Destiny Phillips Coats

A popular question amongst people and a topic of much debate is “would the world be better off without religion?” As a believer, one would immediately scream “no” in response. Personally I ask myself why couldn’t there only be one religion, Christianity? Unfortunately, mankind will never be in a position of agreement on “God or no God” until Christ’s return. So the question remains. Three very distinct reasons I believe the world needs religion (Christianity) are because without it, there would be no moral standard, no hope, and no purpose to life.

Society teaches everyone knows right from wrong. They credit this “sense” to one’s conscience — internal awareness of a moral standard in the mind concerning the quality of one’s motives. Our moral code is actually attributed to our craftsman making us in His image. God gave Adam all the keys necessary to be good, but he chose an absence of God that lead to his new nature of evil. Society believes mankind is good. We are beings that strive to do the right thing and want to achieve perfection. This could not be more wrong. This goes not only in direct opposition to Scripture but also with the patterns of humanity. A lie is classified as an untruth. The truth is classified as a part of reality. At a young age, man is instructed on how to be good yet they fall short and act bad without being instructed to do so. Children are not taught to lie, they are taught to be honest; however, they lie anyway. When babies are born they do not think of others. They are selfish. As toddlers learning to interact with other children, they must be told to share. Children will fight over a toy instead of taking turns. These are both examples of how even at the purest form of life, we know how to be selfish and dishonest. We are naturally inclined to evil.

The oldest manuscripts are the Dead Sea Scrolls — Scripture. Regardless of whether people accept Christianity or not, basic moral beliefs were developed out of Scripture. The Ten Commandments are found in Exodus 20:1-17. Six of these 10 commandments are still the main part of humanity’s moral code. The only ones not followed by all of humanity are those that talk specifically of loving/honoring God. This is due to mankind’s desire to deny the existence of something bigger than itself to which it “might” be accountable. Genesis 6:5 — “And GOD saw that the wickedness of man [was] great in the earth, and [that] every imagination of the thoughts of his heart [was] only evil continually.”

Hope is defined as desire accompanied by expectation of or belief in fulfillment. Mankind does not look to the future without having some type of understanding of hope or faith. Without God humanity would not have a concept of hope. Mankind is a finite being with finite understanding. Hope does not fit within the confines of “reality.” Hope is enacted when something is unsure. Hope is a desire for something to occur. Hope is not just a desire/wish, but also it is a trust put in something. Hope is an action. Hope is something one does. One hopes for something because of something else — faith. Without faith we cannot hope. These two things coincide. They are married to each other. Society continuously tries to separate them time and time again because they do not want to follow the path hope and faith truly take them on. One cannot hope without faith, and faith does not exist without hope. Everyone puts faith in something and hopes for something. To say they don’t is a lie that would contribute to the evil of humanity. Atheists believe in something. That belief is their faith. The reason they say they have no beliefs/faith is because believing in nothing is a depressing reality they do not want to come to grips with. Mankind will always deny a truth to conform to its own desires because of selfishness and pride.

Without morals, without hope, why live? When a creator creates a creature, he creates that thing with its own purpose. To fulfill purpose, creatures must know why they exist; therefore, they must interact with their creator. The idea creation is here at random intimates there is no purpose to it. It just happened. Without purpose, why should man care about himself, others, animals, or the environment? Chance is not a logical phenomenon, it has no rhyme or reason, it is random.  Order does not follow chaos.

Self-worth is obtained only when that being understands its value. Value is determined by the craftsman. If we are the craftsmanship of chance and chaos, then we have no value. We are a byproduct of randomness. There is nothing exciting about that. This is the reality of Atheism — a life without self-worth, hope, or purpose. Unfortunately Atheists lie to themselves when they say they believe in nothing. They actually believe in chance. Chance logically takes you to a place where self-worth does not exist. If one does not value himself, he cannot truly value others; therefore, valuing others does not truly exist. Atheists would probably deny every claim in this paper about how they feel and believe; I would agree with them. This would probably shock them. I do not believe there is such a thing as true Atheism. Atheists do not believe in God or spiritual being, the only thing left for them to believe in is science. Science is the observation of things that can be observed. Science does not provide hope, values, morals, or purpose, yet Atheists think they understand these things. They don’t. This is because they deny religion (Christianity). God has created us in His image. No matter how much we try to deny His imprint on us, we can’t. Therefore, we all hope, we all value something, we all believe/put faith in something. The difference between Atheists and religious people is Atheists deny someone besides themselves is in control because they do not want to be held accountable for their evil. Deep down they know their “good” will never outshine the evil in their hearts, and for that they wish not to be punished.

To live in a world without religion would be to live in a world of chaos and darkness. The heart of man is full of evil. Children are not taught to be selfish, lie, disobey, complain, and manipulate. They are born knowing how to do these things. Man foolishly claims he is good because he does not want to be accountable for his obvious evil nature.

Coming to the conclusion you are evil is not an easy thing to do, but we must if we are to find a way to fix it. People say “if it’s not broke, don’t fix it.” This phrase only applies to things that are unbroken. We are broken beings! Instead of denying this fact we need to look for a way out of our broken state. God gives us that way out.

Book after book we have read this year in some way has torn down Christianity. The authors of these books think they have done a sufficient job of destroying a religious practice with their logical truths that are in fact fallacies. These authors wrote in a time of much human discovery and advancement. By observing “man’s abilities” they concluded “logically” over time man was the pinnacle of creation and the supreme being. The multitude of sins listed in this paper goes back to the initial sin that started it all with Adam — pride. Adam and Eve ate of the fruit because they desired to become more like God. Feuerbach, Marx, Engels, Nietzsche, Darwin and others were so proud of the ability of the mind they denied the Creator that gave them the ability to reason, think, value, love, and have purpose. A world without religion is a sad one. One I wish to not be a part of but at the rate of society’s decline, I very well may be.