Why the Secular Life is Not Viable

 From Gerard van der Leun - Reason, and its limits.

While I was attending college, I maintained my Christian faith. I was an older student for most of my time, having returned to school after all my children were born.

As a result, I brought in a different perspective. In a class on pre-school education, I brought in my 6 month child to be used as a demonstration of the kinds of things that children might do at such an age. I had a clear sense of what might work to guide children's behavior, and what - despite every book telling you differently - simply did NOT.

In a sociology course on Marriage and the Family, I brought real-life experience in a long-time marriage (not that long - only around 10 years). Many of my classmates were long on theory, but had no personal experience with a working marriage or other relationship lasting longer than a few years, at best, either in their own lives, or their parents.

I was taught by professors who seldom were religious, unless they were one of those women who were consciously 'Pagan' or 'Mother Earth' types. The sole representative teacher of a Christian faith was a Leftist clergyman, who taught his skewed brand of Christianity Lite, with a heavy side of Xtian Socialism/Revolutionary 'kinda Jesus-y' flavoring.

I had been blessed with actual Christian instruction (beginning with grandparents who were hard-core Catholics, followed by the Baltimore Catechism, and continuing with early post-Vatican II instruction by actual nuns). I continued to add to my understanding with regular attendance at more or less traditional churches, self-study via library checkouts, and discussion with my raised-Old-School husband.

So, when teachers mischaracterized Christian thought (not that uncommon), I did not hesitate to step in and provide the correct viewpoint. I didn't do it in an angry way; I simply assumed that they misunderstood, given their lack of knowledge.

I remember discussing the fact that Catholicism is virtually a religion that you are born into, as it uses infant baptism. In that way, I argued, it was, like Judaism or Islam, a religion that was inherent to the tribe. The decision was made for the child, long before they had any input. Technically, you must decide for yourself, but, in reality, you are born into that religion.

Reason and logic only take you so far; what moderns lack is a sense that some things are not rationally knowable. Some life decisions are outside of scientific thinking (which would surprise those I-f***in'-love-science people that keep sending me memes explaining why THEIR viewpoint is superior to that of believers).

One of the more infuriating things about the Left is that they CLAIM to the the 'Science People" - those that understand science (which, mostly, they don't). The parts of science that they are most likely to support are the 'Science Lite' parts, such as environmental science (not a true science, this is often an area best characterized as muddled, more sociology than science, and filled with quasi-sciencey papers and studies).

This article about COVID numbers from Watt's Up With This is nicely written. It can easily be understood by someone without specialized training in statistics (that's a true gift, being able to break down complicated topics into digestible chunks).

The tiny steps that lead to depraved ends - from American Digest.