Our Barbara Kay wrote a short rebuke to an Op/Ed in this past weekend’s National Post (apart from her regular weekly column, posted here as usual—and it’s a great column somewhat related to this rebuke piece—perhaps the seeds were sewn here).
The Op/Ed was written by a John Moore, a devout atheist, who is apparently on the latest trendy pop-culture bandwagon, which is to promote atheism and demote God at all costs.
But as a general matter, as John Moore and others quickly learn, it’s never a good idea to cross people of religious fortitude who are also so amply endowed with phenomenal intellect —and a pen —as, for example, our Barbara Kay.
Here’s part of her brilliant response, printed Saturday in the NP (read the full piece here—it’s short):
[…]
John quite rightly affirms that one needn’t believe in God to be a humanitarian or a lover of culture. Of course not, in exactly the same way that the great grandchild of a multi-millionaire who has set up a wonderful trust fund has no need to worry about paying his rent. It was the original capital that provided the revenues. Atheists committed to morality and social justice are simply people who chose not to grow the equity, but to live off the returns of the beliefs of their forebears.
The greatest aesthetic achievements of Western civilization—music, art, architecture, writing—not to mention our entire legal system, sprang from feelings of awe at the miracle of life, a belief that man was made in the image of God. It would be very difficult to find any humanitarian of achievement—and in fact the one John cites, June Callwood is a prime example—who did not grow up in a household that was itself inhabited by the rubrics and ideals of a religion.
I know many atheists who are passionate advocates for social justice. In every case they grew up in homes drenched in the morality and ideals of Judaism or Christianity.
In a related matter, I found it fantastic that according to Matt Drudge, the latest book sales tally confims that Pope Benedict XVI’s Jesus of Nazareth scans 14,555 for the week, while arrogant elitist liberal Christopher Hitchens’ God is Not Great scans fewer, at 13,931. Of course the Bible is the “biggest seller” of all books of all time. It’s still in print.
I’ll also take the opportunity to promote a great book for atheists and Christians alike: “I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist” by Norman Geisler and Frank Turek.
Thanks John.
PTBC was founded by Mr. Johannesen in 2000.
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