“the Lord is with Thee”

 
What is Atheism?Atheism is the denial of a personal God who is totally distinct from the world he created. Modern atheism has become so varied and widespread that the Second Vatican Council identified   no less than eight forms of disbelief under the single term  atheisumus: “some people expressly deny the existence of God. Others maintain that man cannot make any assertion whatsoever about Him. Still others admit only such methods of investigation as would make it seem quite meaningless to ask questions about God. Many, trespassing beyond the boundaries of the positive science, either contend that everything can be explained by the reasoning process used in such sciences, or, on the contrary, hold that there is no such thing as absolute truth. With others it is their exaggerated idea of man that cause their faith to languish; they are more prone, it would seem, to affirm man than to deny God. Yet others have such a faulty notion of God that when they disown this product of the imagination their denial has no reference to the God of the Gospels. There are also those who never enquire about God; religion never seems to trouble or interest them at all, nor do they try to see why they should bother about it” (Church in the Modern World, I, 19). In the light of this array of infidelity, it was only logical for the Council to declare that atheism is one of the greatest problems facing mankind in the world today. [i]
 
What are the types of atheism?Since atheism is one of the greatest problems facing mankind, it is important to find out why someone is atheist. The person may not even know why they are an atheist. In our wounded world there are many reasons why someone would claim atheism, so it is unfare for Christians to lump all atheists together. We should instead know where the person is coming from so that we can speak to them in truth about God. G.K. Chesterton wrote, “If there were no God, there would be no atheists.”
 
1.     Denial - the express denial of the existence of God. “I don’t believe God exists”
2.     Can’t prove God - we can’t know with certainty that God exists. “We can’t prove it so why believe it” There is no absolute truth, so again we cannot know for certain, so why bother. God can’t be proved by science. “We can only test that which is physical not spiritual”
3.     Man rather than God - Why do we need God when we have Man? Man is the measure of all and in a world centered on man and matter, why bother with God.
4.     The Imagined God – Many are denying, not the true God of the Gospels but rather the false God that others have preached or presented and or the false God they imagine. This is why it is important to preach the Gospel, for it is in the Gospel that the centurion came to say, “Truly this is the Son of God.”
5.     Never been told – Many just don’t care, they are not bothered by religion or interested in religion. Religion is not worth it. If Religion is not important to those who profess it why would it be important or interesting to those who do not profess it?
 
How do we add to the problem of atheism?If we are not careful we can promote numbers 3, 4 and 5. If we glorify man and speak only of man and the things of the world we are promoting a world without the presence of God. When we rely on man rather than God and do not speak to God or of God we are promoting a world without the presence of God. We are called by our baptism to be a prophet, priest and king. We must know the Gospel, live the Gospel and preach the Gospel. We must present to those placed in our life, the God of the Gospels. When there is talk or belief of anything other than the God of the Gospels, Jesus Christ, we must speak up, thus correcting the ignorance. We have a living faith. Religion is not just a think of the past, Churches are not museums and the Sacraments are not just the action of going through the motions. If we eat, drink and breath the our faith we will spark the interest of those in our life. We cannot be Catholic in name only, we have to live out the faith we profess. The Reverend Billy Graham made the statement that the greatest cause of Atheism today are Christians who profess God with their lips and deny Him with their life. This is what an unbelieving world finds unbelievable.
 
Music – “What if I Stumble?” by D.C. Talk
In the 1900’s, the rise of Atheism was accompanied by Communism. Communism became the vehicle in which the error of Atheism could organize and spread. Communism was not just the passive denial of God but rather had the goal to destroy God. “Communism is not an atheism that intellectually denies God in the manner of the sophomore who has just read the first fifteen pages of a textbook in biology. Rather, communism is the will to destroy God. It does not so much negate the existence of God as it challenges Him, changes His essence into evil, and makes man in the form of a dictator, the Lord and Master of the world.” [ii]
 
VIDEO – Bishop Sheen Condemns Communism
Servant of God Fulton Sheen spoke with passion against the falseness of Communism and challenged America to grab the absolute Truth in communion with Christ.
 
