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! 

Can Man Live Without God In The Picture?

I'm not saying what would happen if there were no God (Acts 17:28 says, "For in Him we live and move and have our being..."), but how man's worldview is affected without a foundation in God--we must begin with God and explain the universe, not begin with the universe and explain God away!  Athanasius said that the only system of though that Christ will fit into is the one where He is the starting point. 



Man cannot survive without conceiving of God; His manifest reality is known to every tribe, nation, and tongue or civilization.  Man isn't naturally an atheist or agnostic, but religious to the core; he has been dubbed Homo religiosus or the religious being.  They also call him Homo divinus, or the divine being (in the image of God or imago Dei).  Man is meant or hard-wired for worship, and if he doesn't find God, he will worship someone or something else, which is idolatry.  There is a gap or vacuum that must be filled and only God can adequately do the job.  Pascal did say that only God can fill this empty space and Augustine said that we are restless till we find our peace or rest in God.



When you take God out of the reckoning, man becomes uncivilized, as witnessed and documented in Romans 1, where God gives man up to his perversions.  Yes, we need God, He doesn't need us!  We can only find our fulfillment in Him and serving Him.  There is indeed purpose in life when one knows the Lord and serves Him; the chief end of man, according to The Westminster Shorter Catechism, is "to glorify God and enjoy Him forever"--taken from Isaiah 43:7, which says we're created for His glory.  We are the icons of God, bearing His image to the world and God has something to say through us; we are His voice to spread the Word, not angels! 



Without God, man has come from nothing, has no meaning in life, and is heading nowhere!   We must be able to answer the ultimate questions of life to have meaning and fulfillment:  Where did I come from?  Why am I here?  Where am I headed or going to?  What is man's destiny?  Is there a difference between right and wrong?  The Bible answers all these questions and science cannot because they are out of its domain or turf.  Science cannot make philosophical, religious, ethical, nor metaphysical judgments--neither can it make any value judgments, it is the "know-how," not the "know-why."  Yes, science is limited and we must not put our ultimate faith in it to solve all our problems or answer all our questions.



The scientific method doesn't apply to the metaphysical answers to the physical and to the spiritual, religious, ethical, nor moral domains.  For example, you cannot measure three feet of love, nor five pounds of justice, yet they exist and are real.  Love exists, yet you cannot prove or disprove it either!  In science, you have to have laboratory conditions, be able to measure, observe, and repeat an experiment with variables and controls to get a working hypothesis and finally a theory, and then a scientific, verifiable fact.   



Note that it's only because of the Christian worldview that science was made possible and the first scientists were Christians--there's no final conflict between science and the Bible, which is not a science text, but has no scientific absurdities or erroneous ideas.  Where it does make scientific claims, the info is correct and has been proven ahead of its time--such as the discovery of the water cycle, and ocean currents, the fact that the earth is round and is hung on nothing in space!   When science alienates Christians and becomes their enemy, they become unscientific and dogmatic, which is not scientific. 



When we try to establish ethics without God, it is impossible to have a foundation.  Fyodor Dostoevsky said that without God all things are permissible or up for grabs.  God is the source of absolute truth with a capital T and if there is no God, there can be no absolute Truth!  And so, without God, man is like a ship without a rudder with no anchor nor moral compass!  We are a law unto ourselves and each of us can make up our own ethical system as we go along, and morality is simply what we decide it is as a group, and it changes over time as we get more "civilized."   The Ten Commandments are then obsolete and too binding for our free lifestyle, which has no restraints nor limits.  



"Law is merely the majority vote that licks all others," to quote Oliver Wendell Holmes.  The Bible says in Psalm 11:3 that "when the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?"  We have then lost our moral fiber as a nation and become free spirits, each man doing his own thing and what is right in his own eyes, the way Israel did before it had a king (cf. Judges 21:25).  God cares a lot about right and wrong and we have His moral law in our hearts in the form of conscience (cf. Rom. 2:15)--unfortunately, some choose to ignore it do evil.  We were meant for something better than anarchy and immoral, unethical society.



The end result is that man worships himself, fame, fortune, power, popularity, success, possessions, and even does hero worship, all of which are unfulfilling false gods and idolatry, that cannot meet man's inner longing for a relationship with God, not merely acknowledging or knowing He exists.  Jesus promised abundant life to all sincere seekers and God will authenticate Himself to everyone who diligently searches for Him (cf. Heb. 11:6)--He's not playing cosmic hide-and-seek, but will not reveal Himself to triflers!



An so the biggest question and issue facing man today is whether he can live without God, according to humanist historian/philosopher Will Durant, and our government becomes the highest law, in the land and is accountable to no one as final Judge.  Consequently, there is no Judgment Day, no Lawgiver, and no Ruler of man, no hell to shun, and no motive to be good, all because man doesn't put God in the equation.



Just like Friedrich Nietzsche declared God dead, or irrelevant and unnecessary, we must find out for ourselves the hard way, because man refuses to listen to the modern-day prophets and heed what Scripture says; man is ultimately headed nowhere and history has no meaning or purpose, with no climax, conclusion, or consummation either.  Man becomes a glorified ape or hominid, without the dignity of being in God's image, having any restraint on evil, and being able to communicate and know Him. 

 Soli Deo Gloria!

