Is Religion Dangerous?
by Face at 11:12AM (PDT) on September 16, 2005
The Left in this country seems to fear religious people. This week, Senator Feinstein expressed her concern at John Roberts' Senate hearings, saying that the atrocities of the Nazis reminded her of how dangerous it is for governments to acknowledge religion. In Peter Sprigg's article, "Sen. Feinstein Plays the Nazi Card," Sprigg comments on the irony of this fear:
Sen. Feinstein's analogy actually works directly against the point she was trying to make. The Nazi regime does not illustrate the dangers of mixing religion and politics. Instead, like its evil mirror image the Soviet Union, it illustrates the dangers of stripping all claims to religious truth from the public square--leaving the state itself supreme in power, unchecked by transcendent values.
It's no coincidence that atheist governments killed over 100 million people in the last century. Sprigg notes:
Calling the United States "one nation under God" is not a statement of arrogance, as many seem to assume. It is, instead, a statement of humility--a way of acknowledging that even as "the world's only superpower," we remain under higher authority.
When the state is the ultimate authority, only power and might decide right and wrong, and the people are at the mercy of the whims of those in power. When human rights are created by the state, you can bet that, soon, some humans will be "more equal than others." Only by acknowledging a higher standard and authority--an authority to which it is ultimately accountable--can a state be kept in check. (Please note that the higher authority must be a good one. Obviously, submitting to the god of the terrorists who demands gruesome violence against nonbelievers will not help the people of any country.)
As Western governments move further toward secularism and lose the philosophical underpinnings of their current systems, you will see more and more tyranny. Unfortunately, people like Sen. Feinstein who don't see the truth of this will continue to try to prevent the oppression of Americans by eradicating all traces of religion from the public square, thereby helping to create the very society they fear.
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