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Objectivist Philosophy vs. Christian Religion
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PrefaceThis is my fourth article on the threat of religious dictatorship. I wrote my first paper, Rush Limbaugh: Voice of the Religious Threat in America, in September of 2004. Back then I suspected—based on the evidence I had at the time—that our country was trending rapidly toward religious dictatorship. After my second paper, Sean Hannity and the Tactics of the Enemy, I thought that the political threat was—more specifically—a Christian Democracy. That idea then directed my investigation into a horrifying world: Billy Graham and the Christian Crusade Against Truth and Freedom—the title of my third paper, in which I conclude that the Christian system is fundamentally and purposefully at war with mankind. Having illustrated the Christian warmonger's anti-civilization ideology, I will now turn my attention to his basic war tactics. How does he conduct his evil assault on humanity? What is his methodology? How does he recruit? How does he train? How does he attack? These are the questions I will strive to answer in this paper. But before I begin, let me make it perfectly clear that I am writing for an audience in general agreement with my views in paper three. I attempt here to further expose the supremely evil, predatory nature and operation of the Christian assimilators—those who aim to psychologically destroy human individuals and convert them into the slavish organs of "Christ's Body"—which, in reality, is Christian society or the Church. There are many non-evangelistic Christians whom, despite their religiosity, I respect and, in some cases, admire and love. However, in this essay, I will have absolutely nothing positive to say about true evangelists like Rick Warren. Indeed, I plan to describe, in horrific detail, their monumentally evil essence. Due to the highly disturbing subject matter of this paper, some readers may end up seriously questioning our chances of ever stopping the spread of Christianity. I often struggle with that question myself. But know now that I did not end this paper on such a low note. After showing you the sick tools of the evangelist's zombie factory, I will in the last section offer my initial thoughts on a possible solution to this widespread social problem. In my view, ending Christianity might require something more than the spread of the pro-reason, pro-self philosophy of Ayn Rand's Objectivism, which I have applied to my life and strongly advocate for others. But before we talk of hope, let us more clearly realize the horror we face. Jesus Christ, SuperchurchFollowing Christ includes belonging, not just believing. We are members of his Body—the church. (PDL, p. 131) Rick Warren is the pastor of Saddleback Valley Community Church, which sits upon a small, beautifully landscaped hill overlooking the city of Lake Forest, California. Saddleback is said to be "the fastest-growing Baptist church in the history of America." (PDC, p. 11) It currently averages 22,000 visitors a week. There are members-only events and programs almost every day, and on the weekends there are six public services: two on Saturday and four on Sunday. I attended the 4:30 PM show on an overcast Sunday in March. I visited Saddleback because I wanted to witness firsthand the operation of Warren's superchurch, which Jerry Falwell once called "the miracle story of this century." In particular, I was curious to see how closely Saddleback's actual functioning corresponded to the strategic ideas in Warren's first book, The Purpose Driven Church—a very popular church-growth instruction manual for pastors. As I drove my car onto Saddleback Parkway, past the large church administration building and toward the 120-acre hilltop campus, I was also interested in learning how genuine "members of Christ's Body" look and act when they get together for serious worship. To [the apostle] Paul, being a "member" of the church meant being a vital organ of a living body, an indispensable, interconnected part of the Body of Christ. We need to recover and practice the biblical meaning of membership. The church is a body, not a building; an organism, not an organization. (PDL, p. 131) The first vital organ that I encountered appeared to be a parking attendant. When I reached the campus gate, he directed me to a second parking attendant further down the road. This member waved me into the large parking lot. After parking, I looked around and couldn't see an obvious church building. I had no clue which direction to go. If an organ is somehow severed from its body, it will shrivel and die. It cannot exist on its own, and neither can you. Disconnected and cut off from the lifeblood of a local body, your spiritual life will wither and eventually cease to exist. This is why the first symptom of spiritual decline is usually inconsistent attendance at worship services[.] (PDL, p. 131) Then I noticed some people walking toward a tent-like structure. Not knowing where to go, I followed them. I assumed that they were "members" of Christ's Body, and therefore they must be anxious to get to church and reconnect themselves to each other. We quickly arrived at the structure, which seemed to be a concert venue, and then we turned and crossed the street. On the other side of the road, another "part" of Christ's Body greeted me. She smiled cheerfully and said hello, welcoming me to the main church campus area. The Body of Christ needs you. (PDL, p. 134) I breezed past her and stopped to admire the scene. There was a wide walkway of gray bricks stretched down the middle of the campus. Palm trees, plants and patches of green grass decorated the landscape. A little waterfall tumbled down the middle of a set of stairs that led up to a plaza. At the top of the stairs I was greeted again by yet another portion of Christ. You are not the Body of Christ on your own. You need others to express that. Together, not separated, we are his Body. (PDL, p. 133) I smiled at her and continued down the path. Buildings now faced the walkway on both sides. Casually dressed people were wandering around and talking to each other. I wondered what they might be saying. Many believe one can be a "good Christian" without joining (or even attending) a local church, but God would strongly disagree. (PDL, p. 133) On one side of the plaza, I noticed a walking trail going down and around the side of a little hill. On the other side of the plaza, a wooden bridge connected a pair of two-story buildings. There was a man-made stream along the center path. Except for the Noah's ark playground and three Christian crosses on the little hill, this scene reminded me of a bustling university student center. The place even had a café! I noticed a group of people talking to each other by the crosses, and I wondered whether they were complaining about something. The idolatry of individualism in American culture ... (PDC, p. 338) Suddenly another piece of Christ tried to attach itself to me. As members of Christ's body, we are his hands, his feet, his eyes, and his heart. (PDL, p. 135) I looked her over and couldn't help thinking that she must be Christ's perfectly formed mammary gland. Continuing along the center path, I finally arrived at the mighty church building itself. It was an impressive thing with a broad, glass face and a long, flat head. Upon its see-through, glorified flesh were tattooed a multitude of religious words and phrases. "One Body" especially caught my attention. A huge light-skinned creature, the building had a single rectangular tower rising from its scalp and into the sky. The top of the tower had grown a large Christian cross. The building had two great mouths for doors that were opened before the giant patio in front. An upbeat Christian rock song sounded from within. I scanned the patio, and various bits of Christ's organs were joining together and entering—no, becoming the Body of the Lord, the church. This fantastic miracle was materializing before my eyes. Peeking inside, I caught my first glimpse of Jesus Christ on earth. He was a large group of worshippers, listening to the music, standing and waving and clapping in unison with the band on stage. The Body of Christ, like your own body, is really a collection of many small cells. The life of the Body of Christ, like your body, is contained in the cells. (PDL, p. 139) I took a deep breath and willed myself through those open doors. A cell of the Christian collective promptly handed me a program. Then I found a seat in the back row and watched in silence as approximately two thousand people trained to become mature members of the Body of Christ. The more you mature, the more you will love the Body of Christ and want to sacrifice for it. (PDL, p. 316) My experience inside Saddleback Church was almost as exciting as my journey to it. But that story isn't particularly relevant to this paper. Suffice it to say that there was a lot of Christian music and singing, a lot of nonsensical sermonizing coming from the stage, and, in the end, an especially large amount of sacrificial offerings for the church. Gone Fishing!Jesus called out: "Come along with me and I will show you how to fish for the souls of men!" (The Living Bible, Matthew 4:19) How did Rick Warren collect such a large group of Christian collectivists who are ready and willing to sacrifice themselves for the church? [T]he church will last for eternity. It is worth giving our lives for and it deserves our best. (PDC, p. 21) To put the answer in Christian terminology: Warren has gone "fishing." God called us to be fishers of men[.] (PDC, p. 50) And like Jesus