I have not watched the Comedy Central show South Park since its inaugural year, back when I was a senior in high school (I can hardly believe that was almost ten years ago). That changed, at least for two episodes, last week when I found out that they had a storyline that centered on Cartman wanting a Nintendo Wii. I thought it was great that the show focused on this console before it was even released, so I had to watch it.
The basic premise was that Cartman wanted a Wii so bad that could not wait the three weeks until its release. Instead, he had his friends freeze him so that he could be thawed and wake up on the morning of the launch without having to bother with patience. Of course, his plan backfired when he was lost in the snow and was not rediscovered for 500 years. At that point the Wii had become ancient technology and he was unable to play it. While I enjoyed the Wii focus I found the rendition of the future to be even more interesting.
Hundreds of years prior, all religions had been vanquished from the Earth by scientists and other enlightened people. Atheism swept the globe as man decided that, logically, there could be no higher power. Instead of saying phrases like “praise God” they would say “praise science,” and “Jesus H. Christ” became “Science H. Logic.” The “Jesus” of the atheists was The Great Dawkins (Richard Dawkins), the most renowned and worshiped purveyor of atheism and evolutionary science in the world today. The interesting thing was that the people of Earth had split into three warring factions of atheists, each of whom believed in a different answer to “The Great Question.” These factions were setup to portray the atheists in the same way that many modern atheists view religions (they also reminded me of the ones in The Life of Brian). One of the most often cited reasons that atheists use as a basis for their ideas that belief in God needs to cease, is that too many people become polarized as a direct result of differences in their religious beliefs. This polarization leads to wars and hate. They claim that an absence of religion would end all “holy” wars and would usher in a new time of peace and acceptance of all. I think that what they have envisioned is nothing more than a dream world, and this cartoon displayed a perfect scenario to illustrate that point.
Ann Coulter correctly framed atheism as a religion in her latest book Godless. It is a good read, if you are into books that focus on society and politics. Her main thesis was that liberalism, and to greater extent atheism are religions in their own right; albeit religions that are god free. I don’t think that religions inherently lead to violence; unless that is, they explicitly teach it (see Radical Islam). I believe that it is human nature to have core beliefs, and to try to find others who share those beliefs to ally with. When others who don’t share those beliefs are encountered it leads to conflict. This holds true whether that belief is that Clay Aiken should have been the American Idol or whether the only path to heaven is through Jesus. The utopia that the atheists envision would in no way usher in sustainable world peace; it would simply alter some of the reasons for the fights.
In a recent story in Wired magazine Richard Dawkins clearly expressed his goals with respects to the spread of atheism throughout the globe. He wants to make it seem that belief in God is so in contrast to logic and science that anyone who does believe will be ridiculed out of that belief. He also made a statement that he hopes to someday limit parent’s rights when it comes to teaching religion to their children. Frankly, this man scares me. He is the earthly “god” of the atheists and has no qualms with stating their intentions. That can only mean that he will not restrain from acting on those intentions. There is going to be a huge war in the coming decades (in fact I would say that we are already in the trenches). This war will be heavily based in the media, with the end goal of making religion, and especially Christians appear unintelligent and naïve. When the Bible speaks of persecution most of us probably only think of physical pain, but now and in the future the persecution that will be experienced will most likely be rooted in creating internal feelings of embarrassment due to external societal pressures. Of course, the Bible teaches us to not be ashamed of our Faith, so for many, myself included, that will be the true test.
I find it kind of funny that I got so much out of an episode of South Park. While many would probably scoff at what was portrayed, the writers did create a story that is a (possible) logical progression of an atheistic society. I want to end this post with a simple question to atheists. Christians want to spread the word of God because we believe that without Jesus others will not go to heaven. Why is it that atheists are so intent on spreading their beliefs?
If you want to see the episode of South Park that inspired this post go here.