Pratt: Collective ignorance is indeed dangerous
“Be wary of a society that encourages individuals to be the god of their own lives.
These mini-gods may scream “tolerance” and “love” at the top of their lungs, but those are tender terms, hollow in meaning if there is nothing greater than ourselves. (The greater thing for Christians is the being of Christ)
Behind a mask of tolerance and love are people demanding to be allowed to serve none but themselves, free of guilt and consequence. After all, they are their own god, their own conscience, their own arbitrator of right and wrong.”
This was my message from Addison, my youngest granddaughter a couple of weeks ago to my suggestion that she be my guest columnist.
If we just weren’t so busy, what a storm we might stir as we discuss our varied opinions about our annoyance with an ancient search for freedom many in our relatively free nation seem determined to destroy.
Collective ignorance is indeed dangerous. Our culpability in promoting such ignorance is deadly. We have only to study history to note how far we have drifted from the ideals that empowered a unique variety of people to come together and design a government “of the people, for the people, by the people.”
That it was not “perfect” in its practice is no surprise because none of us is perfect. Our forefathers differed widely in who they were, what they knew and what they expected of this newly designed system that would release them from the rule of royalty.
What would be funny if it were not so serious is that human nature does not want to be ruled by royalty but still struggles with the desire to be royalty through power over others. In truth, this is a spiritual struggle at a time when faith in God appears dismissed if it does not deliver our desire for dominance.
In the Acts of the Apostles, post-Resurrection, two of the most well-known followers of Jesus were brought before the religious authorities for their preaching and healing ministry. They had publicly healed a crippled man in the name of Jesus.
Politically, it seemed dangerous to imprison the pair when the crowd was praising God for the miracle they too, had witnessed so they let them go. Read that incident, including the prayer that begins “Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his Anointed one.“(Acts 4:20-25 NIV) Sounds current, doesn’t it?
But there will become a time, the biblical story tells us, when God no longer tolerates or strives with the evil of mankind. That story is in the book titled “Revelation,” but it is also a topic of the prophets such as Isaiah in what Christians refer to as the Old Testament, the Jewish Torah.
I smile in memory and wish I could talk today to my dad, who loved the sciences, history, geography and the Bible, remembering everything he ever read, including the scientific commentary that was spurred in his century by conversations about the “how” of Creation.
I thought of him Friday, when I read the headline and story “Scientists study magnetic field found in 'expert' opinions of those who made a study of the space around Earth. I just wish I had inherited his phenomenal memory of science, geography and history. black hole,” because astronomy was one of his favorite topics. He was fascinated, but not bothered, by
I am content to rest in the knowledge and example that he imparted about God’s love and intentions for humanity. It is Dad’s greatest gift to me…the faith, the wonderment and the contentment that comes when you realize God holds humanity in an incomprehensible love beyond our ability to fully perceive.
It is not a “rules” based religion, but love-based – an incomparable gift that will include learning all there is to know about those black holes and magnetic fields that so intrigue and tease us to know more.
A variety of excuses for “re-doing” of our governing system comes from human failures, not law failures. The same could be said of our approach to the expression of faith in God. Treasured traditions and thoughtful spiritual considerations seem to be weakening across the spectrum of religious observance.
The essence of it really has not changed as much as we like to think. A dichotomy that continues to fascinate is God/Creation vs. Creation/Accident. Which do you prefer to be, an intentional miracle or an accident of nature?
Beth Pratt retired as religion editor from the Avalanche-Journal after 25 years. You can email her at beth.pratt@cheerful.com.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Pratt: Collective ignorance is indeed dangerous
