ACLU Today

In 1947 the campaign to end any acknowledgment of God in society began in earnest by the ACLU.  The Scopes Monkey Trail of the 1920's was largely a circus orchestrated by the ACLU as a warm-up.  They conceived and fabricated a supposed conflict in a little town in Tennessee pitting evolution and God against one another.  The aggrieved star of the show was talked into claiming that he was in trouble for teaching evolution, although that turned out to be a sham.  The public loved it and the press made a big deal of it.  Former Vice-President and liberal campaigner for agrarian causes, William Jennings Bryant was chosen as the stooge that was set up.  He was famous for his orations and took the stand answering questions on a par with "have you stopped beating your wife?"  Bryant had a heart attack and died as a result of the trial.  The other star of the show was Clarence Darrow, a successful lawyer.  The transcripts of the trial and the actual attitude of the people reveal that rather than being mean spirited Neanderthals standing against the progress of mankind, the truth is that the trial was a kangeroo court manipulated by the calculated antics of the ACLU so political and social goals were being showcased at the expense of truth, the truth about what actually transpired.  The famous reporter H. L. Mencken covered the trial and took in the whole thing and reported from the attitude that the Bible is nothing more than fables.  Spencer Tracy starred in the movie, Inherit the Wind, in which reason and science trumped the dangerous and backward "Bible thumpers."  A legend was made.  People with little mind and a lot of time fret over the dangers of Christians doing something dangerous such as sending extra money to missionaries somewhere.  There is the fear we might actually be reading our Bibles in our spare time and thinking anti-evolutionary thoughts.

Establishing people who believe the Bible to be true as unreasoning and ignorant set the stage for the push to rid the country of normative historical Christianity.  As a Geologist and a Christian the trial is of some interest aside from the political fallout.  I do not think that evolution is the real story on the origin of species and in fact is only useful in gaining some order out of the fossil record.  The major accomplishment of the theory of Charles Darwin was to settle the argument between gradualists and catastrophists.  Had catastrophism won the day early on in scientific investigation of the fossil record it may have put a slant on perceptions that would have hampered the classification and understanding gained of the fossil record.  When the Monkey Trial was taking place there were theologians considered to be Fundamentalists in the original sense of the word that had no trouble with the earth being older than 6,000 years or 6,000 million years based on the Bible.  They were a minority and have stayed that way in large part because of the fight between science and religion.  Their chief defect according to science became the fact that even those who championed the "gap theory" still believed the Bible to be true and would not give up on the idea that God created the universe.  In a way all of that hardly matters except on a personal basis, God is still in charge and someday we will know more of the details.  It does matter that Christians became irrelevant to educators.  I was taught in high school that the Bible was written by ignorant people for ignorant people and while it has its place, it had no relevance to me.  I do not subscribe to Creation Science as I understand it.  A petrologist that I published as a junior author under was roommates with a Creation Scientist who had some funny ideas about how vast quantities of coal deposits happened to appear in the rock record.  The petrologist was not a Creation Scientist and had little to say about his former roommate.  I believe that the Bible is true, every bit of it.  I believe that not because it gets people off my back, but because I think it is true.

The overall effect of the push to rid society of Christianity as having a voice has slowly gained ground over the years.  The Nazis did a lot of things for the good of the people.  The ACLU and others who think they have a corner on knowledge are busily limiting free speech and defining free speech for Christians in a way that would never have been possible without the prejudice against Christianity.  Historically bogus claims that sound more like a page from a Soviet propaganda theorist than anything else are accepted as true on an emotional basis.  While the 20th century saw the eradication of 135 million people in the name of secular humanism, people say that Christians are responsible for all of the suffering of humanity.  Oddly the Christians are targeted as the first to go instead of the Jews in the United States although they are next in line.  The religion of science was not really anything I noticed as a scientist aside from the prejudice I encountered from time to time, but I figured that was normal.  It seemed other scientists had as much difficulty talking about Christianity to me as Christians had talking about Geology.  To me, science is the description of observable reality and the rock record just is, as it is.  It should be obvious that scientists are as far from explaining reality as the Christian is from knowing everything about the Infinite God.  Give me a break here, we are finite, mix that in with a few senior moments and I am not impressed with sweeping claims of anyone having harbored all of the knowable facts of the universe.  Scientists have nowhere to go to gain direct revelation of what might have went on in the Devonian through the Pennsylvanian systems.  Time machines have not been widely distributed if they exist and checking out several hundred million years of earth processes would be tedious anyway.  Geology as I know it produces great results but is not complete in terms of explaining all of the earth's history in detail.