in the New Testament, Warren's prey of course is not real fish. It's human souls. And his hunting tools are not a fishing rod, a hook and a worm. They are the tactics of Christianity. The Serious Fisherman Serious fishermen ... will go to any length to catch fish. (PDC, p. 195) With the Christian religion as his weapon of choice, Warren has managed to spear a whole school of fish and turn them into the cells that comprise the Body of Christ. And he accomplished this feat because he took his fishing seriously. I've always loved Jesus' analogy of evangelism as "fishing," but I've had one hesitation about it: Fishing is just a hobby for most people, something they do in their spare time. No one sees fishing as a responsibility. Yet fishing for men is serious business. It's not a hobby for Christians; it is to be our lifestyle! (PDC, p. 203) Hunting for souls is Warren's lifestyle. It's his passion. I want to catch the biggest fish I can, and I want to catch as many as I can. (PDC, p. 51) But why is it his lifestyle? Why is evangelism his career? It is important to answer this question first, before analyzing Warren's fishing tactics. For, such knowledge will help provide the proper context for understanding those tactics. The Christian Predator ... God spoke personally to me and made it very clear that he was calling me to be a pastor. Then and there, I promised God I'd give my entire life to pastoring a single church if that was his will for me. (PDC, p. 26) Warren's "God told me to do it" answer might satisfy the typical Christian's level of curiosity about why evangelists do what they do, but I have a slightly different answer—which should be of interest to anyone who hasn't received personal career advice from a mystical being. To convey the real reason why pastors like Warren fish for human souls, it is necessary to begin by describing what Christianity does to a person who takes it seriously. A clearer understanding of the hardcore evangelist's psychology will lead to the true answer to why people like Warren go fishing. Surrendered people [serious Christians] obey God's word, even if it doesn't make sense. (PDL, p. 80) A real Christian, you see, surrenders his reason (his common sense) to religious faith (God's Word). He does this on principle. He consciously attempts to apply the self-sacrificial commandments of Christianism to the workings of his own mind. When the Bible and reality contradict one another, which they do quite frequently, a true Christian resolves the conflict in his own mind by accepting the Word of God as true and rejecting the facts of reality as false. Years and years of such irrational choices inevitably result in the atrophy and perhaps irreparable damage of the Christian's rational faculty—his ability to reason. Reason is the most crucial faculty of the conscious, human mind. It is what distinguishes us from lesser animals. We use it to, as Ayn Rand put it, "perceive the facts of reality." When a Christian—on the most important questions of life—regularly rejects his ability to perceive and understand reality, what he does in practice is destroy his ability to survive independently. He converts himself into an irrational person who now has only two remaining options, if he wishes to continue existing in this world. He can appeal to his own pitiful dependency and beg for money on the streets. Or, he can turn to a life of crime—a life of initiating force against others in order to steal what he needs to survive. To avoid dying or becoming a common beggar, the more monstrous of the faithful choose predation against their own species. The problem with preying upon humans, however, is that we, unlike other animals, are capable of intelligently defending ourselves from force. To stop criminals, we put fences around our houses. We lock our doors and bar our windows. We carry knives and guns for self-defense. We create state and local governments that protect individual rights. And we put predators in jail. For this reason, the most effective thief is the one who successfully conceals—or camouflages—his predatory acts, so that his victims don't realize they're being pilfered until it's too late. Some robbers, such as cat burglars and pickpockets, use simple stealth to avoid being detected while they take your valuables. Other thieves are more confrontational. For example, scam artists like faith "healers" and "snake oil" peddlers engage their victims with convincing lies. They defraud unsuspecting people into handing over their money and property voluntarily. Such thieves are nasty indeed. But, perhaps the most sinister camouflage ever invented is the Christian system itself. Evangelism is assumed and preached by the predator who not only aims to steal your money and property, but also wants to scam and control your mind. Worse than common thieves, evangelists are a type of scam artist who convinces people to sacrifice their time and money willfully. The coins are always in the mouths of the fish. If you'll focus on fishing (evangelism), God will pay your bills. (PDC, p. 202) The elaborate guise of Christianity—developed and perfected over centuries—prevents many unenlightened people from recognizing the evangelist pastor for what he truly is: a faith-based fraud who preys on others in order to survive. When finances get tight in a church, often the first thing cut is the evangelism and advertising budget. That is the last thing you should cut. It is the source of new blood and life for your church. (PDC, p. 202) Warren requires regular supplies of fresh blood and lives in order to keep his parasitic operation alive and growing. Churches that make new member assimilation a priority and have a plan for doing it are usually blessed with growth. (PDC, p. 311) Warren repeats the tall tales, false promises, and self-destructive moral principles in the Bible not merely to con someone out of a few dollars, but to assault and assimilate their very soul. He uses biblical ideas to fish for human beings who will obey, support, promote, and defend his worthless, reasonless existence. That is the real reason why Warren has gone fishing. It's a matter of his self-ruination and his sick manner of personal survival. If he is to remain living and avoid having to beg on the streets, then he must catch people who, to some extent, still think for themselves and produce. He needs churchgoers who haven't totally surrendered their reason and self-interest to the dogmas of faith and self-sacrifice—people who have not completely self-lobotomized their most important mental faculty. God gives some people the ability to make a lot of money ... People with this ability are good at building a business, making deals or sales, and reaping a profit. If you have this business ability, you should be using it for God's glory ... return at least a tithe (10 percent) of the profit to God as an act of worship. (PDL, p. 243) People like Warren are always on the hunt for dupes who still have enough sense to make money and survive independently, but not enough sense to recognize the terrible religious fraud of Christianity. For, it is these fishpeople who donate to the church. They are the hosts who enable parasitic evangelists to survive and thus continue preying upon human souls. A Widely Accepted Motive Warren would undoubtedly deny having such a motive for practicing evangelism. How could he possibly admit to being such a monster? Remember, he would rather have you believe—on faith—that God personally ordered him to start a church and go fishing. I simply knew God had called me to plant a new church[.] (PDC, p. 27) If pressed by an unbeliever, Warren would undoubtedly offer an alternative, less ridiculous explanation for his never-ending fishing expedition. You might hear him repeat the very common fantasy that evangelists want to "save" people—presumably from going to hell in the afterlife. (PDC, p. 197) He might also tell you that pastors want "to bring the unchurched, irreligious people of [their] community to Christ." (PDC, p. 39) Unfortunately, I think this version of the "conversion" motive is widely accepted. Many people don't question it and assume it to be an honest motive, because it sounds plausible to them. They see most evangelists in the same way they see advocates for a particular philosophy or scientific theory, as people who are sincere and passionate about converting others to their chosen belief system. Because this motive has an ounce of credibility—and doesn't sound like a complete fairytale—I shall examine it in depth over the next four sections of this paper. I won't bother attempting to prove that Warren lies about receiving instructions from God or wanting to rescue people from eternal damnation. These notions are arbitrary assertions, and I will treat them as such. There is no evidence whatsoever for God or Satan, just as there is no evidence whatsoever for Zeus or Hades. Therefore, I will give no credence to Warren's fantastical motives. Instead, I will show you what it actually means for him to "bring the unchurched to Christ." I will show you how he "fishes for souls." You will see the undisguised tactics of a master evangelist. Then you can make up your own mind about Warren's honesty and true motive for engaging in evangelism. The Fisher's Textbook[T]he greatest church-growth textbook is the Bible. (PDC, p. 112) The first thing to understand about Warren's methodology is that it isn't really his methodology. In fact, he openly admits that he is applying the tactics that Jesus himself invented two thousand years ago. The secret of effective evangelism is to not only share Christ's message but to follow Christ's methodology. I believe