Every year at this time there is the great fight over whether a Nativity scene should be on public property. However, in Athens, Texas (USA) the fight went to a new level. According to media reports, a secularist group from Wisconsin demanded that a Nativity scene in front of the courthouse in Athens must be removed. The group which seeks what they call freedom from religion demanded that a Nativity scene outside the court house in Athens must be removed in the name of separation of church and state. As to whether it should be removed is a matter to be decided by the government officials in Athens. However, this group maintains a position that is at the center of what brings us here today on Christmas. The Freedom from Religion Foundation maintains a position that says “There are no gods, no devils, no angels, no heaven or hell. There is only our natural world.”

Obviously, I disagree with that statement, but my position is not the issue. When you look at the position between atheists such as the members of the Freedom from Religion Foundation and believers, you can see the difference between the two positions begins with one word and that word is not “God”.  The difference from the atheistic position and the believers position is the word “not”. Let me explain.

The atheist position can be summed up, especially in light of the Freedom from Religion Foundation’s mission statement is that “All that exists in the universe is perceivable by the human. ” The position of believers is simple “Not all that exists in the universe is perceivable by the human”. That is the fundamental difference between the two positions.

I am a believer because among other things, I cannot accept the premise that all that is exists in the universe has to be perceivable by a species of mammal on one planet, in one solar system in a medium size galaxy in somewhere in all of the universe. Indeed, Jesus teaches something similar, when He points out that God is Spirit (John 24). Humans can only perceive that which is matter. If things exist which are not matter, they remain unperceived to humans. This does not mean that they do not exist.

The problem is, as benign as the two statements may appear, politically they represent a universe of difference because each statement also defines the human.

Atheism Vs Christianity in the Political Arena

Atheism politically translates itself into such ideas as John Lennon’s Imagine in which people believe they can build a perfect society. This means that there are at most two kinds of people in the universe, those capable of building a perfect society and those who are not. This leads to a position that some persons should be eliminated so that others may thrive.

Christianity, however, believes that the human person is fundamentally flawed and cannot experience the fullness of life without external, divine intervention. This means that there are no perfect people who would have a greater reason to exist than so called less than perfect people. Again, which position is correct and which is not?  One leads us to take action to create John Lennon’s Imagine and the other leads us to Church today.

In order to figure out which position to choose, one needs to do scientific experimentation to determine if it is true that the human being is perfect and capable of building a perfect world here, or whether the human being is flawed and incapable of building such a world. That would appear to be impossible without using the scientific method. Coincidentally, however, not only have such experiments been done, by accident such experiments have actually happened.

We can start with the Stanford Experiment, in which a psychologist discovered that when one group dominates another such as jailers and prisoners, a possibility for cruel oppression results. If that potential flaw in human interaction is not accounted for then you will have disastrous results in the prison environment. The history of that reality goes back to the dawn of humanity.

The second is the Milgram experiment. A similar principle, in which a man is told to teach some facts to a student. If the student does not learn the facts, he is given electric shocks which get more severe with every mistake. The student, who is actually a shill and does not receive any shocks at all, acts like he is suffering from severe distress until he finally appears to have died. Subjects, who were the “teachers” expected to stop at the first sign of distress continued going in many cases, even though they believed that they were hurting the student. They continued when prodded by the teacher.

Both experiments have been criticized for being unethical.

A third case of countless I could cite, was not a scientific experiment but an actual event. In 1871, there was a horrible ferry accident in the waters off of Manhattan. The most civilized of people were just riding up the Hudson to attend a weekly Sunday outing. The boiler exploded on the ferry that caused great damage and boat began to sink quickly. In this moment of panic, a human attribute comes out where the most civilized of people become the most vicious of animals in the name of self preservation. Obviously, such a position should not surprise us. However, what needs to be understood is that these examples far more demonstrate the Christian doctrine of humanity’s flaw and the need for an external influence than the atheist position that humans are capable of creating John Lennon’s Imagine. Because if human beings were not flawed, then even the most severe distress would not turn us into animals. However, only the most moral of human beings to the level of Mother Teresa or Ghandi seem to be immune from that reality. Both were believers.

That is what brings us here.

Christmas is not about being nice to another. You can celebrate the Winter Solstice and do that, which these groups do. Christmas is not about doing the right thing. Many Atheists are often more moral than some Christians. Christmas is about understanding who we are, that we as humans are not the gods we are tempted to believe we are. We are only humans, we are flawed and without intervention from beyond us we cannot become fully human and fully alive. Without that guide in divine wisdom we get lost in human passion. Without a savior we remain disastrously unsaved. Then the world we create is not that of Imagine, but of Lord of the Flies. God’s love despite our humanity is the meaning of Christmas. It is this we celebrate this day, when we see that He so loved us that He sent us His only Son, Jesus Christ to be born like us that we might be saved and have eternal life.

These Atheist organizations that want to create a world that is free from religion may sound like they know about who we are  as humans, but empirical evidence has never proved we are capable of building John Lennon’s imagine. In fact, empirical evidence indicates more that we need a savior and that is what we celebrate at Christmas.

May you have a blessed Christmas,

Fr. Robert J Carr

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