Why do atheist governments work so hard to suppress Christianity and Judaism? If atheist really think believing in God is illogical, then why don’t they just present the evidence and leave it at that? Why persecute and kill those who disagree with you, if you’re so certain you’re right?
Now it was Nimrod who excited them to such an affront and contempt of God. He was the grandson of Ham, the son of Noah, a bold man, and of great strength of hand. He persuaded them not to ascribe it to God as if it was through his means they were happy, but to believe that it was their own courage which procured that happiness. He also gradually changed the government into tyranny, seeing no other way of turning men from the fear of God, but to bring them into a constant dependence upon his power. He also said he would be revenged on God, if he should have a mind to drown the world again; for that he would build a tower too high for the waters to be able to reach! and that he would avenge himself on God for destroying their forefathers! Flavius Josephus and William Whiston, The Works of Josephus : Complete and Unabridged (Peabody: Hendrickson, 1996, c1987). Ant 1.113-114.
Consider this sound bite from the Rush Limbaugh show in the context of this quote.
“…but to bring them into a constant dependence upon his power…” Rush went on to say that he would be embarrassed if people were out there saying this about him. Mr. Obama isn’t embarrassed, because this is the essence of social justice based socialism, to make everyone dependent on the government in any way possible. And behind that, as Josephus points out, is the desire to place a barrier of separation between the people and God. It ties in with human viewpoint good, as well, how we want to build communities and technologies to divorce ourselves from the world, so we can live free of its constraints through our own abilities. In other words, in order for an atheistic society to really work, you must destroy Christianity. Presenting the facts isn’t enough, you must make people depend on the government, and, in fact, worship the government, which generally means setting up a cult of personality.
All those quotes you’ve heard about history are true. Those who don’t remember the past are bound to repeat it, and history is just the same things happening again and again to different people. Will we ever learn? Or must we fall for Satan’s tricks over and over and over again? I suppose it’s a rhetorical question, isn’t it? We know the answer from our own lives, and even from our own current political situation. Neville Chamberlain didn’t learn from history, and so offered Hitler a platform on which to destroy most of Europe. Is our current situation—and our current leadership—so different?
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Interesting. I see things much the same way. By sheer coincidence, I wrote the following in a comment just a little while ago:
…experience has taught me that atheists are in a somewhat different category than certain other sorts of non-believers. I can get along quite well with most Buddhists and Hindus. I generally get on quite well with Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons (once they realize they’ve got no chance on God’s green earth of converting me). I generally get on very well with witches, believe it or not. Matter of fact, the best man at my wedding was a witch. I get along with them all even though they all know that I think they’re going to wind up in the Lake of Fire. I get along with them because as far as they’re concerned, my “errors” don’t have all that big an impact on their own lives. For the most part, I can be a Baptist and they can be witches, and that’s just fine. The JWs are convinced that I’m going to Hell, and I’m convinced the JWs are going to Hell, but on a day to day basis, in terms of how we each live, it’s just not that big a deal.
Atheists are not like this, at least not often. They are like Communists–no coincidence that communist states are often officially atheist–in that their worldview dictates that they eventually have to convert everyone in order to live like they think they’re supposed to be able to live. You know that communists are continually telling you that the communism will never work as intended until the whole world is Marxist; the existence of filthy capitalists elsewhere inevitably subverts the communist system within any individual country, so they have to export their ideology. Atheists are the same way…Atheists are convinced that theism is responsible for all sorts of injustices against them and that it must, in order for them to live their lives the way they think they should be lived, eventually be eliminated.
Put another, shorter way: I can get along well with Wiccans in part because they are perfectly content for me to be a Christian, and, their eternal destiny aside, I don’t have a problem with them being Wiccans. Atheists, on the other hand, can never be content until theism is eliminated from the planet. I know this, and I regard them as actively threatening and hostile combatants in the world of ideas.
Thanks for your comment! I think you bring up an interesting an underlying point to this–that all these people you describe believe in some form of fundamental moral code. We might all disagree on some points of that code, but we all agree that one exists. For atheist, the thought of a moral code even existing is a problem. Moral codes just get in the way of shaping the world the way they want. Religious folks can agree that polite proselytizing, and frank discussion, are okay among themselves, and get along. For an atheist, there is a commitment to belief in God as an inferior way of thinking, and they can’t tolerate someone who tries to tell them to “lose their intelligence.”
So, overall, I would agree that Christians should be able to get along with folks of other religions. Atheist are more of a challenge, it seems.