Jesus gave us not only what to say but also how to share it. He had a strategy. He modeled timeless principles of evangelism that still work today if we'll apply them. (PDC, p. 186) The second point to realize is that evangelism requires minimal mental effort, making it the perfect career choice for the faith-based predator who has ruined his faculty of reasoning. Basically, if you can read and communicate the Bible to others, you can be an evangelist. Evangelism is usually a process of repeated exposure to the Good News [Bible stories]. (PDC, p. 304) The last general thing to comprehend about evangelism is that its assimilation process, according to Warren, was essentially perfected in the Bible. The New Testament is the greatest church-growth book ever written. For the things that really matter, you can't improve on it. It's the owner's manual for the church. (PDC, p. 18) Even if you were an evangelist with some brains left, and you wanted to, say, invent a new fishing tactic, you would find it impossible to do, says Warren, because the Bible is the ideal survival guide. You can't make it better. A master evangelist can apply the evil principles of Christian assimilation to his unique cultural situation, but he can't improve upon those principles. Therefore, the most meaningful question a pastor ever asks himself is: What would Jesus do? Look at Christ's ministry on earth. Ask, "What did Jesus do while he was here? What would he do if he were here today?" Whatever Jesus did while he was on earth, we are to continue today. (PDC, p. 97) Okay, so what would Jesus do if he were here today? How would he hunt for human souls? Let's now begin our critical examination of how Pastor Rick goes fishing. Baiting the HookWhen you go fishing, do you use the same kind of bait for every kind of fish? Of course not. Do you use the same size of hook for every kind of fish? No. You must use the bait and hook that best matches the fish you want to catch. (PDC, pp. 196-197) In order to hide his predatory nature and remain undetected by his human prey, Warren camouflages his Christian hook with biblical things that look like human values—things that people actually want and need, things like truth, friendship, and purpose. What Warren's victims fail to realize, however, is that the thing being dangled in the pond isn't really what they want or need. It isn't a real truth, a real friendship, or a real purpose. It isn't a real value at all. In reality, it is a fantastically tied lure meant to deceive them. The "Truth" Bait To discover your purpose in life you must turn to God's Word, not the world's wisdom. You must build your life on eternal truths[.] (PDL, p. 20) One of the evangelist's favorite lures is something he calls "truth." Other common names for this particular bait are the "Good News," the "Word of God," or the "Bible." The key to tying the "truth" lure is that it must be interesting to the fish you want to catch. To the unchurched, dull preaching is unforgivable. Truth poorly delivered is ignored. On the other hand, the unchurched will listen to absolute foolishness if it is interesting. (PDC, p. 231) There is, of course, much interesting foolishness in the Bible. I won't attempt to systematically list all of its countless fantasies and fallacies. Nor will I try to identify the various kinds of people who fall prey to biblical foolishness. For now, it's important to understand only that the "truth" bait is not truth at all. It is a lure tied with interesting biblical fiction: supernatural creatures and magical worlds, myths and miracles, heroes and villains, births and deaths, sex and murder, kings and slaves, wives and whores, angels and demons, wars and floods, gardens and wastelands, virgins and homosexuals. The Bible is filled with fantastical people and places and stories, all of which the evangelist labels "truth" and then tosses into the water whenever he goes fishing. Getting ignorant fish to bite on the "truth" lure is one of the most important tactics of the Christian assimilator, because it directly attacks his prey's natural focus on reality. It injects poisonous deceit into the fish's ecosystem. And once a man consciously rejects the use of his reason and instead faithfully consumes some biblical morsel of Christianity, he has started down the slow and painful road to complete mental surrender. The most important decision you can make today is to settle this issue of what will be the ultimate authority for your life. Decide that regardless of culture, tradition, reason, or emotion, you choose the Bible as your final authority. (PDL, p. 187) [emphasis added] May God help those who choose the Bible over Reason! The "Friend" Bait [T]he most shocking truth is this: Almighty God yearns to be your Friend! (PDL, p. 85) "Friend" is another very popular bait used by evangelists. When properly tied this lure usually has the appearance of a wise father figure who offers you advice. It can also look like a kind young man who wants to hear your deepest, darkest secrets. Warren refers to this bait using a few different names, but by far the most common term for it is "God." There is nothing—absolutely nothing—more important than developing a friendship with God. (PDL, p. 99) A real friendship, of course, is comprised of two individuals who actually exist and have something in common. They have similar interests or beliefs. They enjoy each other's company. They make use of each other's ideas or skills. There is a mutual exchange of each other's time and value. Such a friendship enhances the lives of both individuals. It's a win-win situation. Being "friends" with God, however, means something completely different. For starters, such a relationship is incomprehensible. Even Warren acknowledges this fact to the extent that he can: It's difficult to imagine how an intimate friendship is possible between an omnipotent, invisible, perfect God and a finite, sinful human being. (PDL, p. 87) When I was a Christian, I too found it quite difficult to imagine a relationship with an "invisible" being who never called me on the phone or wrote me a letter. Put more bluntly: You simply can't be friends with God because he's never around. There's no point in being someone's buddy if they're going to avoid you for your entire life. Smarter fish will come to this same conclusion, or something similar to it, and they will start to question the value of having an imaginary friend. Therefore, also essential to Warren's "friend" bait is including some kind of rationalization for why God completely ignores his friends. To mature your friendship, God will test it with periods of seeming separation—times when it feels as if he has abandoned or forgotten you. (PDL, p. 108) Invariably, these "tests"—these "periods of separation"—become lifetimes of loneliness, because, let's face it, God will never shake someone's hand or give someone a hug. He's a fictional character—like Zeus before him and Superman today. He doesn't exist. Never has, never will. Period. Because God is never around, many lonely Christians will thus find the idea of churchgoing quite appealing. And Warren counts on that fact. Positioning the church as an extended family ... will strike a sensitive chord in many lonely hearts. (PDC, p. 315) In church lonely sheep can at least baa in unison with their fellow sheep, who are living, breathing, real creatures. These sheep, if they're lucky, might even experience a cool, refreshing tingle throughout their bodies, as their pastor masters lay hands upon them and fleece a valuable coat of wool from their flesh. [M]oney spent on evangelism is never an expense, it's always an investment. The people you reach will more than repay the cost you invested to reach them. (PDC, p. 201) Who knew that evangelism was such a moneymaker? By convincing people to focus on a fantasy friendship with Jesus, the evangelist pastor successfully diverts their attention away from the only real relationship that exists—that of predator and prey. These lonely, hooked fish struggle in vain with the biblical concept of "friend," meanwhile Warren is grinning and rubbing his hands together in anticipation of their future sacrifices for the church. The "Purpose" Bait You discover your identity and purpose through a relationship with Jesus Christ. (PDL, p. 20) The third and final Christian bait I will examine is called "purpose." This is perhaps Warren's absolute favorite lure—the one he uses everywhere he goes. He is, after all, the Purpose-Driven® guru. Like the other lures in the evangelist's arsenal, "purpose" is also fantastically tied. In the end, it's made to look exactly like an answer to the very important question: "What on earth am I here for?" Which, by the way, is the subtitle of PDL. Those who design this lure usually begin by providing some kind of supernatural explanation for human existence. You are alive because God wanted to create you! (PDL, p. 22) Once that idea is accepted, then the Christian lure-maker will probably offer a magical cause for human reproduction. Your birth was no mistake or mishap, and your life is no fluke of nature. Your parents may not have planned you, but God did. (PDL, p. 22) Next comes the fantastic explanation for the fact of your individual body and your individual personality. God prescribed every single detail of your body. He deliberately chose your race, the color of your skin, your hair, and every other feature. He custom-made your body just the way he wanted it. He also determined the natural talents you would possess and the uniqueness of your personality. (PDL, pp. 22-23) The "purpose" lure even explains why you will do the things you haven't done yet. [God] planned