Can Man Live Without God In The Picture?

I'm not saying what would happen if there were no God (Acts 17:28 says, "For in Him we live and move and have our being..."), but how man's worldview is affected without a foundation in God--we must begin with God and explain the universe, not begin with the universe and explain God away!  Athanasius said that the only system of thought that Christ will fit into is the one where He is the starting point.

Man cannot survive without conceiving of God; His manifest reality is known to every tribe, nation, and tongue or civilization.  Man isn't naturally an atheist or agnostic, but religious to the core; he has been dubbed Homo religiosus or the religious being.  They also call him Homo divinus, or the divine being (in the image of God or Imago Dei).  Man is meant or hard-wired for worship, and if he doesn't find God, he will worship someone or something else, which is idolatry.  There is a gap or vacuum that must be filled and only God can adequately do the job.  Pascal did say that only God can fill this empty space and Augustine said that we are restless till we find our peace or rest in God.

When you take God out of the reckoning, man becomes uncivilized, as witnessed and documented in Romans 1, where God gives man up to his perversions.  Yes, we need God, He doesn't need us!  We can only find our fulfillment in Him and serving Him.  There is indeed purpose in life when one knows the Lord and serves Him; the chief end of man, according to The Westminster Shorter Catechism, is "to glorify God and enjoy Him forever"--taken from Isaiah 43:7, which says we're created for His glory.  We are the icons of God, bearing His image to the world and God has something to say through us; we are His voice to spread the Word, not angels!

Without God, man has come from nothing, has no meaning in life, and is heading nowhere!   We must be able to answer the ultimate questions of life to have meaning and fulfillment:  Where did I come from?  Why am I here?  Where am I headed or going to?  What is man's destiny?  Is there a difference between right and wrong?  The Bible answers all these questions and science cannot because they are out of its domain or turf.  Science cannot make philosophical, religious, ethical, nor metaphysical judgments--neither can it make any value judgments, it is the "know-how," not the "know-why."  Yes, science is limited and we must not put our ultimate faith in it to solve all our problems or answer all our questions.

The scientific method doesn't apply to the metaphysical answers to the physical and to the spiritual, religious, ethical, nor moral domains.  For example, you cannot measure three feet of love, nor five pounds of justice, yet they exist and are real.  Love exists, yet you cannot prove or disprove it either!  In science, you have to have laboratory conditions, be able to measure, observe, and repeat an experiment with variables and controls to get a working hypothesis and finally a theory, and then a scientific, verifiable fact.

Note that it's only because of the Christian worldview that science was made possible and the first scientists were Christians--there's no final conflict between science and the Bible, which is not a science text, but has no scientific absurdities or erroneous ideas.  Where it does make scientific claims, the info is correct and has been proven ahead of its time--such as the discovery of the water cycle, and ocean currents, the fact that the earth is round and is hung on nothing in space!   When science alienates Christians and becomes their enemy, they become unscientific and dogmatic, which is not scientific.

When we try to establish ethics without God, it is impossible to have a foundation.  Fyodor Dostoevsky said that without God all things are permissible or up for grabs.  God is the source of absolute truth with a capital T and if there is no God, there can be no absolute Truth!  And so, without God, man is like a ship without a rudder with no anchor nor moral compass!  We are a law unto ourselves and each of us can make up our own ethical system as we go along, and morality is simply what we decide it is as a group, and it changes over time as we get more "civilized."   The Ten Commandments are then obsolete and too binding for our free lifestyle, which has no restraints nor limits.

"Law is merely the majority vote that licks all others," to quote Oliver Wendell Holmes.  The Bible says in Psalm 11:3 that "when the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?"  We have then lost our moral fiber as a nation and become free spirits, each man doing his own thing and what is right in his own eyes, the way Israel did before it had a king (cf. Judges 21:25).  God cares a lot about right and wrong and we have His moral law in our hearts in the form of conscience (cf. Rom. 2:15)--unfortunately, some choose to ignore it do evil.  We were meant for something better than anarchy and an immoral, unethical society.

The end result is that man worships himself, fame, fortune, power, popularity, success, possessions, and even does hero worship, all of which are unfulfilling false gods and idolatry, that cannot meet man's inner longing for a relationship with God, not merely acknowledging or knowing He exists.  Jesus promised abundant life to all sincere seekers and God will authenticate Himself to everyone who diligently searches for Him (cf. Heb. 11:6)--He's not playing cosmic hide-and-seek, but will not reveal Himself to triflers!

And so the biggest question and issue facing man today is whether he can live without God, according to humanist historian/philosopher Will Durant, and our government becomes the highest law, in the land and is accountable to no one as final Judge.  Consequently, there is no Judgment Day, no Lawgiver, and no Ruler of man, no hell to shun, and no motive to be good, all because man doesn't put God in the equation.

Just like Friedrich Nietzsche declared God dead, or irrelevant and unnecessary, we must find out for ourselves the hard way, because man refuses to listen to the modern-day prophets and heed what Scripture says; man is ultimately headed nowhere and history has no meaning or purpose, with no climax, conclusion, or consummation either.  Man becomes a glorified ape or hominid, without the dignity of being in God's image, having any restraint on evil, and being able to communicate and know Him.    Soli Deo Gloria!