“Bad Ideas”
(Note: This column was originally printed in the Fairfield Bay News, January 19, 2005. I believe it is worthwhile to be read and considered again, especially as the world today is once again beset with another set of bad ideas and beliefs leading to our peril.)
Imagine living in a counry where only one theory of economics is permitted, where all other competing theories are trashed as worthless, dismissed without examination, and – under the penalty of the law – are forbidden! This scenario actually played out in the 20th Century in the many Communist nations throughout the world. The mantra of Communism as put forth by Karl Marx – “from each according to their ability, to each according to their need” – sounded so good, so fair. This doctrine, supported by the elite intellectual class of that era, swept through much of Europe, Asia, and South America.
The world now knows after enduring the horror of this seductive idea for over 150 years, that Marxism was a very bad idea, indeed! The implementation of this ideology required the full coercion of a nation’s citizens: they worked and lived according to the mandates of the State; they were required to hand over all the fruits of their labor and receive back only what the State determined was their need. The core of Marx’s bad idea was that the life was all material, that the supernatural was meaningless, and that the true God of this world was the State. Religion was considered to be the enemy of the State and thus, needed to be persecuted and eliminated.
Marxism/ Communism not only didn’t work but worse, it generated untold suffering and destruction wherever it was pursued. Finally and mercifully, in the early 1990’s, this God-hating, despotic system collapsed and millions were set from its tyranny. Far too late, however, for the many millions of others slaughtered by their Communist masters.
Thank goodness our nation will never have to endure such a catastrophe. We would never forbid competing theories of any subject or idea in this country. Free expression of ideas is one of our most cherished freedoms. Right?
Unfortunately, the answer is No! Try this one on for size: our public schools mandate the teaching of only one theory involving the subject of biological origins – and this decreed one is Darwinian evolution. The competing theory of creationism (God directed) is banned from our schools not unlike the totalitarism style of Marxism! Efforts to include the view and arguments for creationism in textbooks and classrooms have been prohibited by school boards and courts – local, state, and federal. Some dedicated teachers have lost their jobs for attempting to add creationism to their curriculum.
No doubt, you readers- as I was – were educated in this totalitarian environment and we were brainwashed to believe that evolution is not just a theory but a fact! As a result of the coercion of this one-sided dogma, the idea that there was (is) a God – who created all life – was trashed. The evolutionary worldview which dominates our classrooms maintains that life arose by chance without direction or purpose. According to Darwinsim, God is merely a human wish created by our imagination.
The effects of adopting the evolutionary worldview, however, is not just an abstract idea having no importance or meaningful consequences. On the contrary, this view promotes man to be the supreme authority in all things, accountable to no One. It fashions ethical standards and morals that are relative and subjective, changeable according to the whims of a permissive society. This “man is just another animal” doctrine allows for such abominations as eugenics, euthanasia, abortion, genocide, and racial superiority.
Now, if Darwinian evolution were accepted as true, then the above moral distortions would be more readily acceptable, as for example, when Hitler with the approval of many of his countrymen, playing off the Darwinian teaching of racial superiority, murdered six million Jews. The belief that man is just another animal without a soul or purpose has given people permission to kill in the U.S.beginning in 1973 to now, more than 53,000,000 children in their mother’s womb! And all this and other horrors have been built on the moral quicksand of Darwinsim evolution, a theory that is riddled with falsities and is totally unproven as a fact. Unfortunately, today’s scientific and educational establishments, steeped in atheism and much like the intellectuals that supported Marx’s bad idea, control public education, and they continue to shut out God from our public forum.
The bottom line is that evolution is the religion of the atheist. And in our country this is OK. But what is not OK, is for a set of elites to dominate the minds of our young people in a totalitarian manner. This is a very bad idea with horrendous consequences!