This week I read an interesting article, "Atheists Against Atheism" which was referencing another article, "The Turning Tide of Intellectual Atheism." The article was about how some intellectuals, historians and a journalist, who themselves do not believe in God, are recognizing the need for Christianity to maintain our society's morality.
Here are a few quotes from the article.
Niall Ferguson, agnostic and prominent historian, said, "Atheism, particularly in its militant forms, is really a very dangerous metaphysical framework for a society. I know I can't achieve religious faith, but I do think we should go to church. I don't buy the idea that evolution alone gets us to be moral...There's too much evidence that when the constraints of civilization fall away, we behave in the most savage way to one another. I'm a big believer that with the inherited wisdom of a two-millennia old religion, we've got a pretty good framework to work with."
He continued, “I’m one of these people who didn’t come to atheism by choice, and I’ve almost come out of it on the basis of historical study. The biggest disasters that we likely face are actually related to totalitarianism, because that’s the lesson of the 20th century. Pandemics killed a lot of people in the 20th century, but totalitarianism killed more.”
Another quote from the article:
For years, [Tom] Holland—an agnostic—wrote compelling histories of the ancient Greeks and Romans, but he observed that their societies were rife with casual, socially-accepted cruelty towards the weak, rape, and sexual abuse towards the massive slave class as an unquestioned way of life, and the mass extermination of enemies as a matter of course. These peoples and their ethics, Hollands writes, seemed utterly foreign to him. It was Christianity, Holland concluded, that changed all that in a revolution so complete that even critiques of Christianity must borrow precepts from Christianity to do so.
Last night, I read an article in the Liahona written by Brad Wilcox, that talked about the need for religion. I summarize here:
"Some people think that belief in God doesn't make a difference when it comes to being a good person. "God has given us the freedom to believe in Him or not, but it's not correct to say it doesn't make a difference. Our belief in God affects how we see ourselves and how we see and treat others. Studies show that in times of trouble and crisis, believers cope much better than nonbelievers. Believers are happier and more willing to donate to charity."
When a law professor at BYU is asked by others, "What if you are wrong and God does not exist?" He answers, "I am willing to be wrong in this way if it means believing and treating others as though they are children of God...I would rather make the mistake of attributing meaning and love to a universe that is meaningless and indifferent than vice versa. And besides, I do not think we are wrong."
Many people believe in God but not organized religion. They say, I'm spiritual, not religious. Typically that means they acknowledge God's existence but do not want Him to ask anything of them.
Elder Holland has taught that spirituality might be all we need if we lived alone on a mountaintop. But we don't. When we are frustrated with the slow driver in front of us making us late to work, what we need are the standards of religion to bring the ideal of love down to the reality of the moment when someone is being unlovable.
Some people see no need for organized religion, and yet they demand organized schools, cities, stores, and hospitals. They see the benefits of going to an organized hospital. We see the same benefits in our organized church. We can care for people much more effectively when the Church is organized. Partway through the pandemic, the Church had already participated in over 1000 humanitarian aid projects. We could not have done that on our own, but we did it together because we have an organized religion.
Comments
Post a Comment