I’ve heard it humorously said that April 1 should be called National Atheist Day, playing off of David’s Psalm 14 “The fool has said in his heart, there is no God.” I began to think about that in the light of the drama being played out in our nation, our city and in our schools where it seems that we have lost all good sense, discipline, morality and direction.
The secularist will say, we must keep God from the public forum…we must separate church from state. This too is foolish. Our founding fathers proclaimed in our Declaration of Independence that our right to exist as a nation and as free people is derived from God. God was the very foundation on which this nation was built.
Why then is it so important for secularists and atheists to ban God from the public arena? The answer is simple. If God exists, we are subject to His authority. We are obliged to follow His code of conduct, of right and wrong. There is no question as to what right and wrong is…that is all established by the Word of God, the Bible.
The profound reality is magnified with the thought, on this April Fools Day, that there is no God. The truth is, without God, nothing about which we are so concerned matters two hoots. All of the political corruption, the crime, the war, the poverty, violence against women, drug abuse, child abuse, health care, disease and death…none of this really matters. Violence in the schools, shootings in the park, robbery at the local convenience store or bank, ugly words by unrighteous ‘ministers’ in high profile churches, (did I mention corruption in politics?)…this is all now OK, as it simply exemplifies the rise, success and survival of the strong and the fit. That’s a natural law outside of the influence of God. That’s the law of evolution. If I knock you in the head and take your treasure, that’s permissible…I am stronger and I will survive. There is no right and wrong. Societal right and wrong, you say? Who cares what YOU say is right and wrong.
The very bottom line is that if you and I and the universe were not created by Almighty God, the God on whom our founding fathers based our entire nation, then you are a fluke, you are an accident of random chance, you are a jiggling, vibrating collection of mostly carbon based atoms that operate in a somewhat predictable sequence, and nothing more. Neither your mother or father, your children your friends, your entertainment, Beethoven, Shakespeare, Michael Jackson, your church…nothing you cherish has any substantial value. It’s all here today and gone tomorrow, if there is no God.
If God is on His throne, we have some serious adjusting to do if we are to survive as a city, as a nation and as individuals. The Bible refers to a people who have a form of Godliness, but deny the power thereof. If we have a powerless God, we have no God. If we have no God, the circle is once again complete.
We have National Atheist Day today; we celebrate the life of Jesus Christ tomorrow. Choose this day who you will serve.
Dr. Tom Hammett
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I read the opinion piece, "April Fools Day is National Atheist Day," by Dr. Tom Hammett. As a historian and a secular humanist I had to respond to his error filed polemic that distorts American history as well as erroneously defines what it means to live in a secular society under a Constitution and Bill of Rights that provides the freedom of conscience to every American free from government interference. There is not enough space to clarify the revisionism found in Dr. Hammett's assertions on the Founding Fathers and the establishment of our country as a "Christian Nation" but I will do my best.
The Declaration of Independence clearly asserts earthly authority, the words "Laws of Nature" are even capitalized. In addition to reading the usage of the word God in context, it is also important to understand the Declaration in its own historical context. Furthermore, Thomas Jefferson was the main author and Benjamin Franklin made the final edits to the document and both were well-known Deists. The Virginia Declaration of Rights strongly influenced Thomas Jefferson in writing the first part of the Declaration of Independence. It later provided the foundation for the Bill of Rights.
The Declaration of Independence would have been clearly recognizable as deistic at the time it was written. The Declaration did not, for example, state: "In the name of The Lord God Jesus Christ," as would have been a much more traditional reference to the Christian God in a manner that was used by Europeans at the time. The Declaration was written during the height of the Enlightenment when Deism was popular and widely known. Deistic language was easy to recognize by people of the time because Deists avoided all of the traditional references to the Christian God. When Deists referred to "God" they used terms like "Supreme Being", "Almighty Judge", "Creator", "God of Nature", "Nature's God", etc. On the other hand Christians typically used terms like "the Lord", "Jesus Christ", "God", "Savior", etc.