Just the contemplation of Geology brings the mind into realms that have nothing to do with the supernatural in terms of data and information.  As a Christian, Geology keys me into the idea that my lifetime is an incredibly small blip compared to all of time and infinity shrinks my existence to near zero.  Metaphysics is employed to make people feel better about all of that without really taking God seriously.  The Christian relies on the fact that the Bible is the direct revelation of God to men by the Holy Spirit.  We are faced with something the scientist is not.  We have trouble believing facts when it comes to the Bible. If we really believed what we read we would act a lot better than we do.  If we really understood all that there is there to understand we would likely be smarter than we are.  The more the Holy Spirit reveals the truths of the Bible to me, the more aware I am that I have longer to go than I once thought.  The introduction of finite people like me to the Infinite is a bit overwhelming if I lose my place as I often do.  More often than not, I read a passage and understand it in a new way although it does not conflict with what I previously understood.  It is not exactly a paradox, but it is incredible to experience.  Having mankind as the measure of all things is less than honest.  Things are a lot easier to deal with if one adopts this idea.  People are allowed to be their own sovereigns and do whatever they think they can get by with and not suffer loss.  Another plus is defining reality and rewriting history if needs be to conform to that reality.  Of course, trouble looms on the horizon for the secular humanist who is not the most powerful secular humanist.  When push comes to shove acting out that scenario, sooner or later someone comes along with a bigger story and bigger stick.  In the event the secular humanist finds himself or herself to be on the receiving end of unpleasant circumstances and not in power or associated with the biggest power game, things like purges and persecution become a reality.  The most recent thought to prevent the eventuality of history repeating itself seems to be centered about sprinkling a bit of anarchistic philosophy into the new paradigm.  Maybe separatists and people who are contrarians will be allowed some space, but probably not as universally as idealists might hope.

The arguments of the secular humanists are so thin that denial and obfuscation are the best way to get their ideas across.  It is ironic that those who champion reason are so devoid of it.  I think the reason they claim it their exclusive territory is so people of faith will fail to avail themselves of it, otherwise they lose.  I know that sounds harsh in this day of political correctness that gives credit and bestows honors on people who claim to be poached eggs and expect to be taken seriously.  One wonders when the secular humanists will show their true colors, but my best guess is only when they have the power to legislate people of faith out of existence.  Christians are not known as deal makers when the stakes are our souls for eternity.  

The Romans killed a lot of people because we would not worship the Caesar as a god.  The Soviets anticipated this reaction and just killed as many Christians as fast as they could without any formalities to really write home about.  I mention the Soviets because Stalin was able to knock off about 50 million people to help smooth things along with Christians being primary targets.  The play, You Can't Take it with You, has a line in it that is funny in context with the play, but is actually a quote of Trotsky.  Leon Trotsky coined the phrase, "God is the state, the State is God".  The Soviets did not have a lot of patience or humor with Christianity or Judaism.  Lenin said some strange things that do not make much sense, but they tend to sound good in speeches.  Hitler was at pains to state that he was formulating a religion to replace Christianity and his officers were forbidden to even have a Bible on pain of death in anticipation of cleansing the world of Christianity and Judaism.  He decided to get rid of the Jews first along with Christians that really believed in Christianity.  He was the Nazi version of a folk messiah and liked Wagner.  I think it was the golden-haired maidens that might have done it had Wagner not been an anti-Semite.  But, not to worry, Wagner complimented his cult of personality that as an added bonus fit with superstitious fear and anti-Semitism.  Although understood at the time that Nazism was anathema to Christianity, the pristine secular humanists who have a lot in common with Nazis were able to equate Nazism and inhumanity with Christianity and Christians being the driving force for Aryanism.  From an analytic point of view it seems silly, but emotion is a powerful thing if manipulated the right way.  This digression allows another reason that contributes to fear mongering and a focus on science being the answer to everything with the perfect political plan answering in concert.

