The War Room

CHAVEZ AND THE FALLACY OF ATHEISTIC GOVERNMENT

I am not at all surprised at how a dictator like Hugo Chavez would hold Catholic bishops, cardinals and priests in utter contempt.

Stories like this, where we find out that,

President Hugo Chavez called a cardinal from Honduras an "imperialist clown" after the Roman Catholic prelate warned of increasing authoritarianism under the Venezuelan leader.

and

"Catholic leaders in this South American country have warned of alleged threats to individual freedoms under Chavez's administration and criticized his plans for a sweeping constitutional reform to transform Venezuela into a socialist state."

Of course Cardinal Rodriguez Maradiaga is considered a moderate in the Catholic Church but the contempt with which Chavez holds him is not surprising. In the past few months we have witnessed increasing personal freedoms being curtailed by Chavez. Whether it is the

shutting down of TV stations critical of him;

lying about political opponents;

putting up a Che Guevara monument in a formerly Catholic hospital;

economic reforms that hurt prosperity of the individual;

or saying he will kick out foreigners who question him, Chavez is a true monster in the making.

I write this post to again show the philosophical link between atheism and a Marxist dictatorship. At this point in history, atheism is very fashionable. Books by Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens and many others are on the best seller lists and atheism is even becoming a trendy beleif among many conservatives, even here on the Blogging Tories.

Am I saying atheists are bad people? Of course not.

What I am saying is that philosophically, communism is the economic system of atheism. Equality is something that most human beings desire. But we all have different philosophies and define it differently. Once one eliminates the existance of God as the measure against which equality is determined, all one has is the rules and law of man.

But the rules and laws of man are not constant. They always change. What is considered a right by one culture is a heresy in another. What is a right for one generation is considered illegal and immoral by the next. If all one has is the rule of man there is no 'truth'. That is when tyranny can enter the door.

It is no coincidence that the most democratic nation on the face of the earth is arguably the one most influenced by the existence of God.

That is not to say all higher power influenced states are good or desirable. Obviously, parts of the middle east are a testament to that.

But, atheists need to be reminded that the philosophy of atheistic inspired communism has led to more death, horror, and genocide on the planet earth in the past 100 years than Christianity, Catholicism, Islam, capitalism and America combined in 2000. That's not a track record to be particulary proud of and that is why the Hitchens and Dawkins arguments are sophistry at best and child-like at worst.

Again, does that mean atheists are bad people. No. But we should never allow atheists to allow their vision of equality to superceed that of one based on the existence of God. That is where we are perilously close to in the West.

But what of the libertarian, socially liberal but fiscally conservative atheist?

Your system is inadequate. Libertarianism is worthy in small select doses (ie. free speech) but as a complete philosophy, it is equally as flawed as socialism and ususally opens the door to it. It assumes all people's belief systems are the same and everyone has everyone else's best interests at heart. That is the only way it works. Which is to say it does not work at all and is little better than socialism. The atheist libertarian fails to consider that one persons 'right to do something' will inevitably interfere with someone else's 'right from' doing something.

Libertarian atheists rarely address issues of culture, persuasion and cause and effect. Indeed, one could very well argue that it was the lack of faith in a higher power and belief in the rule of man's ever changing philosophy of secular equality that allowed Canada and the Conservative Party to drift so far left in the past two decades.

Libertarians will argue that they are all about responsibility. Really? I can find many libertarian atheists who will argue for complete freedom in terms of market and sexuality. I rarely if ever find one who will defend freedom of religion on a cases per case basis or the right of someone not to be exploited by a corporation.

And please, spare me the 'we are people of science' routine. A person who is employed as a scientist is a person of science. Other than that, you are following fashion, ideology and trend. In order for an atheist to say for certain there is no God, they would have to read every argument in favour of God that has ever existed. Beyond that, they are equally motivated by faith and guilty of lazy thinking.

If you know any atheists that have read as much, please let me know. I'd love to meet them.

posted by Nicol DuMoulin @ 11:27 AM