Yes, seriously, say many noted secular 'authorities' in the world's universities, media, and government agencies. Calling themselves Progressives, they are not believers in God. To them believers are retrograde, deluded, childish, and even dangerous at times. The Progressive's hostility and extreme skepticism of established, time tested faiths and institutions is a hallmark of the 21st Century. Yet Progressives have no skepticism at all for Islam, Sharia Law, Marxism/Socialism, or science worship.
Progressivism stems from the materialist French philosophers of the 18th Century, Voltaire and Rousseau, but gained new life under Karl Marx in the mid 19th Century. He and his followers knew that the only way to provoke radical revolution was to strip people of their self-confidence, undermine their spiritual faith and all their previous ideals and beliefs, disrupt or destroy the family as an institution, and replace all these with communist fantasies of equality. There never has been a successful communist society as envisioned by Marx, Lenin, Stalin or Mao. Quite the opposite. Their societies became hellish, and they collapsed. Yet Progressives continue their deadly mission, as seen in Venezuela today; a nation disintegrating before our eyes (Link) This is what happens when people shed their productive spiritual beliefs, and buy into modern Marxist skepticism. Venezuelans bought heavily into the Progressive's materialist doubts and hatred of faith.
Jesus was mentioned and accurately described by many non-Christians of the 1st Century, including the Roman historians Lucian and Tacitus; and Josephus, a priest of the Temple of Solomon who became a Roman citizen and advisor to emperors (Link). Then there are the disciples of Jesus, who changed overnight from cowards hiding in cellars to prophets proclaiming the Resurrection. All eleven went out into the nations of the known world to preach, and were courageously martyred. Millions throughout history have been inspired by them and others of deep spiritual faith.
Progressives offer only a weird hero worship for dedicated revolutionaries like Che Guevara or Fidel Castro. What have they done to advance civilization? How many hundreds of millions suffered and died in vain for Maoist and Soviet communism? Countless millions.
Suddenly, America and the Western Tradition of law, ideals, and individual rights is "oppressive", "racist", and therefore 'out'. Radical plans for a new utopia of collectivist-socialist EU-style borderless nations and wealth redistribution is cool, therefore 'in'. Even Pope Francis is on board with Obama, the Rolling Stones, Merkel, the Castros, Cameron, and Iran's nuclear terrorist Mullahs (Link). The Pope cares not that a nuclear Iran openly brags that it will incinerate Israel and America, or that it executes more people every year than any other nation. Between January 1 and July 15, 2015, Iran executed 694 people. More than three a day. The crimes of the accused varied from drug possession to "enmity against God" (Link).
Pope Francis recently said, "The time to find global solutions is running out. There is a clear, definite, and urgent ethical imperative to act."
Hold on, Francis. Catholicism isn't the solution? That leaves only politics. The Book of Revelation is extremely clear on God's solution. The Pope should read it occasionally. But he won't. He's a politician in clever disguise, and the Bible is now "politically incorrect". Pope Francis has little faith in Christ, obviously.
The abortion question shows us how far we've drifted away from goodness. It's a litmus test of our moral rot. Progressives say it's a positive good, and they demand free abortions as a right (Link). The American Democratic Party stands solidly for abortion on demand and publishes it in their political platform. The Democrats, and some Republicans in Congress have seen to it that Planned Parenthood, an abortion mill of staggering proportions, receives $500 million a year in federal tax dollars (Link). God is dead, good is evil, down is up, and black is white in our Brave New World (Link). Their plans require 'adjusting' the thinking of us all. Our standards of right and wrong, good and evil, and our purpose in life must be reordered. But how?
Our perceptions of good and evil come into focus only by comparison to something else. We have internal standards, learned or inherited, next to which we compare ourselves and our actions. We recognize people of high standards, or low, by their speech and behavior. A cannibal from New Guinea can't pass by us unnoticed, nor will the Dalai Lama. We are in part our own creators, and how good we are at it becomes clear by a certain age.
