I used to be an atheist as a young collegiate, but determined to keep an open mind to find the truth whatever it was, I followed science, history, and logic to discover that the Bible was true. For that reason, I am strongly against any coercion of believers.
Believing on Christ is not necessary for living peacefully with your neighbors but it helps you do so if you really believe you will have to answer in this life and the next to a God of love that requires it.
Romans 12:18 If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.”
But an atheist can follow the laws of love better than a Christian in some cases. It’s easier for them if:
#1 They are raised in a culture with a post-Christian legacy from prior generations of respect for the neighbor (noise about the “bad” old days are greatly exaggerated)
#2 They are not raised in a pagan culture like pre-Christian cultures (Even Charles Darwin rebuked an anti-Christian comment in a British paper, explaining how ALL world travelers having to drop anchor off a remote Pacific island felt relief if they saw a steeple of a Christian church. “Whew! We won’t BE dinner tonight”.)
#3 They were NOT raised under an oppressive dictatorship of official atheist government and without clandestine Christian influence. A former fellow employee of mine had helped the Ukraine transition to more of a free market economy. The Russian mafia was much more ruthless than the gangs from other places because they were trained in godless atheism.
Now with the decline of Christianity and the other monotheistic beliefs in the West we already see a decline in the respect for earthly life. Christians are more likely to be pro-life not because of their “religion” directly, but because the philosophy of respect for life is external to their own determinations. It’s much harder to commit prenatal infanticide if you know you are accountable to a real God, it’s easier if you can make up what’s good in your own eyes. When you already believe in a real God you can’t see with your eyes but you know he exists the same way you know that the invisible wind is something real, then it’s harder to claim a baby that looks the same outside and inside the womb is not a baby if you can’t see it, or it’s not breathing.
If you love someone, you don’t always do what they ask for so they’ll feel better about themselves. Proverbs 27:6 says ” Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.” The foremost champions of aiding self-euthanasia, assisted suicide, they know it is no help to the victim. Anybody who is sick, if you love them you will seek to build their morale, you won’t affirm their desires to die. When I was a teen I told my uncle I wanted to die and he encouraged me. Later on he tried it himself, but failed, and shortly after that he married a very good lady that loved him and raised children with him, including a beautiful daughter.
The main problem in at least the majority of cases is the interference of government in such highly personal decisions. I don’t want my family to spend millions or even tens of thousands on me if I get to need such huge treatment just to stay alive, but err on the side of life, always. If the government does not pay for such treatments there would be fewer chances for controversy. I do not have the right to take your money, even if it’s tax money, even if it’s deceitful fiat currency, for my million-dollar treatment.
But actively causing my own death? Don’t think so. Actively assisting my wife to die. No way Jose!
But these are only examples of where the rubber meets the road, and where a post-Christian society starts breaking down into a society that has less respect for life.
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- Tweeting Faith (newevangelizers.com)
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