Those Damned Atheists

Those Damned Atheists

By Susan D. Harris

“O holy spirit–O heart of man!
Will you not listen, turn and bow
To that clear voice, since time began
Loud in your ears, and louder now!
Mankind, the Christ, retried–
Recrowned, recrucified;
No god for a gift, God gave us,
Mankind alone must save us.”

(Excerpt from the Harvard Class Poem, “Man,” 1908)

Philip Mauro, writing in his book, The Number of Man, The Climax of Civilization, said of the above poem:

The spirit of twentieth century intellectualism manifests itself with a distinctness leaving nothing to be desired on that score — in the Harvard Class Poem for the year 1908. This production was highly commended and widely published, in whole or in part, in the secular press. We quote…some of the stanzas, in which Satan’s creed of the Deity of Man is stated with startling distinctness, notwithstanding the obscurity which is one of the chief literary characteristics of the production.

He goes on to tell us:

This poem was oft quoted in Communist literature dispersed throughout America for decades to come.

In a 1926 edition of The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Frederick Boyd Stevenson, a reporter who interviewed everyone from Mark Twain to FDR wrote:

The American Association for the Advancement of Atheism (AAAA) is spreading its propaganda all over the United States.  It’s General Secretary, Freeman Hopwood, says that Atheistic Societies similar to the Damned Souls group at the University of Rochester will be established in many colleges throughout the country.  The Atheistic Secretary says, “Experience has shown us that a goodly percentage of the professors in the average university are atheists.

It’s no wonder that atheists in America have grown; the roots of their destructive weeds go back farther than many American’s realize.

Most people who believe in God have one question when it comes to atheists:  Why are they so passionate in proclaiming the non-existence of something? It’s contrary to human nature. Historically, man has sets out to prove that something exists, not that it doesn’t exist.

We are also not ignorant of the fact that atheism, by definition, is a religion in and of itself.

Atheists are a bitter lot, and most Christians realize that self-professed atheists are controlled by evil forces whose sole purpose is the destruction of God. Some atheists are just rebelling or looking for attention – in the same manner some people pierce or tattoo themselves. This type of behavior is usually a sign of immaturity. Not that that’s a bad thing; immaturity is simply the path to maturity. But it’s supposed to be a path we advance on, not one we get mired down in forever.

The immature voices we hear today — like the Freedom From Religion Foundation – are adults who never matured past the rebellion stage. They made headlines recently as they threatened to sue Mary’s Gourmet Diner in North Carolina for giving 15% discounts to customers who prayed before eating. While I have to admit that it did seem like a questionable business move, it’s sad that it had to be this despicable and wrongly motivated group who succeeded in forcing the diner to drop its discount.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation website is currently boasting that atheist Dan Courtney gave a “historic” invocation to open the Town Board meeting last month in Greece, NY; a suburb of Rochester. The event was covered by reporters from international media outlets due to the fact that two bitter women, Linda Stephens and Susan Galloway, took their lawsuit to the Supreme Court. They sued the Town of Greece complaining that at invocations at town board meetings, “…Some of these pastors tell you to stand up and bow your heads to pray to Jesus, and what if you don’t believe that? And if you refuse to stand up and bow your head, you stick out. It’s a coercive situation.”

Dan Courtney, who gave the first invocation in Greece after the Supreme Court ruling, is a member of the Atheist Society of Rochester. Rather fitting since it’s the same city that first spawned the “Damned Souls” Atheist Society at the University of Rochester back in the 1920’s.

Part of Courtney’s invocation stated:

We, as citizens, the beginning and the end, the alpha and the omega of our destiny, are not, as the great philosopher Immanuel Kant warned, mere means to the ends of another, but we are ends in ourselves. This basic premise, this profound idea, guides us such that we need not kneel to any king, and we need not bow to any tyrant.

He might as well have read the Harvard Class Poem from 1908 and saved himself the trouble of penning all those courageous, historic words.

The worst part for Courtney is that he condemned himself to hell with those words; but I quickly point out that he has time to repent. Unfortunately, (at least in my research), the last time someone was convicted of blasphemy in the United States was in 1928.  That was when Charles Lee Smith put a sign in his storefront that read “Evolution is true. The Bible is a Lie. God is a ghost.”

The question becomes, for people like Courtney, and Smith before him: Why do they want to aggressively strip their fellow citizens, friends and neighbors of closely held, personal beliefs that enable them to embrace a faith that carries them through life’s darkest hours? The answer can only be that they are driven by the same force that Saul Alinsky worshipped:

…The very first radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment and did it so effectively that he at least won his own kingdom – Lucifer.

I recently wrote an article supporting some of Ann Coulter’s points in a column where she asked, “Why can’t anyone serve Christ in America anymore? America, the most powerful, influential nation on Earth, is merely in a pitched battle for its soul.”

If you don’t believe it, look around. More and more people are calling themselves atheists, freethinkers, secularists, humanists, and other interchangeable monikers that simply mean they are fighting God with every fabric of their being. And right now in America, they have the upper hand, the intimidation skills, and increasingly the judicial system for support. I ask you, “What fellowship has the light with darkness?” We are unequally yoked together with unbelievers and it is a burden we cannot long sustain.

Christians are keeping their God quietly tucked in their hearts while simultaneously tiptoeing away from their beliefs in public. Rev. Franklin Graham recently told a Watchmen on the Wall gathering that “Heaven is not for cowards.” He told the clergy attending that they must not stop naming the sins of abortion and homosexuality for fear of losing their 501c3 status. We can only hope that those who heard will heed his warnings.

Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour… (1 Peter 5:8)

The time may be fast approaching when you will be tempted to deny Christ or his teachings to protect life and property. You may do so audibly or with condoning silence…just remember both will be equal before God.

Originally Published in Freedom Outpost