(You can see Part 1. Here: )
Part 1 of the Growth of Atheism story was a review of some
books I had read on the subject, which demonstrated how the breakdown of
families --- and in particular those with defective
fathers --- had caused some very intelligent children to grow into adults
who had an innate bias against religion, and against Christianity in
particular, because it speaks of God, “The Father.” These individuals reasoned their way and,
using the Scientific Method, proved their way to a belief that God does not
exist --- and even if He did, man does not need Him. Not trusting in families, not trusting in
being loved, their faith largely was in themselves --- and they encouraged
others to see the world as they did:
only you are responsible for making yourself happy.
Now, logically you might expect that while atheists were
sprouting and taking root in many academic circles --- in Europe and then
America --- surely there must have been many intelligent God-fearing men raised
in good, solid Christian families at the same time. And that is true. But also at the same time, the world has been
changing in the last few hundred years, and many of these changes acted as a
fertilizer, one which seemed to be absorbed more readily by the atheistic, “progressive”
mindset of self-reliance. And so while
the “good wheat” and the “weeds” were growing together in our culture, the
weeds grew larger.
One of the first springboards for atheism’s growth, the
first dose of fertilizer, was supplied by the Catholic Church itself. The Protestant Revolution arose from some
valid complaints about the Church hierarchy, and a new weed “sprouted” in some
minds: If I don’t like things as they are, I can change them --- I can
determine what is right and wrong, for me.
And like the atheist, more minds formed a bias toward what they wanted,
not what God wanted. For many,
overthrowing “the chains of religion” BECAME a religion, one without thought,
only anger to obtain “what I want.” The
French Revolution and its hatred of religion was an example of this in action,
and a disaster for everyone involved. Later,
as Benjamin Wiker points out in his book, religion was tolerated (in
increasingly narrow limits), but religious differences became another fertilizer
for the godless state, which counseled: “We’ll help protect your rights, from
those other Christians who want things their way --- just give us the power.”
The age of industrialization provided another heavy dose of
fertilizer for the “me first” mindset.
Amidst the common lot of farmers, suddenly there were millionaires, made
from men who once were farmers. And with
new industrial efficiencies, men could produce more, faster --- and wages rose
dramatically. “Henry Ford is paying $5 a
day,” was the headline. And everyone
wanted more money --- for themselves.
(We see the same thing happening in China today, as the people abandon
farms and head to the cities for money --- and as recent U.S. surveys show,
those in the cities are much less likely to be thinking about God, or family.) The headlines today, in 2014, make it sound
like the large gap between the richest and the poorest is a new thing. It isn’t.
It certainly has been around since the start of the industrial age.
From the book How The West Really Lost God we saw that
family decline paralleled church decline, and there were a number of cultural
events which fertilized the decline of the family. Most were deliberately implemented and
justified as good things, but their impact on the family was never considered beforehand
--- nor the decline of the family’s impact on our culture.
The Second World War showed governments the strategic
importance of mobility, and helped justify the building of the interstate
highway system in the United States.
Fast efficient movement of the military was now possible --- and of
people. And the people did move fast,
and far. Families which once lived near
to each other for generations suddenly lived on opposite sides of the
country. Children who used to grow up in
parish families now moved from one parish to another, to another. Secure parish families for a child’s lifetime
became a constant struggle to find new friends, for a year or two until the
next move --- which their parents made for more money. And those atheist-inclined youths without
fathers found other lost souls, who were learning that they too would have to
depend upon themselves.
All of this focus on money and self exploded in the 1960’s
and 1970’s, as live news coverage came into our living rooms, and became more
political. “War is evil. Your sons are killing children. You can’t rely on the Church. You can’t rely on the government. You can only rely on yourself, so ignore them
all and do what you want --- and just ‘Be Happy!’” And the heavy decline in marriages and growth
in divorces, took a sharp turn for the worse.
And liberalism, the New Society, stepped in. The state, not the Church or family, would
provide for the poor, and help make you happy.
The government, not you, has an obligation to love your neighbor.
Television began with shows which focused on “good families”
and people doing virtuous things, but it was the internet that added yet
another huge dose of fertilizer to the weeds of atheism and even evermore
hatred of Christianity. From a family
gathering site, television became a private thing in the bedroom, and the
internet became obsessed with the bedroom.
Over 10% of all internet websites are pornography. There are thousands of television channels
for anything YOU want to watch, millions of musical delights for you to listen
to ALL DAY LONG, and with this now all five of the senses have reached the
point of our being able to give ourselves WHAT
we want, WHEN we want it, WHERE we want it, HOW we want it, and even a virtual with WHO we want it. Everything
entering our body can now be just as WE want it. Happiness is now ours to be had --- or so the
advertisements proclaim. Only one
question remains unanswered.
WHY? Why didn’t this make us all happy? Must we just continue trying until we get it
right, or are we on the treadmill that Einstein described, where we “keep doing
the same things over and over and expect different results.”
Fertilizers: attempts
to purify failed Church leaders, industrialization to provide better products
and jobs, a highway system to help defend us, television to help us know one
another, and the internet to help us more easily speak to one another --- all
good things which turned into waste:
fertilizer. All had the intention
to make our lives better, and yet all tore our lives apart. Even as we got evermore things “we” wanted,
we found we had even less things of value in our lives. Surveys today show that the happiest people
in the world are those in the smallest, poorest countries; those which are without
the big cities and efficient highways and mass communications. All they have is God and family, and they are
happy. Why?
Where did we go wrong in our struggles to make ourselves
happy? How do we get off this
merry-go-round of not believing in heaven, but wanting to create it on
earth? How can we look at our sad, angry
lives and think we’ve done a great job of controlling our evolution --- without
God --- and want to control it even more?
Can the government fix these bad results? Do we have to chop it all down (like the
French Revolution) and start over? Must
we pull all the weeds out --- kill each other --- to find happiness? How do we find some balance between what we
think we want and what will make us happy?
How can we live with one another?
How can people of faith exist in a world which largely doesn’t believe
in God, and people who view themselves as the ultimate creators.
Where do we even start?
Next: Part 3. Learning to Love Again.
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