People of goodwill seek fixed goodness, upright honesty, courage, purest love, and great power in the service of humanity. In short, we all want God, and our notions of who God is determine everything we do and say. It's who we are. We will become like our God. Even atheists and agnostics need a higher standard, a god; which is why they often choose money, power, sex, or politics (a combination of them all) to love and worship.
Denial of God and God's chosen is the cornerstone of our 'modern' scientific societies; the root from which totalitarian tyrannies grow. It's all about power. Men and women who seek power over us know they must replace God and faith with themselves at the head of socialist-collectivist government. When the mass of people are dependent on government checks and benefits, they can easily forget God and become enslaved to - and owned by - tyrants. "He who pays the piper calls the tune" is a tried and true proverb, along with the Golden Rule, i.e., "He who has the gold makes the rules."
These are the same people who claim that our great modern prophets and sages are Obama, the Clintons, Facebook's Zuckerberg, Marx, Lenin, Nietzsche, Mao, and a hundred other minor figures of our broken and depraved world. These people are the creators and enablers of spiritual death and destruction; materialists who worship what they call "reason", which translated means power, wealth, status, and a gift for expediency and deception. Reason once told us that man could not fly a heavier-than-air craft, or explore space.
The battle for the soul of our youth has entered a new stage. The incredible global success of modern mythology - Superman, Batman, The Avengers, Captain America, Iron Man, etc. - has shown that the world's youth deeply appreciates courage, honor, and integrity. But just the other day, the Marvel Comics executives who own the rights to these characters announced that Captain America is actually a double agent for Hydra, the evil Nazi network bent on destroying civilization. If these executives choose to, they can claim that all these heroes are Satanic killers in disguise (Link).
Why would these rich executives even start down this road? More buzz and money is their explanation, even though Marvel Comics is already a multi-billion-dollar enterprise. One might say, "So what? They're just fictional stories." But all of us are living a story, the tale of our lives, and our youth, particularly, need role models in life when they're just starting out. No nation can succeed unless the tales of its great men and women are protected from vile slander. In a world where no flesh and blood heroes can stand media scrutiny and cynicism, mythology becomes critically important. The stakes for our world and all the souls in it are huge.
Progressivism stems from the materialist French philosophers of the 18th Century, Voltaire and Rousseau, but gained new life under Karl Marx in the mid 19th Century. He and his followers knew that the only way to provoke radical revolution was to strip people of their self-confidence, undermine their spiritual faith and all their previous ideals and beliefs, disrupt or destroy the family as an institution, and replace all these with communist fantasies of equality. There never has been a successful communist society as envisioned by Marx, Lenin, Stalin or Mao. Quite the opposite. Their societies became hellish, and they collapsed. Yet Progressives continue their deadly mission, as seen in Venezuela today; a nation disintegrating before our eyes (Link) This is what happens when people shed their productive spiritual beliefs, and buy into modern Marxist skepticism. Venezuelans bought heavily into the Progressive's materialist doubts and hatred of faith.
Jesus was mentioned and accurately described by many non-Christians of the 1st Century, including the Roman historians Lucian and Tacitus; and Josephus, a priest of the Temple of Solomon who became a Roman citizen and advisor to emperors (Link). Then there are the disciples of Jesus, who changed overnight from cowards hiding in cellars to prophets proclaiming the Resurrection. All eleven went out into the nations of the known world to preach, and were courageously martyred. Millions throughout history have been inspired by them and others of deep spiritual faith.
Progressives offer only a weird hero worship for dedicated revolutionaries like Che Guevara or Fidel Castro. What have they done to advance civilization? How many hundreds of millions suffered and died in vain for Maoist and Soviet communism? Countless millions.