the days of your life in advance[.] (PDL, p. 23) And, finally, it reveals why you were created in the first place. God made you so he could love you. (PDL, p. 24) Ah, wasn't that nice of God? He gave us life so that he could have somebody to love. He must truly care about his children and want us to be happy. I suppose that is why he lovingly damns us to eternal hellfire if we question his invisible existence too much and don't love him to pieces for constantly avoiding us. [I]f you reject his love, forgiveness, and salvation, you will spend eternity apart from God forever. (PDL, p. 37) "Eternity apart from God" is Warren's nice way of saying: You're going to hell, stupid sinner! With all of Warren's arbitrary talk about our "purpose," it might be easy for some people to evade, forget, or not notice his purpose in spreading Christianity. Warren seeks to rob you of your purpose, which should be to do what is objectively in your self-interest, as an individual in this world, and to achieve your own happiness here on earth. Warren absolutely intends to make you renounce this real purpose for your personal life. With all the fascinating attractions, mesmerizing media, and enjoyable experiences available today, it's easy to forget that the pursuit of happiness is not what life is about. (PDL, p. 49) Did you catch that? Pursuing happiness is not your purpose! Remember, people like Warren need others to support their reasonless, dependent existence. Of what use are you to them if you're off achieving your own ends and pursuing your own happiness? The Christian assimilator's goal is to turn you into his means of survival and pleasure. He wants to convert you into a selfless servant to his purpose, which is to collect a whole school of servants who will support his sick existence. Remember, God shaped you for service, not for self-centeredness. Without a servant's heart, you will be tempted to misuse your shape for personal gain. (PDL, p. 258) Warren needs an army of servants who will renounce personal gain and selflessly march to his God-inspired orders. Much like a soldier, a servant must always be standing by for duty ... If you only serve when it's convenient for you, you're not a real servant. Real servants do what's needed, even when it's inconvenient. (PDL, pp. 258-259) At least a soldier gets paid for his services! The tithing churchgoer, however, is simply used to fulfill the will of his Christian masters. God loves to use weak people. (PDL, p. 272) Shocking? God has never been impressed with strength or self-sufficiency. In fact, he is drawn to people who are weak and admit it. (PDL, p. 273) Man, I'm less than halfway through this paper. We've barely glimpsed the horror. God uses people to accomplish his purposes. (PDC, p. 60) Note that God's—i.e., Warren's—use for people is not really a purpose at all. It's a sacrificial duty—a command that, if not obeyed, will be punished according to how much political power the Christian masters wield over the society in which you live. I find it curious that Rick Warren has written two books with the word "purpose" prominently displayed in the titles. He has registered the term "purpose-driven" as a professional business mark. Clearly, this idea of "purpose" has special importance in his world. His whole church methodology is built upon it. In my view, Warren is desperately attempting to conceal his true purpose as a master Christian assimilator. The easiest way for him to distract attention away from his purpose is to preach endlessly about your purpose. Warren can't have his prey understanding that his goal in life is to use them and gut them of all value. Therefore, whenever he goes fishing, he always baits his hook with the lure of your "purpose"—the fantasy of loving and living for God. It is with baits such as "truth," "friend," and "purpose" that Warren attracts and lures people to his church. And when he gets a bite, and some fish begins to struggle with the idea of God's "revealed wisdom," God's "desire to love you," or God's "will for your life," that's when Warren the Evangelist springs into action, pulls hard on the fishing rod, cranks the reel—and drives that painful Christian hook deeper and deeper into his victim's soul. Reeling in the FishToo many pastors go fishing without ever reeling in the line or drawing up the net. (PDC, p. 302) With such fabulously crafted lures as "truth," "friendship," and "purpose," evangelists have managed to convince countless numbers of fish to take their bait. But what happens after these fish get caught on the hook of Christianity? Do they suddenly realize what's happening? Is there a subsequent battle between predator and prey? Sadly, many people surrender with little or no fight. They are often overwhelmed and taken in by the powerful influence of religious authorities in our culture. However, there are many others who are more thoughtful, honest, and courageous. Rather than give up their minds so easily, some people will recognize or sense that something is wrong. They will start looking at and thinking about reality again. In time they will use their reason, and they will resist the various religious fantasies that they are able to identify. Even if they are poor thinkers, it will still be very difficult for them—in this advanced scientific age—to believe all of the arbitrary and disproved assertions found in the Bible. For this reason, once a fish has been caught on the hook, an evangelist's next and most urgent task is to ruthlessly destroy his victim's will to know reality—his victim's desire and ability to understand the truth about this world. Struggling fish must not be allowed to think about their new situation. They must not be given time to realize their most rational choices. Somehow their minds must be stopped from contemplating real alternatives. And the most effective way to do that, without physically killing them, is to overwhelm their minds with irrational, faith-based choices—to pummel them with a mind-breaking series of false alternatives that are designed to distance a man's consciousness from the facts of this world. Speculation vs. Revelation How, then, do you discover the purpose you were created for? You have only two options. Your first option is speculation. This is what most people choose. They conjecture, they guess, they theorize ... Perhaps the most lethal false alternative is one that Warren refers to as "speculation vs. revelation." Either you guess at the truth like a hardcore skeptic, never knowing whether you're right, or you look at the Bible and accept its make-believe answer on faith. Given only these two options—and not the explicit alternative of reason, logic, and the scientific method—why would anyone choose mere speculation? [W]hen it comes to determining the purpose of life, even the wisest philosophers are just guessing. (PDL, p. 19) According to Warren, the smartest philosophers (i.e., those who attempt to use reason) have been speculating about the purpose of life for centuries, and they have gotten nowhere. The greatest thinkers in human history were merely "guessing." Not a single one of them came to a rock-solid truth about the meaning of life. Therefore, how are you going to do any better? You're a simple fish. You're not that smart. You'd be much better off giving up the use of your little mind and faithfully embracing revelation as your means of gaining knowledge. [The Bible] explains what no self-help or philosophy book could know. (PDL, p. 20) Warren presents this simple choice: philosophy or the Bible. And once hooked fish choose the Bible, is it any wonder why they then blindly and obediently accept their new life of pain and suffering as normal? After all, Jesus tells them that they should be suffering. Jesus warned us that we would have problems in the world. No one is immune to pain or insulated from suffering, and no one gets to skate through life problem-free. Life is a series of problems. (PDL, p. 193) Let's take a step back now and try to put this in perspective. If you're having problems accepting the Bible as the "truth," if you're lonely because God is never around to be your "friend," and if you're suffering because you've renounced your own pursuit of happiness for the sake of God's "purpose" for you as a sacrificial servant—if you're experiencing this sort of pervasive, religious pain, then by God you simply must learn to accept it. Misery is what life is all about! In fact, you might as well put the whole matter out of your mind. Thinking about it won't help. It would be much better for you to forget your pain and concentrate your thoughts on God's thoughts. It is vital that you stay focused on God's plan, not your pain or problem. (PDL, p. 198) I believe that "speculation vs. revelation" (also known as "skepticism vs. mysticism") is the most sinister false alternative ever invented. For, its ultimate intention is to steer your attention away from two of your most important survival tools: your reason and your emotional pain. Emotional pain allows you to perceive and comprehend that something is wrong with your life, and reason allows you to figure out what that problem actually is and correct it. But to a struggling fish who has rejected his reason in favor of revelation, emotional pain is of no use. Once he gives up on the validity of thinking, and once he has accepted chronic emotional pain as a condition of life, he makes it much easier for predators like Warren to reel him into their boat. Man's rational faculty is the evangelist's worst enemy. That is why Warren is so desperate for us to choose either speculation or revelation. If we pick speculation, then we can never really be