By Jay Lindsay
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 03.18.2009
http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/hourlyupdate/284883.php
Greg Epstein, the humanist chaplain at Harvard University, is building a God-free model of community that he hopes helps humanists increase in numbers and influence.
Definitions of humanism vary. Generally, humanists reject belief in the supernatural and are guided by reason, experience and compassion for others. Epstein defines the philosophy as a commitment to living ethical, personally fulfilling lives while serving the greater good.
“I think it’s reassuring to all of us to know that we’re there for each other and there’s other examples of people doing it and their kids seem to be turning out OK,” Acosta said.
“At the heart of the humanist project is deep individualism,” Lints said. “It’s always going to be difficult to sustain a real robust community.”
If there is any question as to why this country is falling apart and the world is going to hell, I think this story answers that question.
I don't know if you have studied the books of the Old Testament, especially the books of 1, 2 Kings chronicling the end of the Jewish empire (and in my opinion, a foreshadowing of the end of the world), but there were pendulum swings of belief and unbelief through the generations, each time, the pendulum swung away from God a little more, and a little more. Each time, God punishes that generation, they repent and come back to belief, then fall away again....just to repeat the cycle once more...
The question that worries me, is how far has our pendulum swung? How much have we left the Judeo-Christian history and moral values that our country was founded on. It is no surprise that when the Founding Fathers of the US sat and wrote out the Constitution, they based it's use by a Christian society. John Adams stated, "We have no government armed in power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Our Constitution was made only for a religious and moral people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other."
The trend right now is to be 'religious' without necessarily belonging or practicing a specific religion. Is that truly being religious? Webster's says religious is:relating to or manifesting faithful devotion to an acknowledged ultimate reality or deity Would you consider Nancy Pelosi's pro-abortion stance a manifesting of a faithful devotion to the Catholic faith? Pres. Obama's stance on stem-cell research from embryonic 'tissue' relating devotion to a deity?
Folks, I believe we are in trouble. When this is the morality base used to operate the functions of the Constitution, the Constitution will fail. Just like the Jews of old, we will find that when we turn our backs on God, sometimes he turns his back on us.
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