The errors of Communism and Atheism spread in the 1900’s. These errors not only sought to destroy God and religion but would threaten culture and civilization. “The preservation of civilization and culture is now one with the preservation of religion. If the anti-God forces of the world conquer, culture and civilization will disappear, and we will have to start all over again.” [iii]  These errors were combated and continue to be combated by both Church and State. In the 1950’s the United States of America realized that the preservation of religion is also the preservation of culture and civilization, for it is religion that creates culture and brings order and peace to civilization. At the height of communism, the United States Government wanted to make clear to citizens and the world that America believes and trusts in God. “On July 11, 1954, just one month after the phrase "under God" was incorporated into the Pledge of Allegiance, the U.S. Congress enacted Public Law 84-140, which required the motto on all coins and currency. The law was approved by President Eisenhower on July 30, 1956, and the motto was progressively added to paper money over a period from 1957 to 1966. In 1956 the phrase was legally adopted as the United States' national motto by a law passed by the 84th United States Congress.(Public Law 84-851) and the United States Code at 36 U.S.C. § 302, now states: "'In God we trust' is the national motto."

Also in the year 1950, God gave, through the papacy, the dogma of the Assumption. Pope Pius XII declared, “Finally the Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all stain of original sin, when the course of her earthly life was finished, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, and exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things, so that she might be the more fully conformed to her Son, the Lord of lords and conqueror of sin and death.” [iv] The Catechism goes on to say, “The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin is a singular participation in her Son’s Resurrection and an anticipation of the resurrection of other Christians: In giving birth you kept your virginity; in your Dormition you did not leave the world, O Mother of God, but were joined to the source of Life. You conceived the living God and, by your prayers, will deliver our souls from death.” [v] This dogma is not only a gift of faith, but a tool to fight the error of Atheism.
 
How does the Assumption fight the error of Atheism?They are opposites of each other. Atheism says, “God is not with you and you will not be with God.” It is a denial of God and of heaven and a denial of the resurrection of the Body. The Assumption is a dogma of faith that states that not only was God with Mary, but that Mary was and is with God. It is also a declaration of what will happen to our body (resurrection) and where our body will go, our final destination (heaven). In the dogma of the Assumption, the Church is saying that God is real, He is with us, we are with Him, we will be with Him in heaven and our bodies will be resurrected and glorified.
 
In the Byzantine Liturgy it says, “you [Mary] did not leave the world…but were joined to the source of Life.” In God’s Divine Mercy, not only did He give us a dogma to fight the errors of atheism, but He gave us the appearance of His mother. Mary, who is joined to the source of Life and having not left the world appeared in 1917 in Fatima, Portugal. “It is particularly interesting that the theology of the Russians, before they were overwhelmed by the cold heart of the anti-God, taught that, when the world rejected the Heavenly Father, He sent His Divine Son, Jesus Christ, to illumine the world. Then they went on to predict that, when the world would reject Our Lord as it has done today, on that Dark Night the light of His Mother would arise to illumine the darkness and lead the world to peace. The beautiful revelation of Our Blessed Mother at Fatima in Portugal from April to October 1917 was another proof of the Russian thesis that, when the world would fight against the Savior, He would send His Mother to save us. And her great revelation took place in the very month the Bolshevik [Communist] Revolution began.” [vi]
 

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[i] Fr. John John A. Hardon, S.J. Modern Catholic Dictionary
[ii] Servant of God, Fulton J. Sheen; The World’s First Love; The Woman and the Atom; page 268
[iii] Servant of God, Fulton J. Sheen; The World’s First Love; The Woman and the Atom; page 268
[iv] Catechism of the Catholic Church - 966
[v] Catechism of the Catholic Church - 966
[vi] Servant of God, Fulton J. Sheen; The World’s First Love; The Woman and the Atom; page 271