certain of anything, including Warren's predatory purpose, because we've renounced the validity of reason as the means for understanding our lives. And if we choose revelation, then we are voluntarily heading right into Warren's Christian net. Either way, we have moved our minds one level away from our only real option—our only rational alternative: reason. It's through the use of reason, logic, and science that we discover the meaning and purpose of our individual lives. We must do the thinking for ourselves. We must observe the world and discover facts, induce rational principles from these facts, and act on the basis of this knowledge. It's this crucial truth about human reasoning that Warren tries to keep from the struggling fish on his hook. He crams their gasping mouths so full of "revelation" that eventually there's no more room for them to chew on reason. Earth vs. Eternity Now, it's going to take more than one false alternative to destroy a man's mind completely. Rejecting the principle of reason definitely has a major, negative impact on one's life. But a human being is a very powerful natural system. He possesses a conceptual consciousness, which he develops and sustains using his highly evolved brain, which is wired to his five senses, which directly perceive this ever-present world. Accepting a single mistaken principle may cause considerable damage to a man's mind, but it isn't going to totally destroy him. It will take more than one fundamental error and many more instances of wrong, faith-based choices before a human being is hopelessly lost to irrationality and self-destruction. Even after accepting the very harmful principle of revelation, a man's natural operation will include perceiving the world. For quite some time, perhaps up to the day he dies, he will sense the mental tug of reality. His adult brain will perform its natural function. It will subconsciously process sense data and churn out reality-based percepts—even when its owner contributes only minimal focus on the world. Given the evidence of nature, an honest man may realize the error of his ways and reject what he took on faith. For this reason, the serious evangelist requires more than one false alternative if he is to stop people from using their minds. And one of these additional fallacies is something called "earth vs. eternity." At most, you will live a hundred years on earth, but you will spend forever in eternity. (PDL, p. 36) The idea is fairly simple. You must decide between this place where you live now and the eternal realm. To which world are you going to pay attention? To which world will you devote your life? Realizing that life on earth is just a temporary assignment should radically alter your values. Eternal values, not temporal ones, should become the deciding factors for your decisions. (PDL, p. 50) This choice combats a man's focus on this world by persuading him to renounce earth and instead concentrate on an imaginary, invisible realm called "eternity." The Bible says, "We fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." (PDL, p. 50) Struggling fish almost always fight this crazy idea—to the extent they can, given their level of intelligence. Many of them can accept the idea of an invisible god or two—or three. But an entire invisible world? That can be a difficult sell. So the evangelist is happy to provide his fish with a little motivation for believing such an incredible notion. In God's eyes, the greatest heroes of faith are ... those who treat this life as a temporary assignment and serve faithfully, expecting their promised reward in eternity. (PDL, p. 51) And if the promise of heavenly rewards isn't enough motivation to renounce earth, there's always the well-established biblical threat of eternal punishments in hell. A fish who succumbs to this attack—and accepts the idea of eternity over earth—strikes a second heavy blow to his own mind. For, there is now another dangerous principle separating him from the conscious use of his rational faculty. On the one hand, revelation stops him from taking reason, itself, seriously. And on the other hand, eternity stops him from paying serious attention to reality, which is necessary for the operation of his reason. In essence, he has rejected both the theory and the practice of rational thought. He has thoroughly cut himself off from both his mind and his world. And once he has done that, he is now ready to begin surrendering his entire person (body and mind) to the authority and demands of his masters. You vs. God It's not about you. Those are the opening lines of PDL, and they introduce the reader to Warren's third false alternative. It's "you vs. God." It's either God's plan or yours. God's happiness or yours. You can't have both. And if you choose "you" over "God," then the Bible has revealed that you're going to a fiery hell for the rest of eternity. But even with the threat of hell, renouncing one's self as a whole—flesh and soul—is quite a difficult notion for many people to swallow, as long as they still have an ounce of self-interest remaining. Struggling fish will often try to forget about this frightening choice. Their minds will wander, and they'll start to wonder about things that will make them truly happy. Maybe, in a moment of worldly selfishness, they'll decide to buy a fancy new television set instead of giving that money to their church family. Warren, therefore, must constantly remind such people about "you vs. God." Never forget that life is not about you! You exist for God's purpose, not vice versa. (PDL, p. 173) And further along in PDL he reminds them again: You were shaped to serve God. (PDL, p. 234) And in Chapter 36 he writes: To fulfill your mission will require that you abandon your agenda and accept God's agenda for your life. (PDL, p. 286) Then, after describing a fantasy reunion with God in heaven, Warren offers his fish this parting reminder as the last line of his book: We will praise [God] for his plan and live for his purposes forever! (PDL, p. 319) To help us understand the context of this nightmare, let's imagine now that we—you, the reader, and me, the author—are the ignorant fish caught on Warren's hook. What might we be thinking? Suppose that we've consumed one or more of Warren's Christian lures, and we've chosen to renounce our reason and this world and have faith in the Bible and eternity. We've also accepted the idea that our first purpose in life is to serve God rather than our own self-interest. And now we're so mentally beat up from struggling on the Christian hook that we can no longer think for ourselves. We're not sure what's real anymore. We don't even know who we are most of the time. Unbelievers wrestle with the same deep questions believers have: Who am I? ... Where am I going? (PDC, p. 244) Am I a sinner? Will I go to Heaven? Is my destiny Hell? Have I been forgiven? What should I do next with my life? Well, if I'm that fish caught on the Christian hook, being reeled into the Christian boat, I might think that this is my lucky day, because Rick Warren is the fisherman, and he looks like a nice guy in a Hawaiian shirt who can tell me what to do with my life. God wants a family [a church], and he created you to be a part of it. This is God's second purpose for your life[.] (PDL, p. 117) Ah, that's right! Church! ... I make no apology for telling people that the most important thing they may do with their lives is to join Saddleback Church[.] (PDC, p. 392) Thank you, Pastor Rick. You're a lifesaver. I should join a church—like the one you operate in beautiful Lake Forest, California. So long, world! Goodbye, mind! Adios, self! I'm on my way to Saddleback Church! Nothing on earth is more valuable to God than his church ... You are commissioned by Jesus Christ to do everything possible to preserve the unity, protect the fellowship, and promote harmony in your church family and among all believers. (PDL, p. 161) Praise the Lord! Sign me up, Warren! I'm ready to become a member of Christ's Body. I'm anxious to serve Almighty God. Reel me into your boat, split my belly open, and dump my fish guts all over your collection plate. Gutting the CatchIf your church is serious about reaching the unchurched, you must be willing to put up with people who have a lot of problems. Fishing is often messy and smelly. Many churches want the fish they catch to be already scaled, gutted, cleaned, and cooked. That is why they never reach anyone. (PDC, p. 198) By the time somebody converts to Christianity and joins a church, they've probably accepted all or most of the core fantasies and principles in the Bible. They believe in Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary, Satan, Noah's ark, the Great Flood, Moses, the Ten Commandments, Adam and Eve, the Garden of Eden, the Tree of Knowledge, divine revelations, supernatural realms, the Creation, Almighty God and his purposes for Mankind—there's no end to this nonsense. Throw a dart at any page in the Bible, and you'll probably hit a myth. Serious Christians have serious problems. Their minds are full of lies, and their spending money is going to the church. It's my belief that the majority of regular churchgoers are hopelessly lost to irrationality and self-sacrifice. It would take a magnificent surge of honesty and courage for them to heal their minds and save themselves from religion. However, I also believe that many churchgoers do not attend regularly. They visit on holidays and special occasions, but they find more important things to do on most Sundays. These people are not serious about religion. They certainly have been duped, but living a Christian life is not their first, conscious priority. They