Thoughts

We live in the post-modern era. Many of our young people are taught by those who have no definite moral compass. No God. We are only a product of our heredity and environment. The Enlightenment philosophers began the journey and it has continued with minor impediments ever since. Technology of the last fifty years has really picked up the pace with which the antitheistic philosophies have spread. While the antitheist picks upon those of Christian faith for their attacks on their fellow man in the crusades, a survivor of Auschwitz, Viktor Frankl, gives an interesting response on how Auschwitz happened.

"If we present man with a concept of man which is not true, we may well corrupt him. When we present him as an automaton of reflexes, as a mind machine, as a bundle of instincts, as a pawn of drive and reactions, as a mere product of heredity and environment, we feed the nihilism to which modern man is, in any case, prone. I became acquainted with the last stage of corruption in my second concentration camp, Auschwitz. The gas chambers of Auschwitz were the ultimate consequence of the theory that man is nothing but the product of heredity and environment--or, as the Nazis liked to say, "of blood and soil." I am absolutely convinced that the gas chambers of Auschwitz, Treblinka, and Maidanek were ultimately prepared not in some ministry or other in Berlin, but rather at the desks and in lecture halls of nihilistic scientists and philosophers."

Nietzsche and Kant have had to give an account to the Creator they denied. Yet today, we seem to be bent upon removing every vestige of religious teaching from the public eye. There is no historic evidence that says antitheism has a better track record for moral behavior than religious belief. An issue with antitheism is that it encourages immoral behavior for many by denial of any "Supreme Being." Humans have never done very well with the freedom they seem to so desire. I don't deny that some people of faith don't always do well demonstrating their faith but the same is true for those who claim antitheism as their faith. At least my faith teaches me what behavior is appropriate and what is inappropriate. Where does the antitheist learn these freedoms and limits?