Can Man Live Without God?

"Men have forgotten God."  (Alexander Solzhenitsyn)
"A person cannot live without worshiping something."  (Fyodor Dostoevsky)

The whole concept of modern Secular Humanism is to exalt man (glory to man in the highest!) and to dethrone God and put Him in His place, as they see it.  In other words, they proclaim:  Up with man, down with God!  Man has attempted to make a name for himself ever since the tower of Babel (cf. Gen. 11:4) and believes he can get along without God's intervention, grace, or providence.  Man is deluded into thinking he can rule God out of the universe and doesn't need Him.   Pertinent remarks by great thinkers:  "Religion is indispensable to private and morals and public order" (Cicero); "No society has ever been able to maintain a moral life without the aid of its religion"  (William Durant).  Humanism has been defined as "religion without God."  And you don't have to be an atheist to have no place for God in your life, practical atheists believe in God, but live as though there is no God.  Psalm 10:4 (HCSB) sums it up:  "There is no accountability since God does not exist."  

Humanist historian/philosopher (and author of The Story of Civilization) Will Durant posed the dilemma we face today as the postmodern philosophy (that "God is dead") that permeates society;  and humanists try to be good without God in the equation:  "The greatest question of our time is not communism vs. individualism, not Europe vs. America, nor even the East vs. the West; it is whether men can bear to live without God." People have no excuse not to believe in God (cf. Rom. 1:20), but they foolishly suppress the fact and are in a state of denial.  They seem to think that God is no longer relevant, that we can solve our issues and problems without His input or intervention, and that we are basically good, not evil.

We live in an age when sinners decide that they are their own judges of morality and can make their own value judgments:  "Everyone did what was right in their own eyes," much like Israel did, as recorded in Judges 21:25.  Men find themselves judging God, rather than realizing He's their judge. Now the biggest problem nations face is that of keeping the peace, and there shall be wars and rumors of wars till the end, and when we reach peace we will no longer feel we need God.  America is a so-called good nation by human standards as recorded by secular Alexis de Tocqueville, in his work Democracy in America, which he wrote after visiting the U.S, posited that our strength lie in our "goodness," and when we "ceased to be good we will cease to be great."  This is not based on biblical nor historical precedent, but only personal deduction and observation.  

Yes, America is different (we are probably the most religious nation on earth), yet we are failing on the world stage due to poor leadership and the good citizens (believers) cease to be salt and light and evil is winning by default, not because Christianity has failed, nor because its worldview is faulty, but because Christians fail to stand up and be counted, to take their stand for the right and to fly their Christian colors.  It has been said by philosophers and historians that morality in a nation cannot be upheld without the aid of religion:  George Bernard Shaw said that "no nation can survive the loss of its gods."  George Washington said, "It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible."  Christians ought to protest the secularization of a society that seeks to eradicate God from the public square and discourse.  We cannot silence God, though!  If we try to go to war with Him we will lose and our nation will lose its blessing and providential hand.  We fight this by speaking up against the evils of society, even if it entails becoming activists and doing whatever you can to mobilize the church and equip them for the battle.  We are not to passively allow Satan to seize control!


When you take God out of the picture, there remains a vacuum that is filled with satanic activity.  When we cease to worship God, we will ultimately find something else to worship, because man is meant and designed for worship!  God is the motive people have for good behavior because you see very few hospitals, orphanages, relief organizations, leprosariums founded by infidels.  In India, they think that the suffering of man is caused by bad karma and you shouldn't interfere with another's karma!  


We are at the point in our society where we don't know right from wrong and have lost our moral fiber because there's no moral compass and  God condemns those who call good evil and evil good (cf. Isa. 5:20).  There is an absolute standard to judge by and people do instinctively know right from wrong due to having a conscience and everyone is culpable to be blamed because of transcendent or natural law, which is above national law and even nations are subject to.  


You could say that the new battle is against God and the new war of independence is from God!  People, in general, think that the Ten Commandments are obsolete and don't apply to a modern society and don't feel bound by them, free to make up their own rules as they go along to suit themselves.   As long as they can think of some reason to justify themselves and have good motives, the reason that they are doing the right thing.  


But goodness isn't defined by man, but by God and is in conformity with His nature. The basic diagnosis of man is that he does things his way and not God's way (as Isa. 53:6 says, "... we have turned every one to his own way...").  We cannot know good without knowing God, for He is the final arbiter of it and will judge us and our standards of good versus His.  Without God, Shakespeare summed up the essence of life as Macbeth mused:  "... 'tis a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury signifying nothing." If we are not in God's image, we are mere animals and glorified apes:  "Do you think we are mere animals?  Do you think we are stupid?" (Job 18:3, NLT)--teach man he is an animal and he will act like one.



"Without God, life makes no sense," according to Rick Warren!  "If there is no God all things are permissible," according to Fyodor Dostoevsky, and there can be no absolutes or standards to measure perfection by.  The world has nothing against religion as long as it remains privatized, but we are to spread the word and be obedient to the gospel without suppressing it--it's a command to obey not an option to consider. The implications of atheism are profound:  No judge to make us feel guilty; no lawgiver to obey; no ruler or sovereign to submit to, no creator to emulate, know, and love; no hell to shun; and no heaven to look forward to--how dismal and bleak an outlook!


Romans 1:18ff shows what transpires once man leaves God out of the reckoning.  In the final analysis, God will bless America by association again when the church repents and gets back on track fulfilling the Great Commission (not the Great Suggestion), and not when the church tries to implement sharia law or usher in the Millennial Kingdom, in order to "advance the cause of Christ" through legislation or government.    Soli Deo Gloria!