This HuffPost Canada page is maintained as part of an online archive.

People Who Hate Religion Are Hurting Christmas

Somewhere along the way to inclusion, accommodation and tolerance, it became acceptable for the politically correct, secular, agnostic, atheistic left to demean and denigrate and disrespect those of us who believe in the Bible. East Point Academy is a publicly-funded charter school in South Carolina that runs "Operation Christmas Child" annually, encouraging children to buy gifts for the less fortunate. But the school recently received a letter from the American Humanist Association demanding the project be stopped. The letter called the school's involvement in Operation Christmas Child "unconstitutional.
This post was published on the now-closed HuffPost Contributor platform. Contributors control their own work and posted freely to our site. If you need to flag this entry as abusive, send us an email.

Somewhere along the way to inclusion, accommodation and tolerance, it became acceptable for the politically correct, secular, agnostic, atheistic left to demean and denigrate and disrespect those of us who believe in the Bible and the ethical values it teaches.

And now we have Ho Humbug Humanist Christmas.

East Point Academy is a publicly-funded charter school in South Carolina that runs "Operation Christmas Child" annually. The drive encourages children to buy gifts for the less fortunate and hopefully the children learn the importance of compassion at the same time -- a bonus. But the school recently received a letter from the American Humanist Association, a national non-profit organization with more than 20,000 members and 125,000 supporters across the country, demanding the project be stopped.

The letter called the school's involvement in Operation Christmas Child "unconstitutional." God-forbid those children learn to share -- over Christmas! Those religious fuddy-duddies!

Too many think of us who believe in God as "less than": less intelligent, less wise-irrational. That most of us have studied world religions, theology, sociology, philosophy and psychology and even have backgrounds in science has no bearing on our views. Our opinions aren't welcome because we believe in external ethics and God. So few seem to know that secular Kantian ethics, based on the categorical imperative, are the mirror image of ethical monotheism, the foundation of Western culture.

There is an ongoing attempt to muffle the opinions of those of us who believe in God while elevating secular opinions. Our opinions are somehow biased but those who are secular have no bias at all.

The Enlightenment released us from the constraints of religion by emphasizing the primacy of reason and strict scientific method. Voltaire proclaimed that the decline in religion would reduce hatred, fanaticism and savagery. "With the decline in the strength of religious creeds... there would follow a concomitant decline in human hatreds, in the urge to destroy another man" because of his religious beliefs. Over time, it was believed, one would become indifferent to religion and this indifference would lead to tolerance.

There was a pursuit of a new, rational human being, rather than one who only believed. Deism made its debut and was later followed by atheism. According to some, like the Marquis of Condorcet of France (1743-1794), man was infinitely capable of perfecting himself without the assistance of a deity. The Scottish philosopher David Hume believed that reality can be explained by science and there was no philosophical reason to believe in anything that could not be physically experienced. Paul Heinrich Dietrich, Baron d'Holbach wrote in the early 19th century; "If the ignorance of nations gave birth to the Gods, the knowledge of nature is calculated to destroy them." By the late 19th century, early 20th century, the theories of Freud, Nietzsche and Marx were devoid of God.

The Enlightenment was the prelude to the greatest century of atrocity in history. Worshipping science without some restraints led to the pseudo-science of Hitler's Germany, a country populated with intellectuals, philosophers and scientists, a country steeped in the revelations of the Enlightenment. It was in this environment that humans were able to manipulate the meaning of being human and those who did not fit the paradigm were fodder for the furnaces, along with all the other trash.

Too many today idolize secularism. Human beings see themselves as capable of using reason to solve problems. We don't need external values and morals placed on us. Except human beings are imperfect and there is within us a drive for power with an inability to put on the breaks. History tells us over and over that human beings abuse power. Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Pol Pot, Mathieu Ngirumpatse and Edouard Karemera(Rwanda). Kant warned that "Human nature is understood to be composed of selfish natural appetites." Civilization is only skin deep; a thin veneer covering the barbarian within.

We have not evolved to the point where we can each of us trust our own "common sense." We have not come to a place where we have internalized morals, values and ethics that override our instinctual, baser desires.

In the meantime, instead of taking away the pleasure of giving to others because humanists don't like the idea of mixing religion and education, or want to teach those little rug rats the importance of caring during a festive season that honours the Christian part of the Judeo-Christian ethic, the foundation of Western culture, let's share with our Christian neighbours the joy of the season and say together:

Merry Christmas.

ALSO ON HUFFPOST:

Ruchie Shainhouse

Religious Millennials

Close
This HuffPost Canada page is maintained as part of an online archive. If you have questions or concerns, please check our FAQ or contact support@huffpost.com.