In practical daily life, most liberal atheists still look to a higher power for help, to solve problems that are beyond their control. But instead of looking to God for those answers and solutions, they look to the government. Maybe this was obvious to everyone else before now, but I was blind to the idea until it was revealed to me a few weeks ago. But now I can't go a day without seeing another clear manifestation of this principle.
The clearest example to see, is the concept of climate change. The climate is changing, and pretty much everyone agrees on that. The disagreement comes when trying to determine how we as people should respond to that obvious fact. For thousands of years, people in cultures around the world have prayed to God or gods for rain for their crops, for less severe cold and snow, for less severe heat. Christians continue to do that today, but there is a new trend. Those who don't believe in God find themselves turning elsewhere for a solution to control the changes in weather and climate. The only other higher power that they can see is the government. Now from an objective human standpoint, the idea that the government has any control over the climate of the region they rule is laughably arrogant, but now widely accepted. Now from the government's perspective, it's citizens are coming to them with a request that they have no true power to respond to, since they can't legislate the weather. They can see that human activity has at least some effect on the weather, if not the climate. So they respond that if we want them to deal with the climate issue, they need to have control over all human activity. It's a win-win for those who want control, because if things they have no real influence over (read-weather) improve, they can take credit for that, and if they don't improve, they can claim they weren't given enough control over the situation, and demand more.
Another example is the war on poverty, as if that was something that the government could solve. Instead of seeing those less fortunate and doing something for them themselves, they think: "the government should do something about that." So they present the problem of poverty to the government, which responds with, "let's set a minimum wage, so that everyone has enough money." But since certain jobs are of less financial value than others, those jobs under the minimum wage disappear. That leaves many people with no one willing to pay them the legal minimum to work, so they are now unemployed. So the government responds by creating unemployment benefits. As each solution fails to solve the poverty problem, this is followed by social security, medicare, welfare, food stamps, and a myriad of other government programs to make poverty more comfortable. Now poverty is not something that the government should even be trying to solve. They are responsible for providing justice, freedom and defense, but not economic prosperity or happiness. But this overreach is favorable to those receiving the benefits of it, as well as those whose consciences are eased by it, freeing them from any personal obligations to those around them in need.
So instead of believing in a God powerful enough to solve problems, they want a government powerful enough to solve all the problems they see, and they are willing to trade away their liberty and freedom to get it. And those who are willing to trade away freedom for security deserve neither and will lose both. God on the other hand goes to great lengths to give us freedom, when he has the authority and power to solve any problem by forcing us to do things his way. Instead, he put the tree in the garden, making it our choice to solve problems or create new ones. We are supposed to look to him for guidance and support, not a man-made government, which in that case becomes in idol.
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