Many atheists today are embracing the fact that their worldview cannot support the existence of objective morality, purpose, or meaning. When objective morality, purpose, and meaning do not exist, that frees the individual to create their own morality, purpose, and meaning without the threat of judgment or damnation based upon their choices.
For the atheist, in a sense, this is quite freeing. It allows anyone and everyone to do whatever they want without any guilt or social discomfort. The freedom to do what one wants without limits opens up a world of possibilities that many have never even dreamed.
With the murder of George Floyd, America is going through yet another devastating national event that has triggered emotions and violence rather than unity, comfort, and perseverance. Racial division and tribalism in America has long been perpetuated by those who stand to gain from America's division and unrest. As a result, so many Americans are tired of having their motives and hearts assumed to be evil because of the evil actions of a relatively few guilty people that happen to match their same physical description. It seems that this scourge has been on the rise in America. It is time that Americans come together to weep with those who weep and mourn with those who mourn while we reason a way through the current devastation and towards a reconciled and healed future. If we do not, this great nation will fall, and we have only ourselves and our pride to blame.
October 3rd 2019 saw an incredible event take place in the state of Texas. As the sentencing of former police officer, Amber Guyger for the murder of Botham Jean took place, the brother of Botham, Brandt, extended forgiveness to the convicted murderer. He explained that he loved her and wanted the best for her. He invited her to seek forgiveness from God and, to the surprise of everyone in the courtroom, he asked the judge if he could give her a hug. To say that the scene was "powerful to witness" would be an understatement. You can read more and see the touching video here:
This event and trial have been plagued with charges of racism, hatred, and division. But Brandt decided to break through all that to show Amber the love and forgiveness of Christ offered to everyone who will seek it. I am reminded tonight of the words of one of my favorite songs growing up on the 90s:
"We're colored people and we live in a tainted place...We've got a history so full of mistakes. And we are colored people who depend upon a holy grace."
If these lyrics do not sound familiar, or you are recalling them for the first time in a while and want to hear the song again, here is the original music video from dc Talk:
It is only in the Christian worldview that we find unity in this amazing colorful diversity. We are all created in the Image of God with equal and intrinsic value. We all make mistakes, mistakes with some of the most devastating and fatal impacts and consequences on our fellow human beings, but there is no mistake that is beyond the forgiveness of a loving God for those who genuinely seek His forgiveness. It is my prayer that Guyger seeks this forgiveness.
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For more on this unique features of the Christian worldview, I encourage you to check out these additional posts:
Without God, Do We All "Bleed The Same"?- Introduction
Without God, the war against racism makes no sense at all. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. grounded his fight and mission in the fact that God exists, because he knew that without God, so many foundations of such a fight are nonexistent. I was recently made aware of this beautiful song by Mandisa (featuring TobyMac and Kirk Franklin) addressing the tensions that still plague America today. Please take the time to listen, then read below to see how nothing that moved your heart in this video can be explained unless Christianity is the true worldview.
What a beautiful song that should express the heart and desire of every human. However, unless the view promoted by the song has a foundation in reality, then our emotions are merely playing a trick on us to believe that something is true and noble when those are merely illusions. There areseveral foundations that disappear if Christianity is false, but I want to focus on three today:
"The reason we are against racism is because a person's race is sacred. A person's ethnicity is sacred. You cannot violate it. My race is sacred; your race is sacred; I dare not violate it. The reason we react against the issue of homosexuality the way we do is because sexuality is sacred. You cannot violate it. How do you treat one as sacred and desacrelize the other? Sex is a sacred gift of God. I can no longer justify an aberration of it in somebody else's life than I can justify my own proclivities to go beyond my marital boundaries.
Every man here who is an able-bodied man will tell you temptation stalks you every day. Does it have anything to do with your love for your spouse? Probably not, because you can love your spouse with 100% desire to love the person, but the human body reacts to the sight entertained by the imagination and gives you all kinds of false hints that stolen waters are going to be sweeter. They are not. They leave you emptier. So a disposition or a proclivity does not justify expressing that disposition and that proclivity. That goes across the board for all sexuality.
When God created mankind and womankind, it was His plan, not our plan. It is extraordinary what He said. He said, 'It is not good for man to live alone.' Well, man wasn't living alone; God was with him. Why did He say that? He created the mystique and the majesty and the charm and the complimentary nature of womankind in a way that made it possible for her to meet his emotional needs that God, Himself, put only within her outside himself from himself in her in that complimentariness. It is a design by God." -Ravi Zacharias*
This is going to build a bit more on my previous post "Naturalism and Human Equality". Naturalism demands that all living entities be ascribed equal value.
This includes bugs and plants. Why should we ascribe greater value to humans? Why not whales, because of their size, or certain trees, because of their long life-spans? If evolution is to be used as a guide, then we must conclude that survivability is the ultimate ascription for value. We could look at survivability of an individual or of an entire species, and we still would not conclude that humans are on top, though.