have yet to be fully assimilated. There is still hope for them. If you don't have a system and a structure to assimilate and keep the people you reach, they won't stay with your church. You'll have as many people going out the back door of your church as are coming in the front door. (PDC, p. 310) Many struggling Christians find it difficult to give up some of their non-Christian ways of living—in particular their more rational habits, such as taking this world seriously, using common sense, and pursuing their own happiness. Even after accepting the principles of Christianity, many people have difficulty applying them to daily life. They know they should go to church on Sunday, but they really, really want to go to the ballgame instead. Maybe they want to check out the one-day sale at the department store or the new exhibit at the museum. Something in this big world tempts them away from religious sacrifice. The church must teach biblical convictions in order to counter the secular values to which believers are constantly exposed. (PDC, p. 356) In order for Warren to finish gutting his less serious fish, he requires an additional process that will turn them into more consistent servants of the church. While you were given a brand new nature at the moment of conversion, you still have old habits, patterns, and practices that need to be removed and replaced. (PDL, p. 220) Warren may have hooked these people with interesting fantasies and reeled them in with false alternatives. But now he needs to teach them Christian habits—new, ritualistic behaviors that will help them to stop their deeply ingrained secular routines. The most practical and powerful way to get believers headed in the direction of spiritual maturity [i.e., complete mental surrender] is to help them establish habits that promote spiritual growth. (PDC, p. 348) Let's take a look at a few of these Christian habits that are used to gut fishpeople. The Habit of Memorizing the Bible If you're a self-proclaimed Christian, but you can't help thinking that something in the Bible sounds silly and incorrect, then Warren has the perfect remedy for your problem: memorizing the Bible. If you really want to improve your life, memorizing Scripture may be the most important habit you can begin. (PDL, p. 11) Bible memorization may be the "most important habit" a Christian can begin because it trains him to stop focusing on his rational thoughts, which tend to turn him away from irrational, faith-based ideas. It teaches him to stop using and taking seriously reason, logic, and science. It helps him to more consistently apply and practice the principle of revelation by showing him how to replace his unique, secular thinking with mindless readings and repetitious thoughts of Bible verses. Basically, it trains him to brainwash himself. It is not enough just to believe the Bible; I must fill my mind with it[.] (PDL, p. 187) Preaching and teaching the habit of memorizing the Bible serves the evangelist by convincing his struggling fish to habitually empty their minds of rational ideas and pack them with religious ones. A Christian who stuffs his mind with the Bible will find that he has little or no room left for serious thoughts about this world, such as the idea that evangelism is a scam. The Habit of Praying to God According to Warren, praying to God is another "foundational habit" that Christians "need to develop as [they] grow to spiritual maturity." (PDC, p. 348-349) Prayer is the practice of turning one's vision away from this existence and concentrating instead on an imagined supernatural world or being. It is the ritual of purposefully blocking out the earth—of solemnly lowering your head, shutting your eyes, folding your hands, and pretending to communicate with an invisible Master. [Y]ou must force yourself to think about God at different times in your day. You must train your mind to remember God. (PDL, p. 89) Struggling fish often have difficulty applying the principle of "eternity." They get caught up in all of the material stuff in this world, and they forget about the magical kingdom of God. It temporarily slips their mind. Fortunately, for these people, Warren also has the cure to their ailment. He can teach them how to pray without ever stopping. The Bible tells us to "pray all the time." How is it possible to do this? One way is to use "breath prayers" throughout the day ... You choose a brief sentence or a simple phrase that can be repeated to Jesus in one breath: "You are with me ... You are my God." Pray it as often as possible so it is rooted deep in your heart. (PDL, p. 89) I'm sure most people have trouble with that one. So, if your respiratory system can't breathe prayers nonstop, maybe an hourly habit is right for you. Benedictine monks use the hourly chimes of a clock to remind them to pause and pray "the hour prayer." If you have a watch or cell phone with an alarm, you could do the same. (PDL, p. 89) And if you ever experience a true crisis moment, you can always try a "microwave" prayer: [A] "microwave" prayer ... is quick and to the point: Help! SOS! Mayday! When temptation strikes, you don't have time for a long conversation with God; you simply cry out. (PDL, p. 207) The habit of prayer trains people to ignore earth and fantasize about eternity and God. And because God doesn't really exist, habituated Christians invariably end up turning to either the Bible (God's Word) or their pastors (God's representatives) for instructions on what to do with their lives. And as far as I can tell, those instructions always include developing a third important Christian habit: tithing to the church. The Habit of Tithing to the Church After a fishperson's mind has been sufficiently gutted by Bible memorization and prayer, it's now time to cut straight into his wallet. Warren convinces his greatest victims to sign a "maturity covenant," which commits them to giving "a weekly tithe to God." Members must agree to "giving the first 10% of [their] income" to the church. (PDC, p. 350) And this contract is renewed every year. We've found that an annual recommitment emphasis helps people who got discouraged or quit the habits to make a fresh start. (PDC, p. 349) To put this in some kind of perspective, suppose that you make $50,000 a year. Then you would be obligated to hand over $5,000 of that to the church. Have you ever donated $5,000 per year to a single organization in your life? Maybe you have if you earn a lot of money, but I haven't. And what if you are rich? What if your annual income is several million dollars? Is church really worth all that money? It probably is if you're the type of person who would join the "Kingdom Builders" club. [Kingdom Builders] ... try to make as much money as they can, but they do it in order to give it away. They use the wealth to fund God's church and its mission in the world. There we have it, folks. The mature, assimilated Christian's ultimate, undisguised purpose on earth: to give buckets of cash to the church. I love the church with all of my heart. It is the most brilliant concept ever created. (PDC, p. 395) By now you should not be surprised by Warren's intense love for his church. Let's not forget that Saddleback—an evangelistic megafactory in which thousands of human souls are systematically processed and gutted for valuables—is Pastor Rick's chosen means of survival. He values his church like I value my life. He loves and cherishes it above all else. And he sustains his church using evangelism while I sustain my life using reason. For predators like Warren, the Christian church and the tactics of evangelism make possible their evil, anti-man existence. The Serious Problem of Christian CollectivismEvery sensible man, every honest man, must hold the Christian sect in horror. (Voltaire) Throughout history, many reason-loving, Western thinkers have spoken out against the Christian system. For example, Voltaire, the French Enlightenment philosopher, was a very prominent and influential anti-Christian. He argued that: "Christianity is the most ridiculous, the most absurd and bloody religion that has ever infected the world." He saw the connection between rejecting reason and accepting absurdity: "The truths of religion are never so well understood as by those who have lost the power of reasoning." During the Enlightenment, many other thinkers like Voltaire worshipped reason instead of the Bible. These secular intellectuals attacked Christianity with regularity. They rejected revelation and turned to their own minds—their own reason, logic, and science. In some cases this intellectual revolution led them to outright atheism, but in most cases it merely convinced them of a less imaginative view of God. Deism—the belief in a God who once created the world but now assumes no control over it and reveals nothing to mankind—seemed, to them, to reconcile with the radical discoveries of the Scientific Revolution since Galileo. This mostly innocuous religion became a popular idea and spread throughout parts of Europe, eventually making its way to America. Indeed, some of our Founding Fathers were rational Deists who recognized the serious problem of Christianity. Thomas Jefferson, for example, wrote in his Notes on the State of Virginia in 1787: Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined, imprisoned ... What has been the effect of [this] coercion? To make one half the world fools, and the other half hypocrites. To support roguery and error all over the earth. And jumping ahead to the 20th century there was, of course, Ayn Rand, who is my absolute favorite philosopher. She argued against not only Christianity but all forms of mysticism. In 1960 she wrote a