The reference to "Laws of Nature" is an even more direct reference to Deism, because the deistic belief was that some supreme being created the universe and the laws of nature and the rest of what progressed from that point on followed the laws of nature. Most Deists did not believe in divine intervention or supernatural occurrences, and they definitely did not believe that Jesus was the son of God. Mention of the Laws of Nature would have been an extremely obvious reference to Deism in 1776.
Dr. Hammett also confuses the biological fact of evolution with the what has been called Social Darwinism, which holds that social policy should allow the weak and unfit to fail and die, and that this is not only good policy but morally right. The only real connection between Darwinism and Social Darwinism is the name. The real source of Social Darwinism is Herbert Spencer and the tradition going back to Hobbes via Malthus, not Darwin's own writings, though Darwin gained some inspiration on the effects of population growth from Malthus.
Dr. Hammett was also confused on the "meaning of life" for those of us who are atheists, agnostics, deists, etc. He posits the stereotypical straw-man that life can hold no meaning unless there is a supernatural being that controls the universe. I know as a Historian that there is no evidence supporting the existence of any supernatural being let alone the Judeo-Christian deity of the Bible. Dr. Hammett's belief system is like a drug that distorts reality for the user/believer so they can deal with the vicissitudes of life and to explain the Universe that they cannot understand. My life and the lives of my fellow non-theists matter in this life as we know there is no afterlife. For the theist, this life is a temporary stop that is a "veil of tears" that they must endure and choose the right religious belief to gain eternal life or suffer eternal damnation. So who has more at stake to live this life to the fullest, most ethical extent possible? I submit that non-theists are the most invested in this life as we must work to make our families, communities, cities, countries and planet the best it can be for the benefit of ourselves and all humankind. We put the Humanism in Secular Humanism because we strive to attain the best possible reality for our fellow citizens including fighting for our Enlightenment based system of law bequeathed to us by our Founding Fathers who made the radical claim that our government would be by "We the People" and not under and god, gods or supernatural being. That radical notion gave us the wall of separation between religion and the government that has allowed the plethora of religious expression to prosper in our great nation.
I could go on, but hopefully in my allotted space I have made it crystal clear that Dr. Hammett's assertions are without basis in fact, in history or in practice. I hope that Dr. Hammett will invest some time in researching this important subject before making such inaccurate and misleading comments that do nothing to elevate the public discourse.
Robert Carver, MA
Jefferson, La.
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Having read both views on this subject, I submit that it takes as much blind faith to believe much of what Mr. Carver posts as it would what Dr. Hammett has stated.
It is no secret that so-called scientific evidence is about as reliable as politics. Some have even had to admit they falsified content to prove their own point of view.
I am left with the same deduction I came to years ago in my wilderness wanderings in search for truth. In all due respect, you can only say something doesn’t exist in as much as you know for yourself, Mr. Carver. You have also made false claims regarding Christians of which you obviously cannot know all of them.
I love life...every single day of it whether it be good or bad times. I, and many others like me, am not looking skyward watching for the great escape. The difference between Christians and unbelievers on that subject is that when the going does get rough, they know life doesn’t end here. For folks like yourself, when life goes downhill for the final count, you’re done.
To the confirmed unbeliever, God will never reveal himself any further than he already has. He’s left his calling card all over the universe, and it would take a willfully blinded disinterest not to see the mastery of the artist. To the seeker however, he will lovingly do so. As one writer put it, “to those who do not know God, no explanation is possible - but for those who do, no explanation is necessary.”
Karen Fink
Chattanooga
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I don't have the time to discuss all of the issues raised in these letters, but I would like to quickly address one issue raised by Mr. Carver. Mr. Carver states that, "I know as a Historian that there is no evidence supporting the existence of any supernatural being let alone the Judeo-Christian deity of the Bible." As a historian, Mr. Carver should know that there in fact is evidence supporting the existence of supernatural beings, specifically the Judeo-Christian deity of the Bible. The evidence is historic writings and texts. As with any account or occurrence that we were not first hand witnesses to, we must learn from writings left to us by those that were there present for said occurrences. We have writings from several witnesses and people that were on earth while Jesus Christ was alive. We must use our best judgment to decide what we believe.
