Expressing support for a God-based worldview
Hey savvy news reader! Thanks for choosing local.
You are now reading
1 of 3 free articles.
Editor,
The fallacy of multiple legitimate belief systems was adroitly addressed by Al Onsager. Yes, while there are innumerable worldviews, they quickly reduce to just two – one with a transcendent first cause (God) and the other without such. This is the great divide with dramatically differing outcomes.
Consider the atheistic, materialist former Russian empire and its many surrogates in the eastern bloc, North Korea, etc. While estimates vary, most would put the deaths from these godless regimes at 100 million souls in the 20th century — through deportation, labor camps, torture and purges.
Nobel laureate, author, philosopher and Russian dissident, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who spent eight years in the Gulags and three years in exile, explained how the Russian revolution and the leftist takeover were facilitated by an atheistic mentality. “It was a long process of secularization which alienated the people from God and traditional Christian morality and beliefs.” His summary conclusion: men have forgotten God; that’s why all this has happened. (May 1983).
Contrast this with a theistic worldview as expressed in the Declaration of Independence. “We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions …” And the document ends with, “And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.” Never in world history has a nation been blessed with so much prosperity and freedom for so long a time.
When Alex Tocqueville, sociologist and political thinker visited American in 1831, he was intrigued by the energy, prosperity and blessing upon this country. His conclusion: America was great because it was good, and that stemmed from its Christian faith. Yes, basic worldviews are two, and they do have divergent and long-lasting consequences.
Rolan Becker
Ronan
