Our culture is one in which its participants agree that love is a supreme or (the) supreme good.

Our culture is one in which its participants agree that love is a supreme or (the) supreme good. “Love is all you need.”  Life is nothing without it, we must have it. At the same time, however, we are conscious of terrible failure in love. Love often lets us down. Love breaks hearts. If love is so good, how come we get it so terribly wrong?     It might be that since God has been dismissed as an ‘unnecessary hypothesis,’  the only love ideal we can appeal to is our own wants and feelings. If man is himself his own truth, then we are left with the impossible situation where individuals, looking for love, are locked out on the basis of their conflicting and mutually exclusive wants and feelings.   

If love is to be real in any an ultimate sense, it must exist in God who defines its true nature.  The way to experience love is to know God; the God revealed by Jesus Christ.

It is said of theists, that they are trying to escape from reality; God is a crutch for their fancy.

It is said of theists (persons who believe in God) that they are trying to escape from reality; God is a crutch for their fancy. Scientific progress has strengthened many atheists in this opinion. It is said that science deals in facts, not fancies. Because God cannot be tested by the experimental method; because he cannot be captured in a test-tube, this does not prove his non-existence. Can honesty, courage, love be tested in a laboratory? Most people agree that these virtues are real—yet they are not subject to empirical examination. In recent times, even science is faced with phenomena that are factual, but which escape normal observation. They are intangible.  Does this mean they are fanciful?  That God is not accessible by means of research instruments does not preclude his existence as a fact.  

G. K. Chesterton wrote that if a highly crafted key was found in a desert somewhere,

G. K. Chesterton wrote that if a highly crafted key was found in a desert somewhere, and afterwards it was found to fit a particular lock, that would be reason to suppose that the key in question was made to fit that lock. 

If a set of ten laws, written down 3000 years ago for a bunch of nomads, is to this day accepted as being universally valid within and without Christianity, it might well be supposed that they are more than just a random set of ideas. Rather, it might well be deduced that the Ten Commandments are brilliant statement of the minimum conditions upon which any civilized human society can function.

Science can demonstrate that the physical universe is made in one particular way, and not in another. The Ten Commandments propose that Man is made to live in society in one particular way, and not in another; that personal beings are responsible to a personal author of the universe.

Atheistic world views that retain an optimistic view

Atheistic world views that retain an optimistic view of the future of the human race must defend their assumptions from within the assumptions of a Christian base. The Biblical world view gave rise to notions of the possibility of human progress, the essential rationality of man and the necessity for a moral basis of society. That man will be able to overcome his situation and build a better world is built on Christian assumptions. As Christian faith and Western culture have become slowly more and more estranged, this anomalous situation remains: the modern secular mindset wishes to reject a past which shaped it, to which it is indebted.

Malcolm Muggeridge was a British journalist for above 50 years.

Malcolm Muggeridge was a British journalist for above 50 years. He is well-known for his observation: “If God is dead someone else is going to have to take his place. Who, or whatever it is, will either be a mad warrior, or erotic maniac; a ruler either drunk on power or on pleasure.” Muggeridge went on to say that humanity has lost its moral center; its moral reference point, and has taken no account of the most verifiable aspect of our experience—namely: human depravity.

Many celebrate society’s drift away from Theo centrism. But conditions in homes and streets do not yet attest that this has been a good move for mankind.  Freedom from God has not yet produced men and women who are better; more compassionate, more true, more courageous, more peaceful, patient, kind and loving.  What have we done!?

The value of love in human life is universally acknowledged.

The value of love in human life is universally acknowledged. Yet love clearly means different things to different people. Some talk of living for their car or their dog or their smart-phone.  Many think of sexual activity when they speak of love.  Many feel that love of spouse or of family is the truest form that love can take. Others argue that homosexual love is equally valid, and there are pedophiles who insist on the same legitimacy.

If in the twenty-first century, love is different things to different people—and that is the best definition we can come up with for something we think is so important—love is clearly in trouble. Something that means anything you want it mean ends up with no meaning at all.

If love, like humanity itself, has its existence in chance, how can it have any ultimate significance?  But if love originates in an eternal person who authored the universe, we are not adrift; love comes from that which always was, and always will be.

Law and Order

‘Law and order’ is an evergreen election slogan that reflects a superficial attitude to law. We all want the protections and advantages of the law, but frequently the law itself is used by citizens—criminals included—to evade the law's claims. Such widespread ambivalence with regard to law, amounts to ‘law and order’ as long as it means getting my own way!

This view of law goes back as far as Roman times when law meant state law, which helped keep people under control.  In Jewish thought, state law is secondary to the law of God. Civil regulations and ordinances are always a reflection and an approximation of the divine will.  Jesus showed that peace on earth and good will to all men can never be realized upon the foundation of any establishment law. These have their place, but they need to be surpassed by ceaseless effort to realize the magnificent ideal to which they point.

Jesus claimed to truthfully reveal God.

Jesus claimed to truthfully reveal God. He called God Father, and himself, God’s Son. If this is true and God is like Jesus, there is an objective standard for men and women to strive for and live up to. If God does not exist—or if there is a god, but one not at all like Jesus Christ—humans must look to themselves as the ultimate measure of all truth and value.

It is legitimate to ask questions such as:  When people arrange their behavior according to the teaching and example of Jesus Christ, are their lives enhanced and promoted, or are they disfigured and damaged?  When society is organized on the premise of the non-existence of God, does this create more liberty, more justice, more creativity and more refined moral ideals?