In 1971, John Lennon composed one of his more popular songs,
“Imagine,” where he asked listeners to imagine a world with no heaven, hell, or
religion:
“Imagine there's
no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today...
Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too...”
I recently saw an internet meme that celebrated this song
asking us to imagine all the supposed
benefits of a world without religion.
This is a common cant among the so-called New Atheists who, with much
noise and little sense, rail against what they see as the evils of religion,
its irrationality, and the stupidity of the deluded beliver. Against the evils of religion, the modern heathen asks us to imagine a world
with no religion, no God, no heaven, and no hell. In doing so, they think themselves
progressive, modern, and ahead of the times.
Richard Dawkins, prince of the New Atheists, along with the death of
God, proclaims that: “there is at bottom no design, no purpose, no evil, no
good, nothing but pointless indifference... We are machines for propagating DNA...” He and his followers imagine themselves to be
much ahead of their time. In reality,
they are at least a 100 years behind it.
In 1882, Fredreiche Nietsche, among the first prophets of
the modern God-is-dead movement, asked his readers to imagine a world without
God. He had his madmen proclaims God’s
death:
"Whither is God?" he
cried; "I will tell you. We have killed him---you and I. All of us
are his murderers. But how did we do this? How could we drink up the sea? Who
gave us the sponge to wipe away the entire horizon?... Is not night continually
closing in on us? Do we not need to light lanterns in the morning? Do we hear
nothing as yet of the noise of the gravediggers who are burying God? Do we
smell nothing as yet of the divine decomposition? Gods, too, decompose. God is
dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. "How shall we comfort
ourselves, the murderers of all murderers?
Seeing the modern world slaying God, Nietsche proclaimed the
advent of moral nihilism, the destruction of all meaning and value in
life. Dawkins, in imagining a world
without God, a world with no good or evil, where man was only a machine, did
nothing new. He simply argued what
others had done before him. Likewise
today, there is no need for the modern man to imagine the death of God and no
religion, others, besides Nietsche, have already imagined this world.
Dostoyevsky saw the growth of atheism in Russia and imagined
where it would lead. Like Nietsche, he
saw a world bereft of meaning and value, right and wrong. In The
Brothers Karamazov, he proclaimed that “If there is no God, then all things
are permitted.” What Dostoyevsky saw
with fear, others worked for. Josef
Stalin imagined a world with no religion.
Yet he did more than simply imagine that world, he tried to create
it. He persecuted the churches and purged his enemies. Stalin’s world without God was a world where
all things were permitted—to him.
John Lennon was wrong.
In a world without religion, there was plenty to kill for. Stalin found many reasons, as did Mao and Pol
Pot. Men have scarce needed religion to
supply a reason to kill; the lust for power, wealth, and even sex has always
provided adequate reason.
Yet, Lennon was also partly right. He was wrong in claiming that a world with no
religion would leave nothing to kill for, but he was right that in a world
without religion there would be nothing to die for. If man is just, as Dawkins says, a machine
for propogating DNA, then why die for a fellow machine. Nor can one die for freedom; no machine is
free. This is why tyrants have either
tried to control religion or to eradicate it.
Stalin knew what he was doing.
Likewise, if there is “no purpose, no evil, no good,” then how can one
die for what is right? There is no
right.
With no religion, there would be nothing to die for. As others have said, if a man has nothing
worth dying for, he has nothing worth living for. Hence the atheist Camus saw that the only
serious question was whether or not one should commit suicide. This is the world Lennon imagined; but he had no need to imagine it. Others imagined it first. Worse, others have tried, and still try, to
make such a world happen.
Great article!! Really great points logically and effectively thought out!
ReplyDeleteChrist the Lord, your Saviour walks amongst you and is the way, is the resurrection and the life. The truth of life today is the blindness of people that have been in the Lords presence without knowledge of it. It is the lack of faith and hope that prevents them from not only seeing and believing but feeling the power of The Holy presence that makes it difficult to teach and heal as has been the Lords reason for being here among you for so long. Ignorance, distrust, dishonesty, negetivety, pain, suffering, selfishness and most of all the inability to be open to the spiritual world. People perceive the external facts and not the spiritual therefore ignoring what they cant see and not even having the faith to believe in ot the will, strength or goodness in their hearts to see or notice that the grave and divinity of saviour has touched their souls. The saviour who is as human as you are and has met many and has tryed to save them all and open up their hearts but only to be disappointed. it is seen that there are few that can be saved it is of great saddness that this is the way humanity has become judgments have been made for sometime now and there is not much time for the people to save themselves as it seems people cannot be saved.
ReplyDeleteBut the Lord holds on to faith, hope, love understanding, and most of importantly forgiveness for all. But the people can only pass judgement and be forgiven if they can take responsibility for their wrongs have understanding and forgive themselves and change. Open up your hearts love deeply, be kind and respect others, be honest and loyal, and support one another and stand up against the evils of this world and stop the suffering and pain at least within yourselves. It will be the end of existence if it has not been shown that there is enough goodness, truth and love left to grant human life worthy of continuance and The Kingdom of God must do what is best for humanity and end human existense.
The evil, corruption and suffering cannot go on. there is not much time left people look into your souls see what is deep inside of you love yourselves because you are worthy of love, forgive one another and understand each other we are all humans we all make mistakes that's how we learn now its time to show that u have learnt the end of judgement is drawing near!!
You are loved and you are forgiven, now it is up to you to forgive yourselves and fill your hearts with goodness?? The Saviour has had great patience and has faith in all of you your prayers are heard but it is you that needs to hear them.