freedom is rooted in biblical theism. part 2 the war in the west – culture wars session 2.9 the...

Freedom Is Rooted in Biblical Theism

Part 2 The War in the West – Culture Wars

• Session 2.9 The Fight for the Soul of the West

• Session 2.10 Freedom Is Rooted in Biblical Theism

• Session 2:11 Militant Atheism• Session 2:12 The Consequences of

Atheism • Session 2:13 “The Days Have Come

Down in the West!”

Outline

• Introduction• Pluralism vs. Freedom• Freedom: Human Rights• It Took “Religion”• Testimonies• Not Any Religion Will Do!• Atheism Is an Insufficient Foundation for

Freedom

Introduction

What Framework Founded America?

Judeo-Christian Theism• Carried the Bible• Established by Biblical

Principles

• God is Sovereign• Reason and Revelation

Atheism• Rooted in the

Enlightenment- Voltaire, Rousseau, Hume, Descartes

• Man is Sovereign • Reason

Question

• Which countries have more freedom, those with Atheistic or Judeo-Christian foundations?

Figure 1.1: Religious Freedom by Area

Religious Freedom Rating

North Africa and West Asia Western Europe and North Atlantic

1 Ireland, United States

2 Austria, Canada, Denmark, Italy, Norway,Portugal, Spain, Sweden

3 Israel Belgium, France, Germany, Greece

4 Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman

5 Algeria, Kuwait, Libya, Syria, Tunisia,Turkey, Yemen

6 Afghanistan, Bahrain,Egypt, Pakistan, Palestinian Areas

7 Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia

Center for Religious Freedom - Survey Files (2007)The Range of Religious Freedom by Paul Marshall

Most Free – Least Free Countries

• LEAST FREE –ATHEISTIC

Freedom from Religion • China• Vietnam• North Korea• Belarus• Russia• Serbia• Uzbekistan

• MOST FREE – 36 of 41 traditionally “Christian”

Freedom of Religion• USA• Estonia• Hungry• Ireland• Austria• Canada

Pluralism vs. Freedom

Pluralism

• Definition: “The condition of being multiple or plural”

• Distinction– Ideological Pluralism – “The belief that no

single explanatory system or view of reality can account for all the phenomena of life”

– Political/Social Pluralism – “A condition in which numerous distinct ethnic, religious, or cultural groups are present and tolerated within a society”

The Declaration of Independence

Judeo-Christian Theism

• Moral and Metaphysical Truth (Absolutes) are self-evident vs. Relativism

• “All men are created equal” vs. Survival of the fittest

• That they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights vs. revocable rights granted by the state

Judeo-Christian Theism

• That among these are (there are more unalienable rights than these three)

• Life – Sacredness of life vs. Quality of life

• Liberty vs. License

• Pursuit of Happiness vs. Personal peace and affluence

Logic of Ideas

Ideological Pluralism(Moral Relativism)

Only virtue – tolerance

Only vice - moral absolutes

TYRANNY

Judeo-Christian Theism

(Moral Absolutes)

All Men Created Equal

Endowed by God w/Unalienable Rights

FREEDOM

Tolerance

• Moral people must be intolerant of lies, evil, injustice, and hideousness

• Moral relativists tolerate lies, evil, injustice, and hideousness

For Freedom to Prevail

• The founders of the USA understood that one belief system created the conditions for FREEDOM

• Public policy based on Judeo-Christian Theism led to freedom of religion for all people and to civil rights – moral freedom

• Public policy based on Atheistic belief system leads to freedom from religion – TYRANNY – immoral imperialism

What Kind of Nation

• One nation under God

• God referenced as source of our liberty

• Legal code based on Ten Commandments

• Prayer in public life

• Judeo-Christian Nation

• One nation under man

• Enlightenment is source of freedom

• Legal code based on tyranny of the courts

• Prayer and Ten Commandments removed from public life

• Secular Nation

Freedom: Human Rights

Key Elements of the Framework

• The rights are inalienable – established by the Creator

• The sanctity of each and all human life• The dignity of women• The sinfulness of humankind – thus limited

government• Human freedom and responsibility• The universe is moral and thus the need

for justice

Basic Civil Liberties

• Freedom of religion – or conscience (the foundational liberty)

• Right to life

• Freedom of speech (and the press)

• Freedom of association (and assembly)

• Equal protection of the law (and due process)

It Took “Religion”

Testimonies

Historic

President John Adams “We have no government armed

with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion.  Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people.  It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other” [emphasis mine].

Oct.11, 1798 Address to the military

Thomas Jefferson "God who gave us life gave us

liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure if we have removed their only firm basis; a conviction in the minds of men that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever."

Noah Webster

“The Christian religion ought to be received, and maintained with firm and cordial support. It is the real source of all genuine republican principles. It teaches the equality of men as to rights and duties; and while it forbids all oppression, it commands due subordination to law and rulers… The religion of Christ and his apostles, in its primitive simplicity and purity, unencumbered with the trappings of power and the pomp of ceremonies, is the surest basis of a republican government.”

History of the United States1832

TestimoniesPresent

“For centuries [the Bible] has exerted an unrivaled influence on American culture, politics, and social life. Now historians are discovering that the Bible, perhaps even more than the Constitution, is our founding document: the source of the powerful myth of the United States as a special, sacred nation, a people called by God to establish a model society, a beacon to the world” [emphasis mine].

Woodward and GatesHow the Bible Made America

“Ours is a country deliberately founded on a good idea. That good idea combines a commitment to man’s inalienable rights with the Calvinist belief in an ultimate moral right and sinful man’s obligation to do good. These articles of faith, embodied in the Declaration of Independence and in the Constitution, literally govern our lives today.”

Looking to Its Roots

Religion in American Public Life

“The single most influential cultural force at work in the new nation was the combination of religious beliefs and social attitudes known as Puritanism. At the time of the Revolution, at least 75 percent of American citizens had grown up in families espousing some form of Puritanism. Among the remainder, more than half had roots in related traditions of European Calvinism…”

James ReichleyThe Brookings Institute

International

Testimonies

Alexis de Tocqueville

• 1805-1859• French statesman,

historian and social philosopher

• Toured America in 1831

• Published Democracy In America in 1835, 1840

Jürgen Habermas

Christianity, and nothing else, is the ultimate foundation of liberty, conscience, human rights, and democracy, the benchmarks of Western civilization. To this day, we have no other options [than Christianity]. We continue to nourish ourselves from this source. Everything else is postmodern chatter” [emphasis mine].

German Social PhilosopherA Time of Transition, 2004

Chinese Scholars

“One of the things we [Chinese scholars] were asked to look into was what accounted for the success, in fact the pre-eminence of the West [America] over the world. We studied everything we could from the historical, political, economic, and cultural perspective.”

Dr. WuChinese Academy of Social Science

Not Any Religion Will Do!

Only Christianity

“The modern world arose only in Christian societies. Not in Islam. Not in Asia. Not in a ‘secular’ society – there have been none.”

• Rodney Stark• Professor Sociology of

Religion• Baylor University

Atheism Is an Insufficient Foundation for Freedom

Atheistic Freedom Is an Oxymoron

Atheism Values:

Survival of

the Fittest!Herbert Spencer

English Philosopher

“Only the fittest organisms will prevail!"

Social Darwinism

Atheism’s Value = Power

“… I think 'nature red in tooth and claw' sums up our modern understanding of natural selection admirably.”

Richard DawkinsThe Selfish Gene

Reflection

• What have you learned about what brings about the health of a nation?

• How will you realign your life and priorities to begin to be a nation builder?