February 2005     

Cowboy-up America!

By Ronald J. White

For 1500 years prior to the 19^th century, people had accepted the fact of moral absolutes. Universally, right was right, and wrong was wrong. Everywhere, murder was thought to be wrong, and adultery was thought to be wrong; the consensus was that there was a fixed standard of right and wrong. In this century, however, we have come to a serious moment in America. We are in a moral crisis, no longer do we believe in absolute truth. How do we know that statement to be true? What does truth really mean? And, what difference does it make anyway?

The dictionary defines "truth" as "Conformity to fact or actuality." It also defines "truth" as, "Truth. Christian Science. God." What does this definition mean? The answer is found in the Bible. The book of Deuteronomy 32:4 in the Old Testament states that God (the Father) is "a God of truth." In John 14:6 Jesus (the Son) said, "I am the way, the truth..." and 1 John 5:6 states, "...the Spirit is truth." Tragically, there has been a systematic move to exclude "Truth; i.e., God" and those things Christians believe to be the foundation of this nation for good "government and the happiness of mankind." As a result, we are increasingly experiencing secular humanism, values clarification, value neutral sex education, dispensing of birth control devices in public schools, and the general problems discussed in previous columns. How did all this happen? What is going on in America? How did we lose the Christian values we once had?

The opinion held by a society on a subject is usually derived from the past thoughts, or philosophies, of people. Therefore, it should be expedient to follow the guidance in the Book of Job 8:8, and review some of the philosophies of yesteryear. Coincidentally, in the early 19^th century when a young America was secure in its Christian foundation, Europe was a place of active intellectual interaction. Philosophers with various schools of thought were developing ideas about the purpose of life, the influences on life, and the nature of government. Who were some of the philosophers who instilled culture changing ideas, or concepts, in the minds of men? Although there are others, nine men exerted significant influence on what is occurring in America today.

George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

was a German philosopher in the 1820s. Hegel rejected the entrenched concept of moral absolutes. He presented a dialectic theory (reasoned argument) to demonstrate that history and social mores are evolutionary. Hegel said that all history is composed of a thesis, an antithesis, and a synthesis. Social evolution occurs when a thesis consisting of an idea people hold to be true is challenged by an antithesis, or opposing idea. Eventually, a resolution results in a blending of the opposing ideas producing the synthesis. The synthesis then becomes the new thesis, and over time, the cycle is repeated. Therefore, according to Hegel, since history is evolutionary, there can be no absolutes.

Ludwig Feuerbach

was also a German philosopher who, in the 1830s, would build on the emerging theory of Hegel. Feuerbach contended that if Hegel was right, and he accepted that he was correct, that there are no absolutes, then there can be no God. God would be absolute Truth according to the Bible, so God cannot exist. Feuerbach said that God is imaginary, that God is nothing more than a fixed idea in the mind of man. This is the concept of "humanism" - that man is the center, the sum total of everything.

Sren Kierkegaard

was born in Denmark in 1813 and died in 1855. He was a prolific writer, although many of his works are reportedly hard to understand. Nevertheless, he gave the world what philosophers refer to as existentialism. In short, Kierkegaard built upon the philosophies of Hegel and Feuerbach. If there are no absolutes, and there is no God, then there is no right or wrong and everything is permissible. The heart of existentialism is the refusal to accept any school of thought or beliefs, and to deny consistent morality. The existentialist lives for the moment at hand, uninhibited by fixed standards or actions. Although Kierkegaard cannot be blamed for all the ramifications of his views, he still retains the title "Father of Existentialism." The outcome of it all remains to be seen, but in concert with the other views under discussion, America is paying a high price for accepting these philosophical concepts.

Karl Marx

was a German social philosopher. Marx built on previously established concepts. If there are no moral absolutes, and therefore no God, then what is the purpose and the future of mankind? Where are we going? Marx wrote the now famous Communist Manifesto in 1848. Communism is based on atheism and its conviction is often repeated in the announcement, "There is no God." In the Manifesto, he set forth a thesis that capitalism, the right to own property, and to be productive for self-enhancement, was wrong. His antithesis was the desire for equity and fairness for all the working people. The synthesis was socialism, or communism, wherein the state would own the land, and everyone (except the elite) would receive an equal share of necessities, regardless of their production efforts. Marx insisted that a socialist world revolution would overwhelm capitalist societies, and produce a communist utopia - heaven on earth. Since it is godless, communism does not recognize the dignity and worth of the individual, and it is implemented and maintained by those in power. As a result, 40 to 50 million people were murdered, simply because they did not agree with the concept. Communism manifests the doctrine that there is no God, thus there is no fixed standard of right and wrong, and therefore, no eternal accountability.

Charles Darwin

was born in England in 1809. He wrote The Origin of the Species in 1859, and The Descent of Man in 1871. His theory was advanced to account for the way in which the various species came to be differentiated from one another, in a concept he called the process of natural selection. Although he left unexplained the question of where everything came from in the beginning, he concluded that man is the product of evolution. Darwin had offered no credible scientific evidence to substantiate his theory. He simply recorded his observations of various animals and plants and then produced his conclusion in a voluminous amount of publications. The multitudes in the world of natural sciences were impressed, but perhaps more importantly, they accepted his theory because he had provided a supposedly scientific alternative to the concept of creation by God. For this reason, Darwin's theory of evolution is adamantly advocated by many in the scientific community. It has been accepted by the education system, and is taught as fact, in virtually all public school classrooms, while the concept of creation by God is banned. This situation should be challenged and the topic is discussed in more detail next month.

