Those benign & freedom loving humanists & atheists have now turned their hostility to religious faith onto, among others, Christian parents with a new poster campaign. With great moral superiority, Christian Mums & Dads are now being told that bringing up their children in an environment of Christain belief and practise is oppressive and intellectually abusive. To be honest I hadn't noticed that our society was being taken to the dogs by hordes of havoc reeking young people with Christian values - or that NHS counselling units were filled with people from secure family backgrounds unable to function normally because they had been brought up with a sense of identity.
But of course, what is driving this campaign is not really a concern for the mental or social welfare of children - but a deep hostility to freedom of religion, a failure to recognise their own presuppositions, and an intolerant desire to impose their world-view on all others. And if that sounds a bit rich from someone with strong evangelical beliefs then let me explain...
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1. The poster above could only come from people with a real blindeness about their own belief system. Humanists & Athiests like to believe that they possess some moral and intellectual objectivity when it comes to assessing reality. That is, they think of themselves of having a vantage point that stands over all those primitive, unthinking, blinkered religious groups. They alone can see 'things' clearly - their superior reasoning has worked out what real right & wrong are, what truth is, and how the world actually works. Obviously having such exalted knowledge means that they see themselves as uniquely placed to decide what is, among many other things, best for everyone elses' children. I mean, you can't leave such matters in the hands of weak-minded religious fools.
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But Humanistic Atheism is just another belief system, just another group's analysis of the world, just another human standpoint. It is no less arrogant than any religious standpoint. Obviously because I believe my Christian analysis of the world is correct - I think the world would be better off if everyone else held it too. Likewise Humanists obviously think the world would be better off if everyone shared their take on it. So when it comes to arrogance & narrow mindedness - Humanists & Athiests have absolutely no high ground over religious people. They look at the world, they come to conclusions, they think their conclusions are right - so join the club and stop this nauseating pretence to some special objectivity.
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2. This means that Humanists (if they are honest), like religious people, want children to be brought up according, not to 'neutral values', but to their values. Are atheistic humanists really telling us that they tell their children that 'religious beliefs' are just as valid as non-religious ones, that Christianity may well be true, and that they would celebrate the possibility of their little ones becoming evangelical Christians? You see, the great indoctrination that humanists want to inculcate in all children is the belief that God is essentially a matter of indifference. Because to say to a child it doesn't matter if you believe in God or not - is to bring them up to believe that God can't matter much. Afterall there are obviously no consequences of a wrong choice that your parents feel you should be protected from. So surprise surprise most 'humanist children' grow-up not to be very religious - because they have consistently been taught the message that 'it's no big deal'.
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I wonder if Humanists believe that teaching children that racism is wrong is an abuse of their intellectual & moral rights. Surely to be consistent Humanists should say to children regarding racism, 'well some people think black people are inferior but you need to make your own mind up about that'. That Humanists (rightly) wouldn't bring children up that way is because they think that it really matters what you think about other races - because how you think about them will ultimately manifest itself in how you treat them.
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Well Christian parents, who man for man & woman for woman, have just as many brain cells, Degrees, PhDs etc, realise that if God exists (and which their intellectual & moral analysis of the world leads them to believe is the case) - then that is really really important! In fact because what we think about God will affect how we treat God (relate to Him & thus how He relates to us) then it is really important that children have guidance in such matters. Indeed not to bring up children in such a way would be the real abuse & negligence.
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See a similar post here:
6 comments:
good article Andy - saw this last night on the Chsitian Institute news feed...1 Corinthians 1 comes to mind...
I read an article somewhere (probably Gideon News) which mentioned a teenager who had been brought up in a very non-religious home. He was delighted to receive a Bible - as an act of rebellion against his upbringing.
It can backfire!
Actually, as evangelical Christians, we are different from most other religions in this respect. While we teach our children that Christianity is true, we do not teach them that they are Christians. I am always telling the children in Sunday School - "you need to think if you believe this/love Jesus etc - it's not what your mum or dad believe that matters"
Just been sent this - http://chelmsfordanglicanmainstream.blogspot.com/2009/11/public-faces-of-richard-dawkins-atheism.html
Quite amusing that the two kids in the photo are from a Christian home and have been picked out because they look free and happy.
If the children in this poster are from a Christian home, why did their Christian parents allow them to be used in this way?
Can I assume that their parents are nominal Christians and have received payment?
if so, shame on them.
Alex - the photos were bought from a stock photo site. (That's where many photos in magazines, posters, etc come from - saves the expense of your own photo shoot, and they will be bought and used by many different people.) The people who buy the pictures can use them for whatever they want. So it wasn't that the parents were specifically agreeing to their use in this particular way.
On the flip side, I use stock photos a lot in my design work. And I sometimes wonder what the beliefs of those people are, and what they would think if they knew their face was being used on Christian materials!
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