With all things that we do not witness, we must base our judgments on the authority of those who came before us. I was not alive when Djoser initiated the building of pyramids, but I know he did because of writings and evidence that have been discovered. It is the same thing with Jesus Christ. In the Bible we have accounts of many historic acts, many of which have been proven through discoveries. While we may not be able to say for certain that Jesus performed the miracles that many people told us He did, we can take the entire body of work and draw our conclusions from the evidence presented. This happens in present day life all of the time. We draw conclusions based on witnesses and their testimony. To say that this isn't evidence is false.
One more quick point. Mr. Carver claims that Dr. Hammett belief system is like a drug that distorts reality for the "user/believer" to explain things they don't understand. From what I can tell Dr. Hammett and I have a very similar belief system, and I can honestly say my beliefs have nothing to do with a fear of the unknown. I don't believe what I believe to make myself feel better about uncertainties. There are plenty of things that I don't know, and that we as humans have yet to discover, and to assert that I believe what the Bible says because I want to distort the reality that I don't know the workings of the universe is a weak argument and offensive. It's a shallow line touted by many that think they are intellectually superior because they don't have to "rely on child's tales" to make themselves feel better. In reality, there are millions of people like myself that take the evidence presented to them, and use rational thought and logic to make the best decision that they can. You may disagree with the conclusion that I draw from the evidence presented, but attempting to boil it down to me trying to distort reality is simply false.
Tyler Fordice
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There is one God - God the Creator of all things.
Mr. Carver, the God of the Universe and Creator of all things loves you anyway and so do I.
I hope to see you on the other side someday.
Kelley G. Miller
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I'm afraid that Dr. Tom Hammett is misinformed. The atheist national holiday is the Fourth of July, when we cheer the (non-supernatural) creation of the first legally atheist nation in the world. As we have no state religion, we therefore have no state gods or goddesses.
Also, we have evolved from our secular start in a more secular direction. The only Christian aspect of our original Constitution was slavery, and the atheist president Abraham Lincoln got rid of that! Of course, Christians had to revive slavery under the name of segregation, but we got rid of that also, to the rage of large numbers of white Christians.
For those who don't know the relevant history, the legal and theoretical basis of slavery was offered in two English court rulings in 1677, both styled Butts vs. Penny, and a 1694 opinion, Gelly vs. Cleve. The judges declared, in response to challenges to the enslavement of Africans, that Christians could lawfully enslave pagans ("infidels," "heathens"). These decisions go back ultimately to passages in the Jewish scriptures that allowed the Israelites to permanently enslave non-Israelites and their descendants. Christians based their enslavement of European pagans, and later African, American Indian and Asian pagans, on these passages. By the way, "slave" comes from "Slav," because crusaders captured and sold so many pagan Slavs that their name became a synonym for forced labor.
The laws banning so-called "interracial marriages" originated as biblical prohibitions on Israelites marrying non-Israelites, and later on against Christians marrying anyone not approved by the Christian god. This included both pagans and Jews, bans enforced by countless laws from the 4th to the 20th centuries (in some places). The bans on homosexual marriages today derive from the same belief, thus creating an unconstitutional establishment of religion (religious bigotry, in this case).
"Racism" in the U.S. started as nothing less than Christian bigotry, which is why I am so grateful to live in a legally atheist nation. I celebrate every Fourth of July. Long live America the atheist!
William Sierichs Jr.
Baton Rouge, La.
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If you want to be superstitious that is your business, but when you lump atheists and fools together you have crossed the line. Never a day goes by that your superstition doesn't intrude on my life in some way and yet freedom of and from religion is a right in this country.
How would you like it if a Klingon from Star Trek came knocking on your door on a warm Spring evening and wanted to sit you down and tell you all about Kahless "the Unforgettable" and how dying in glorious battle would send you to "Sto-Vo-Kor" or else you would go to "Gre'Thor", realm of the dishonored dead, when you die.
Sounds stupid, right? What do you think your drivel sounds like to me? Perhaps you are the April Fool.
Neville Trillby
Hixson