A lot of Christendom has been sanitized and belief in a personal God does not play well in a lot of churches.  Mainline denominations have ministers and theologians who are a little embarrassed by people who really think Jesus existed.  Taking the Bible seriously is not done anymore in some circles.  The churches that are growing in the United States are those who still believe in normative historical Christianity.  The ones that have people leaving in droves are those that soft-sell Jesus and have their doubts about God.  They seem smart to themselves and that is not really satisfying to people who know Jesus to be real.  Sooner or later people get the idea that the church that left God is not going to change and people leave.  The Episcopal Church is doing their best to get rid of people and may clear their roles of any members with a bit of luck.  Many of the people that are in charge of things accept spiritism, shamanism, and homosexuality as valid but just cannot bring themselves to think that the Bible is true or that Jesus is real.  I am being sarcastic but I know that for people in that church who are believers times are trying and heart breaking.  Odd that secular humanists like the ideas about people but cannot stand people.  Their new avatar is a homosexual Bishop who by their reckoning knows more about right and wrong than God, Jesus, and the Bible.  The thing is that he represents an idea about people and intrepid experimenters with reality that the secular humanists are, it is worth a shot to see how things turn out.  All of the smarmy emotionalism in the world does not change dolomite into limestone and I suspect it will not work by their decision to defy God either.

As humorous as it is, the secular humanists gained a lot of ground with a new self-deceit they treasure and mention as often as they can.  911 was memorable and a tragedy.  In no time at all the secular humanists found new ammunition in the war on God.  The Taliban were characterized as Islamic fundamentalists.  Christians who won't renounce Christ, God, or the Bible are seen as fundamentalists.  Christians also tend to be patriotic and care about their country as a rule.  While the elite made it plain that only the basest of churls would admit to being patriotic or loving their country and above all of that Christians were seen as being on a par with the Taliban.  As time has gone on, people who are patriotic have come under serious suspicion as being evil too.  Songs lamenting the evils of loving your country and God dote on fear-mongering lyrics that are puerile and stupid, but sound good if you are drunk and dazed at 2 a. m.  This is one reason why some performers should retire after their career has hit the trash can and they have to grasp for attention.  Michael Moore is proof that reality is no obstacle to being a buffoon and that there are a lot of brother and sister buffoons. No doubt either secular humanists congratulated these people or drunken loons affirmed the anti-Americanism of some of these people's songs and speeches at some time after 2 a. m.   Interestingly, Christians still get accused of being the American Taliban by these people.  I have yet to hear of one Sunday School class organizing and orchestrating an international plot of any sort.  Part of it could be that perfect church attendance is not something people can count on.  Sure, they show up on Easter, but what about in the middle of summer?  Turbans have fashion appeal but it seems not to center around my area and it is likely you are not going to find turbaned Christians plotting a raid on Mecca in any of my neighborhood churches.  I have taken note that of the churches I notice they all have clear parking lots after church is over.

It is a relief that only Christians care about the cause of Christ.  Think about that for a second. Sometimes I wish those who do not take Jesus seriously would join a cult and be done with it, but hope springs eternal they say.  Then again, airports would soon be clogged with pitiful looking cultists selling flowers and giving out literature.  Society has a lot to thank the secular humanists for in that regard.  They are in the business of politics and not likely to send out brainwashed members to airports.  They send them to lobby people and stir up trouble in state capitals with no visible impact on airports.