Why Reject Faith?

Editor's Note: this article contains the opinion of the author and not that of the National Alliance Foundation. We are however very grateful to his contribution in this manner. 


The question is fundamental, yet still I spend many hours ever-wondering if I will one day see a definitive answer.  Few in the modern day would find it shocking to see or interact with an individual who is adverse to the idea of God--or a religion committed to an supernatural deity, yet their reasoning is quite difficult to explain in particular situations.

To start, why might a middle aged man with a decent, but not overwhelmingly rewarding job as a computer programmer choose to reject the tenets and scrolls of dedication and spiritual loyalty? Such a man has less hopes of a dramatic future with power at his fingertips or the constant companionship of the most attractive to him, and still he holds on to atheist principles. Would this man not desire something more when he dies; a place in which he is made anew and can enjoy the wonders of salvation instead of the cold and empty reality which he feels destined to return to at passing?

In the case of a clever man or woman--I might take the example of Julia Gillard, the accomplished and newly minted Australian prime minister, the attraction to disbelief in God or an afterlife is perhaps stronger, for one like her shall spend most of her life in the spotlight, perhaps reverting to humanitarianism afterwards and never seeking to travel about the world. She embodies a rare opportunity in which a person is seen and admired by millions, never fearing for the future due to her visibility and power in the nation and across the world. Her life will never become dull or unexciting because by the world's standards, she is of greater importance than the typical human, and will likely retain that status until the day when he passes on.

Absent the presence of riches or the profuseness of worldly pleasures in life, there can be less clear explanation for why a poorer human would choose to abandon God for the uncertainty of the afterlife. Where, in this case, would the person find their accomplishment and fulfillments? A life can only be enjoyed so much for one of little financial superiority, and the absence of power greatly decreases a person's chance of critical importance to others, thus undercutting the true satisfaction of a romp through the earth over a period of multiple decades.

Perhaps it is God's grandeur which turns so many away; the necessity to except something so large without absolute certainty or the confirmation of his existence in the realm above. Or it may simply be man's incessant need to explain and control everything; a difficult achievement when one's life is pledged to an omnipresent and potent being.

Still, rejecting faith is an issue in our world because it decays the morality of those who choose it as an option, causing them to cast aside otherwise fortified columns of societal structure. As culture has left religion behind in the past 50 years, the statistics are alarmingly blatant: more crime, less social responsibility, and visible destruction of the old family structure which made the world so better populated in the past. This so called "enlightened age" has corrupted the earth by removing fear of God from people's hearts, allowing them to lead lives which they view as intellectual, all the while as the world falls apart alongside them.

The duty of the academics and scholarly of the world must remain forever more to preserve faith and employ others to its worthy commitment. If intellectualism continues to push for even those with no reason for it to turn to atheistic dialog, the world can only come to a more depraved and unspeakable level of voidness.


Patrick McCann

Adjunct Writer--Faith and America Blog

Solving the Crisis in Catholicism

(Editor's note: Although Tom Garrow is a good friend of the National Alliance Foundation's leadership team, his views are not necessarily those of the entire organization).


Morality and sensibility are both elements which the world seems to be ever so frequently robbed of, and thus religious institutions must often serve as a counselors and guides to restore much of the world unto a righteous track that seeks to espouse these two virtuous parts in the formation of generational stability. Generally speaking, the Roman Catholic Church has done a fine job of this responsibility over the past centuries, yet I am forced to take up the dreaded mantle of the justice observer a point out the area in which the religious tent has failed--both utterly and needlessly: lifetime celibacy for its priests.

It must be made evident that I am a Catholic, proud and of strong faith, yet I refuse to continue to endorse a binding rule which has proven to have devastating effects not only on the basic welfare of Catholic spiritual leaders, but also on the psychological development of countless children. Perhaps not all offending religious figureheads are from my church, nor are all crimes involving the molestation of children exclusive to the parishes, but the vast majority are, and for an almost entirely explainable reason: like ever other human, Catholic priests are fallen creatures; saved by a loving God yet never capable of attaining perfection--unless they are in Heaven itself.


Not only is celibacy strictly against the teachings of the Bible; its tenets suggest a scenario which realistically none of us can hope to achieve: perfected spiritual leaders. For precisely this reason, Jesus Christ, the only flawless man to walk the earth, was sent to atone for the world's sins, so that all those born into the world a presently living at the time of his sacrifice would be saved from an eternity in oblivion. In plainer terms, priests are not free of sin because of their occupation, yet at the same time, they were never intended to be! Just like leaders in any other faith, priests are meant to serve as guiding clerics, not holier than thou personages.

From the most liberal to the most zealously conservative Catholics, their is a long running commitment to the family, and as such families adhering to the faith look to prime examples of strong and faithful relationships in life. Keeping with this line of belief, why should our priests not be permitted to have mature sexual relationships, become married, and beyond this, have children, if all of these might serve as a beacon and image of success for a congregation of families? It might be added that the Bible makes no discrimination with the following verses. "That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh."--Genesis 2:24. "Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral."--Hebrews 13:4. Even more explicitly, Proverbs 5:18-19 notes that "May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth.  A loving doe, a graceful deer—may her breasts satisfy you always, may you ever be intoxicated with her love." Passages like "honored by all," and "your fountain," hardly can be proven to refer to only those beneath the Church's leadership, neither in their independent form or in the full chapter context. 


The attempts within the media to demonize priests may draw some appreciation, but the core of its argument remains ignorant of a valid fact of debate: the very cause of the inhuman crimes targeting children. Some of the most open-minded people would look at a 5-10 year period of celibacy for priests in the seminary or recently graduated as reasonable, though the expectation that these men live their entire lives without the natural satisfaction of intimate relationships is wholly unrealistic. Priests are not compensated marvelously in worldly manner, so they must rely on God's work alone as the greatest payment--an evident difficulty while living life in "single" status.


That's not to condone any of the horrific and unjustifiable actions by priests against altar boys around the world, yet the initial beginning of the heinous sin should be acknowledged, both by the lowest of spiritual leaders and the most elite, including the Pope. Living a life of both little material reward and physical separation is enough to drive an average person mad, and most priests are not immune to such crippling realities. I regret the bluntness of this, but if many of the clerical heads in the Church were permitted to "get it on" with members of the opposite sex as everyone else is, my belief is that the rates of abuse would drop noticeably over shorter, and longer periods of time. 


Not one of us, from the lowly beggar to the Pope himself, can claim perfection or even a state that fulfills a small minority of its requirements; in other terms, we are a fallen and weak race. But it is for this reason, that God, in all his shining perfection, chose to send a miraculous Savior, steering us away from an inevitable and painful death through His indescribably wonderful mercy. As part of that decision, He allowed us all to live normal and balanced lives--essences of life which would bring glory to His kingdom and to the earth. In the creation of future priests, the purpose was to raise up messengers of God on the earth. However just like those priests are equal to all those whom they guide, they are entitled to the same permissible pursuits and actions of average spiritually faithful individuals. 




Tom Garrow


Adjunct Writer--Of Faith and Life Blog