Suddenly, America and the Western Tradition of law, ideals, and individual rights is "oppressive", "racist", and therefore 'out'. Radical plans for a new utopia of collectivist-socialist EU-style borderless nations and wealth redistribution is cool, therefore 'in'. Even Pope Francis is on board with Obama, the Rolling Stones, Merkel, the Castros, Cameron, and Iran's nuclear terrorist Mullahs (Link). The Pope cares not that a nuclear Iran openly brags that it will incinerate Israel and America, or that it executes more people every year than any other nation. Between January 1 and July 15, 2015, Iran executed 694 people. More than three a day. The crimes of the accused varied from drug possession to "enmity against God" (Link).
Pope Francis recently said, "The time to find global solutions is running out. There is a clear, definite, and urgent ethical imperative to act."
Hold on, Francis. Catholicism isn't the solution? That leaves only politics. The Book of Revelation is extremely clear on God's solution. The Pope should read it occasionally. But he won't. He's a politician in clever disguise, and the Bible is now "politically incorrect". Pope Francis has little faith in Christ, obviously.
The abortion question shows us how far we've drifted away from goodness. It's a litmus test of our moral rot. Progressives say it's a positive good, and they demand free abortions as a right (Link). The American Democratic Party stands solidly for abortion on demand and publishes it in their political platform. The Democrats, and some Republicans in Congress have seen to it that Planned Parenthood, an abortion mill of staggering proportions, receives $500 million a year in federal tax dollars (Link). God is dead, good is evil, down is up, and black is white in our Brave New World (Link). Their plans require 'adjusting' the thinking of us all. Our standards of right and wrong, good and evil, and our purpose in life must be reordered. But how?
Our perceptions of good and evil come into focus only by comparison to something else. We have internal standards, learned or inherited, next to which we compare ourselves and our actions. We recognize people of high standards, or low, by their speech and behavior. A cannibal from New Guinea can't pass by us unnoticed, nor will the Dalai Lama. We are in part our own creators, and how good we are at it becomes clear by a certain age.
People of goodwill seek fixed goodness, upright honesty, courage, purest love, and great power in the service of humanity. In short, we all want God, and our notions of who God is determine everything we do and say. It's who we are. We will become like our God. Even atheists and agnostics need a higher standard, a god; which is why they often choose money, power, sex, or politics (a combination of them all) to love and worship.
Denial of God and God's chosen is the cornerstone of our 'modern' scientific societies; the root from which totalitarian tyrannies grow. It's all about power. Men and women who seek power over us know they must replace God and faith with themselves at the head of socialist-collectivist government. When the mass of people are dependent on government checks and benefits, they can easily forget God and become enslaved to - and owned by - tyrants. "He who pays the piper calls the tune" is a tried and true proverb, along with the Golden Rule, i.e., "He who has the gold makes the rules."
These are the same people who claim that our great modern prophets and sages are Obama, the Clintons, Facebook's Zuckerberg, Marx, Lenin, Nietzsche, Mao, and a hundred other minor figures of our broken and depraved world. These people are the creators and enablers of spiritual death and destruction; materialists who worship what they call "reason", which translated means power, wealth, status, and a gift for expediency and deception. Reason once told us that man could not fly a heavier-than-air craft, or explore space.
The battle for the soul of our youth has entered a new stage. The incredible global success of modern mythology - Superman, Batman, The Avengers, Captain America, Iron Man, etc. - has shown that the world's youth deeply appreciates courage, honor, and integrity. But just the other day, the Marvel Comics executives who own the rights to these characters announced that Captain America is actually a double agent for Hydra, the evil Nazi network bent on destroying civilization. If these executives choose to, they can claim that all these heroes are Satanic killers in disguise (Link).
Why would these rich executives even start down this road? More buzz and money is their explanation, even though Marvel Comics is already a multi-billion-dollar enterprise. One might say, "So what? They're just fictional stories." But all of us are living a story, the tale of our lives, and our youth, particularly, need role models in life when they're just starting out. No nation can succeed unless the tales of its great men and women are protected from vile slander. In a world where no flesh and blood heroes can stand media scrutiny and cynicism, mythology becomes critically important. The stakes for our world and all the souls in it are huge.