speech called "Faith and Force: The Destroyers of the Modern World," which appears in her book Philosophy: Who Needs It. In this speech she observed that: [E]very period of history dominated by mysticism, was a period of statism, of dictatorship, of tyranny. Look at the Middle Ages—and look at the political systems of today. Many famous individuals have pointed out the irrationality and horror of mystical religious systems, but so far these enlightened few have been unsuccessful in ending the nightmare of Christianity that continues to haunt the West as the prevailing source of suffering and poverty. The Christian religion survived both the Scientific Revolution and the Age of Enlightenment. And now it's back with a vengeance, infiltrating our modern political systems. Today, Christians make up by far the largest religious collective on the planet, with approximately 2 billion adherents. And if you ask Rick Warren, or any other serious evangelist, he'll tell you that the Body of Christ will not be satisfied until it has consumed the entire world. We are ambassadors for Christ, and our mission is to evangelize the world. (PDC, p. 104) It is evangelism's dream to gut every living soul that exists. As long as there is one person in the world who does not know Christ, the church has a mandate to keep growing. Growth is not optional; it is commanded by Jesus. (PDC, p. 105) Warren's vision for world domination might not seem so threatening if we knew that he wasn't really serious and didn't have a plan worked out. But, as we have seen, he is a serious fisherman. And, as we shall see right now, he does have a battle strategy. The war on mankind, according to Warren, begins at the community level. The community is your starting point. It is the pool of lost people that live within driving distance of your church that have made no commitment at all to either Jesus Christ or your church. They are the unchurched that you want to reach ... And while he's gutting his own community, he plans to systematically expand his evangelistic operation by sending assimilated Christian ambassadors—predators like him—to other communities, so that they can start up affiliated fishing operations. Saddleback Church started our first daughter church when our church was just a year old. Each year since then we've started at least one new daughter church. (PDC, p. 181) In time, given enough evangelized communities, the fishpeople of this nation will be sufficiently motivated to press our democratic government to ban more and more un-Christian activities, such as abortion, gay marriage, stem cell research, assisted suicide, etc. And the majority-ruled state politicians will naturally want to please the Christian majority. In Nehemiah 9:38, the entire nation made a spiritual covenant together, put it in writing, and then asked their leaders to sign it as witnesses. (PDC, p. 349) This is how Christianity could take over America. Using the biblical tactics of evangelism, it first convinces local communities to submit to and obey the church. Next, it systematically moves from community to community, increasing its numbers until it has solidified its dominance across the country. During this transition period between secular and religious rule, the state increasingly passes more and more anti-human, anti-secular laws, forcing more and more heretics into poverty, jail, hiding, the underground or the afterlife. To continue functioning at the state level, the Christian collective must impose a mind-numbing plethora of taxes on the civilian population: sales taxes, income taxes, property taxes, utility taxes, inheritance taxes, social security taxes, health care taxes, gas taxes, hotel taxes, transportation taxes, cigarette taxes, alcohol taxes, gambling taxes, etc. Some activities will be outlawed: selling drugs, selling sex, saying dirty words on radio, showing nudity on TV, making too much profit on the sale of gasoline. And those who engage in these activities will be fined or imprisoned, and in some cases forced to serve the struggling state by doing community service, cleaning highways, making license plates, etc., in order to reduce their punishment. If you were to take a step or two back and broaden your view of our society, you might suddenly see a nation that wants to make you suffer every single time you choose earth over "eternity." If communities continue to succumb to the collective predation of evangelists, then it will be only a matter of time before Christianity once again succeeds at destroying whole states, nations, and civilizations, like it did during the Dark Ages. Continents have been conquered under the sign of Christianity's cross[.] (PDC, p. 112) For those who still doubt Warren's ambition to conquer entire continents and create a modern Kingdom of God, I urge you to take note of his deceptively named P.E.A.C.E. plan, which he pitches as a global initiative for solving the world's greatest problems—or "evil giants," as he likes to call them. By now you can probably guess what Warren thinks is the number one problem with the world. That's right: ignorance of the Word. Warren wrote an article on P.E.A.C.E. called Facing the World's Five Evil Giants!, and in this article he states: The greatest [evil] giant in our world today is the fact that billions of people do not know Jesus Christ. And to combat this widespread ignorance of Jesus, Warren has prescribed lots and lots of church-planting. The "P" in P.E.A.C.E. stands for "plant churches." It is the first priority of his plan, because, according to Warren, Christianity will solve all of our problems, including disease, poverty, and illiteracy. Pastor Rick is currently beta-testing P.E.A.C.E. at the national level in Rwanda. After a meeting in July 2005, the Rwandan president Paul Kagame agreed to implement Warren's plan as a government program. Since then, Warren has been working—with the Bush Administration's blessing—very closely with the Rwandan government, trying to create what he calls "the first purpose-driven nation." Rwanda is his test case—a "national model" for potential future conquests. First Rwanda, and then the world! Let us never forget that evangelists like Warren are predators. They prey on human beings. That's what they do. That's what evangelism is all about. Evangelists aren't going to stop themselves. They aren't going to suddenly wake up one day and renounce their evil ways. They will continue to deceive, brainwash, assimilate, and destroy human beings until there is nobody left to victimize. Therefore, if we care about our lives and the lives of our friends, if we care about our families and our communities, if we care about the nation and the civilization in which we live, then it is up to us to help bring about the end of Christianity. Ending ChristianityIn order to solve the serious, ongoing problem of Christianity, I believe that we must first understand why this problem persists. We must ask ourselves: Is there something about Christianity that, as a culture, we have not yet fully realized and that prevents or delays us from discovering and implementing an adequate solution? I believe that there is something we haven't fully realized. There is a primary reason why so many normal, decent people continue to fall prey to Christian predation. And I think that the essential cause has something to do with the full and correct answer to the question: How did Christianity survive the Scientific Revolution? In the face of unprecedented advances in science over the last 400 years since Galileo, how has the Christian predator survived? Christian Adaptation Though I'm not an expert on Christian history, I have in fact researched the subject to my own satisfaction. I have taken this question very seriously. And my initial answer to why Christianity survived the Scientific Revolution is summed up by a single word: adaptation. For 2,000 years Christianity has adapted itself to one culture after another. If it hadn't adapted, we'd still be a sect within Judaism! (PDC, p. 196) My view of Christian adaptation is, of course, much different than Warren's. For him, "adapting to a culture" means modifying one's "style" of teaching Christianity, such as preaching in a Hawaiian shirt and a pair of shorts in order to fit in with the casual Southern California crowd. (PDC, p. 196) To me, Christian adaptation means something slightly more disturbing. It means: survival of the fittest scam artist. To avoid detection and extinction, Christian predators change their evil system when necessary. They reinterpret their fantasies. They reformulate their false alternatives. They reconsider their rituals. They revise their ideology and their tactics in order to appeal to a particular kind of prey—usually a more sophisticated prey who has learned some science. In general, evangelists alter whatever they need to alter in order to stay one step beyond the reaches of contemporary rational thought and scientific knowledge. They will even go so far as to change the nature and location of their unique religious figure, Jesus Christ. Changing Christ's Nature One of the first great examples of Christian adaptation is the doctrine of the Trinity, which Tertullian introduced to the world in the second century. The Trinity defined Christ's nature as being something more than the mere Son of God. It turned him into one of three distinct—yet consubstantial—beings who all form the one substance called God. At the time, this strange idea served to integrate the theistic views of both the Greeks (polytheists) and the Jews (monotheists). On the one hand, God was one being. And on the other hand, he was three. People today have a lot of trouble with