s opinions about the result of atheism in the left hand kingdom of the world.
She blinded me with science » GetReligion
Most of the numerous speakers Johnson quoted expressed a great deal of animosity toward religious belief:
Dr. Weinberg, who famously wrote toward the end of his 1977 book on cosmology, “The First Three Minutes,†that “the more the universe seems comprehensible, the more it also seems pointless,†went a step further: “Anything that we scientists can do to weaken the hold of religion should be done and may in the end be our greatest contribution to civilization.â€Noted atheist Richard Dawkins was quoted but many other scientists also expressed anti-religious views, including Steven Weinberg, Harold Kroto, Neil deGrasse Tyson and Carolyn Porco.
Somewhere along the way, a forum this month at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, Calif., which might have been one more polite dialogue between science and religion, began to resemble the founding convention for a political party built on a single plank: in a world dangerously charged with ideology, science needs to take on an evangelical role, vying with religion as teller of the greatest story ever told.Here’s what Porco, a research scientist at the Space Institute, proposed:
“Let’s teach our children from a very young age about the story of the universe and its incredible richness and beauty. It is already so much more glorious and awesome — and even comforting — than anything offered by any scripture or God concept I know.â€Johnson provides perspective on the story, detailing efforts by the Templeton Foundation to smooth over differences between science and religion. He explains that more prominent believing scientists were invited to the conference but didn’t attend. And he quotes evolutionary biologist Francisco Ayala, a former Roman Catholic priest, pooh-poohing efforts to fight six billion people finding meaning and purpose in life. When physicist and non-believer Lawrence Krauss argues that science does not make it impossible to believe in God and that nonbelievers should stop being so pompous, Dawkins explodes.
“I am utterly fed up with the respect that we — all of us, including the secular among us — are brainwashed into bestowing on religion,†he said.
and
watersblogged!: Atheism’s dirty little secret
The fact is that rarely has religion truly been the issue even in the religious wars of history. The Arab-Israeli conflict is ethnic, rather than religious- and “the Troubles” in Northern Ireland, though often portrayed as sectarian, have in fact been economic. It should be noted that ethnic differences of a kind are also involved here; while the majority in the Six Counties likely originated in Ulster, their ancestors moved back and forth between Ireland and Scotland over the centuries. The minority- who happen to be Catholic- usually have a more continuous Irish background.Persecutions? Compared to those which have taken place in nations ruled by atheists, those carried out in the name of religion have actually been relatively few and relatively mild. Compare the murderous careers of Mao Zedong and Joe Stalin to the record of, say, the Inquisition or the vilest persecutions of which Protestants have historically been guilty, and you’ll see my point.
What do we learn from this? The lesson seems obvious: rather than mindfulness of God being responsible for man’s inhumanity to man, it tends rather to be the result of our forgetting Him. Historically, when mere human beings have aspired to God’s job, they have pretty consistently made a botch of it.
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Pr. Petersen and commenter have some more words to this matter:
One Foot in Heaven