Julius Wellhausen

a German scholar, presented his philosophy on religious liberalism in the 1870s. He held that the existing acceptance by society that the Bible was the true and inerrant Word of God should not be accepted. He believed the Bible was simply a collection of human documents, that it was a product of evolutionary thinking. Therefore, in conformance with Hegel's and Feuerbach's contention that there are no absolutes, and no God, he insisted that human reason was totally dependable, and that the Bible could not be trusted. Wellhausen's views quietly advanced the concept of secular humanism.

Sigmund Freud

was born in 1856 in Austria. Based on information obtained from his medical practice, he promoted the view that mankind is motivated primarily by pleasure, specifically sexual pleasure. Freud concluded that sexual instinct is the driving force behind all human action. Acceptance of Freudian psychology is the reason we have the free-wheeling sexual perversion and filth in society today.

John Dewey

was born in 1859 in Burlington, Vermont. While pursuing his university studies, he discovered Hegel's philosophical idealism. Dewey accepted Hegel's view that reality is not a static and fixed thing, rather, it is always changing, that there are no absolute truths. For Dewey, nothing was constant, permanent, or absolutely true. Instead, all things were pragmatic, adaptable, and subject to reinterpretation at the moment. Dewey's education and professional interests lead him into the field of education. His professional stature grew to the point that he was the most respected educator in the world, a reputation he sustained by spreading his ideas through publications. Dewey promoted an educational system that emphasized problem-solving and development of the child in all aspects of his or her self. Emphasis was placed on student participation, and making choices appropriate for the moment, rather than requiring students to adequately learn the basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic. John Dewey, the ardent advocate of progressive education, was arguably the most influential philosopher of the last two centuries. His impact on American society was dramatic, because he infused his doctrine, aided by Darwin's theory on evolution, into the education system.

John Maynard Keynes

was an Englishman born in 1883. His education, professional interests, and hard work eventually resulted in a reputation of being an important person in the field of economics, especially economics as it relates to government. The Great Depression of 1929-33, and its immediate post years, had people searching for a recipe to stimulate the economy. The accepted concept of economics at the time was that at the bottom of an economic cycle; i.e., a depression, savings would rise and interest rates would fall, making money available for industry expansion. An expanding industry would increase employment, causing the economy to improve, thereby stimulating investment. The theory, however, was not working at the time. Keynes believed the stimulant to revive the economy was not in the static values of savings and investment by the private sector. He held that expansion of a business was finite, and that eventually investment would stop, thus halting an upward spiral in the economy. Keynes successfully argued that the best catalyst to get the economy moving was specific, planned, government investment. Whether or not Keynes envisioned significant government intervention on a permanent basis, government borrowing and deficit spending became the course of action for America, and many other nations. The bottom line that the philosophy Keynes brought to the center of the world's thinking, with his Keynesian economics, is that the government has all the answers, and should play a large role in the affairs of the people. Obviously, this doctrine is not in conformance with the United States Declaration of Independence, or the Constitution. Arguably, the approach worked in the short term, but it encouraged government expansion, and today, we are enduring the consequences.

What has been the result of this tide of influence generated by these nine men? It only required a little over 100 years for their philosophies to come into fruition. Starting with Hegel in the 1820s, the concepts of absolute truth, the existence of God, and belief that the Bible was Divinely inspired were undermined. Sexual permissiveness was encouraged, and the self-centered idea that "anything goes" was advocated. In concert with all this, the theory of evolution was accepted at face value as fact. Expansion of the government was acceptable for the purpose of economic development. Expansive government, coupled with socialistic dogma regarding fairness and equity for everyone, provided a desired blanket of security.

Symptoms of the effects of these philosophies on the life of Americans became evident in the 1960s. However, their infusion into American culture had begun earlier in the 20^th century, with their acceptance by a well-developed, organized, expensively financed public education system. There are some good things about our public education system, and many outstanding teachers and professors deserve to be acknowledged and appreciated. Some educators, however, embraced and entrenched the concepts under discussion into the educational process, and extended them to students through the classroom. Evolution, Marxism, Freudianism, and the other alien views were accepted into our school system, and became basic assumptions.

The Department of Education expelled God, and mentally and spiritually programed many children with outcome-based education that destroyed the distinction between right and wrong. Morals have faded and the established concepts of honor, honesty, virtue, and other truths, once considered to be self-evident, are fading fast. They have either not been replaced, or they are being replaced by hollow, self-centered, and morally-bankrupt values that are wreaking havoc with our society.

Ronald J. White is the President of the Coalition of Arizona/New Mexico Counties for Stable Economic Growth. He also conducts Freedom is Not Free - A seminar/forum to restore American liberty, with participants developing and implementing solutions for local and national issues.
P.O. Box 115, Monticello, NM 87939.