Without God's influence, there is only hell on earth

Wednesday, March 29, 2006

I was intrigued by Terry Libby's letter (March 18) about why people commit violence.

"Violence was one of our ancestors' major tools of survival... We inherited our violent capacities from the animal world...directly from our ancestors." "Religion is partly an expression of human nature. A sort of magnifying glass that causes, intensifies or aggravates the brain's neurotic tendencies... The world is full of violence because its religious manias are based on the mentalities of ancient barbarians."

It sounds to me like someone has been reading the atheist philosophers of the past. It was Karl Marx who said, "religion is the opium of the people."

So what is the answer to world violence? Libby says, "Heck, that's easy -- Me. De-brainwash (people) from the lies and delusions of the myth-pushers, and I promise, more world 'peace' will follow."

Really? We have centuries of history that demonstrate the opposite. While Christianity has its punctuations of violence, those dots are mere pinpricks against the complete backdrop of the Christian faith. Christianity mitigates and decries the worst of man's nature whereas atheism provokes it and energizes it.

Atheism has at its core, a license and a history of violence.

In the absence of a supreme being, there is no one and no reason to mitigate wicked behavior.

In reality, the history of atheistic despotism illustrates the absurdity of world peace as the expected outcome.

You think there's violence in the world now; remove all influence of God and what you're left with is hell on earth.

Bill Cripe

Waterville

pb@fefchurch.org