Sunday, September 10, 2006

The Consequenses of Ideas

What are the topics that you aren't supposed to discuss in polite society? Politics, and Religion. This really comes down to avoiding confrontation by avoiding topics that really effect your life. How you view God is the most foundational belief in a person's life, and resounds throughout every other belief and action that you take. If God is viewed as the creator of all, with ultimate power and authority, we cannot help but be filled with the hope of salvation, or the dread of punishment. If you believe that man is the measure of all things, and that God does not exist, than what hope is there in life?

Believing that God is the Creator of the universe leads to the belief that, since the world is created and defined, it is possible to understand. It leads to the belief that if a Supreme Being designed Man to have a conscience, then he designed a right and a wrong for Man to follow. It leads to the belief that we have a purpose in life, that this life is not all there is, and that what we do really does matter.

Believing that there is no God, that man is the measure of all things, naturally leads to a view of the world where everything is chaotic. If the world came about by chance, what hope do we have in understanding it? If Man is only an animal, what use is there is right and wrong, except as a means to an end? If this life is all there is, why should we care what we do? If there are no consequences to our action beyond what other people do to us, should we not try to get as much pleasure out of life as possible? If we are only here by chance, what meaning is there in life? What value is there in life? If man is the measure of all things, everything truly is vanity.

This fundamental belief about who God is is not a discussion that should be ignored. It is the most important belief you could hold. While this discussion must be entered into with wisdom, it should not be avoided simply to avoid confrontation. The consequences of this single belief resonate through your entire life, even through an entire society. This single belief defines a person, a nation, a civilization. Should we not strive to spread the truth?

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