this mystical math. But in Tertullian's backward era, this concoction blended both monotheism and polytheism, thereby significantly increasing the appeal of Christianity within the Roman Empire. Within one hundred years after Tertullian's death, Christianity had sunk its hook deep into the Roman Empire, and the world witnessed Rome's first Christian ruler, Constantine. During Emperor Constantine's reign, in the early fourth century, the changeable nature of Jesus was formulated into an explicit theological principle by a presbyter from Egypt named Arius. Arius was very controversial but also very popular. He rejected the mystery of the Trinity and believed, instead, that Jesus was the first and highest creation of the one Almighty God. According to Arius, God formed Jesus out of nothing, which meant that these two beings were not co-eternal and that there had been a time when Jesus did not exist. Being a creature, Jesus' nature was therefore subject to further change in the future. He might, the opponents of Arius argued, decide to rebel against the Father, like Satan did, thereby putting human salvation in jeopardy. Ultimately, the Roman Catholic Church rejected Arianism, considering it to be heresy against established doctrine. Nevertheless, the Christian world, to this very day, is still split into those who believe in the Trinity and those who don't—some examples of those who don't being Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, and diehards of the Church of Arian Catholicism, which actually has a website: www.arian-catholic.org. My purpose in mentioning this Christian theology and history is to show that there is a historical precedent for changing aspects of the fantasy of Christ. There is a precedent for adapting Christianity to various cultural situations. I pointed this out because I think it supports my suspicion that the principle of a mutable Jesus is the key idea that enabled Christianity to survive the Scientific Revolution. However, in response to the Scientific Revolution, it wasn't so much the nature of Christ that had to be changed, it was his place of residence. Relocating Jesus Before the Scientific Revolution, it was commonly held that Jesus lived in heaven with the Father and the Holy Ghost. But as scientists looked deeper and deeper into the solar system with their powerful telescopes, they discovered absolutely no evidence for God or Jesus or anything supernatural. Where was heaven? Where was God? Indeed, every new scientific fact discovered by astronomers, geologists, archaeologists, biologists, physicists, everything was pointing toward an increasingly godless world system. Therefore, in order to rescue Christianity from the inquisitive minds of rational scientists, the triune God needed to be moved to safety, to another plane of existence—an entirely different realm—where the physical sciences couldn't expose his nonexistence. God needed to find a new home, a sufficiently mysterious place, such as the human soul itself. Now, as far as I have been able to determine, the relocation of Jesus has occurred in several different stages over the course of centuries. I'm therefore only going to hit some highlights of this moving process. And I believe it all started with a famous German named Immanuel Kant. Kant believed in Pietism, which was a popular reform movement within Protestant churches in the 17th and 18th centuries. Pietists stressed personal, inner religious experience, as opposed to blind devotion to church dogma. They sought a sense of spiritual fervor and often found examples of it among the historical heretics. It was within this context that Kant the philosopher originated his moral proof for the existence of God. Given the advances of science at the time, Kant agreed that man could not prove the existence of God through sensory evidence and science. But this discovery did not turn him in the direction of atheism. Rather, when he could not find evidence of God looking outward, Kant decided to look inward. In his Critique of Practical Reason, he ultimately concludes that within his own conscience—within his inner voice—there exists a "moral law," and that by properly respecting this moral law he is able to magically peek into the realm of God. [T]he moral law in us ... demands of us a disinterested respect; finally, only when this respect has become active and dominating, it allows us a view into the realm of the supersensible, though only a glimpse. (Pt. 1, Bk. 2, Ch. 2:9) From this "glimpse" of the "supersensible," Kant further divines that God must be the "moral lawgiver" who placed the moral law inside him—and presumably inside you and me, too. Thus, in brief, we have the Kantian moral proof for God—the fantasy that, as we shall see, would ultimately pave the road to a new home for Jesus. Kant's well-constructed fairytale worked its way through the Protestant world, but it also found its way into the Catholic Church. In the 19th century, Cardinal John Henry Newman also emphasized a "personal" God and argued that conscience—"the whisper of a law of moral truth within you"—is actually the Lord speaking to you. In a sermon delivered July 31, 1870, he said: "[O]ur conscience ... is the voice of God in the soul[.]" And in his work Grammar of Assent, Newman further described conscience as a direct moral link to the Creator. [C]onscience is a connecting principle between the creature and his Creator[.] (Chapter 5) Building upon the idea of a personal connection to God in the moral realm, non-Catholics subsequently made several radical advances throughout the 20th century, and ultimately succeeded in completing the relocation of Jesus from heaven to man's soul. There was, of course, C. S. Lewis, who begins his bestselling book Mere Christianity with several chapters about the moral law. Lewis was successful at taking the idea of a moral law inside us to the common man, making it a popular idea. Then there were the American evangelists whom Lewis greatly influenced. They took this idea of an indwelling moral quality a step further. Billy Graham, for example, has crusaded and campaigned all around the world, explaining how the Holy Spirit itself decided to move into his "born again" soul. He even claims to know that the Holy Spirit is simultaneously occupying other converts. When you were converted, the Spirit of God immediately came to live in you. (How To Be Born Again, Chapter 13) Over time the indwelling moral quality has turned into the indwelling Holy Spirit. And after the Holy Spirit moves in, Jesus is not far behind. Now Christ dwells through the Holy Spirit in the hearts of all those who have received Him as Lord and Savior. (Ibid.) Actually, the whole Trinity has decided to inhabit the human soul. A Christian grows as the life of God exerts its new power from deep in the center of his personality. (Ibid.) First the Holy Spirit. Now Jesus and God. Relocation complete! Christianity and its triune Deity are finally safe from the physical sciences. Exorcising God To this day the evangelical Christian's God is hiding comfortably inside human beings, having his way with us, away from our clever, scientific perception of this world. So, what on earth are we to do about it? How are we to convince people that Jesus is not really inside them? How can we get Christians to understand that their conscience is not the voice of a moral Lawgiver? How do we exorcise God from the human soul? Obviously, those of us who are Objectivists should continue to offer Christian folk the alternative of Ayn Rand's pro-human philosophy. We should give the victims of Christianity a rational, moral perspective on their own lives. But I'm not convinced that spreading Objectivism will be enough to hold the anti-man armies of evangelism in check. I fear that, in time, the master assimilators of the Christian collective might find a way to militarize their brainwashed schools of fishpeople, and this religious power will dutifully and ruthlessly silence any heretic or individualist who gets in their way, exactly like other large groups of Christians did during the Dark Ages. In time, the collectivist members of the Body of Christ might decide that their continued survival demands that they come together and form a Superstate for God—a Christian Democracy—and they might also decide that God demands that they swarm across the globe, democratically punishing secularists for their numberless transgressions. Indeed, I believe we are witnessing similar decisions being made right now, particularly among the fundamentalists in the anti-abortion movement. For this reason, I am beginning to think that more than Objectivism is needed in order to end Christianity. I suspect that the average person needs to be able to understand his own consciousness, his own soul, like a scientist understands the physical world. He needs to possess the principles and the skills and the tools that will allow him to comprehend and master his own mind, like a scientist comprehends and masters the material of nature. If the majority of humanity is going to drive God out of their souls like scientists have driven God out of the universe, then perhaps we require a Psychological Revolution. In 1971, Ayn Rand had this to say about the state of psychology: As a science, psychology is barely making its first steps. It is still in the anteroom of science, in the stage of observing and gathering material from which a future science will come. This stage may be compared to the pre-Socratic period in philosophy; psychology has not yet found a Plato, let alone an Aristotle, to organize its material, systematize its problems, and define its fundamental principles. (The Voice of Reason, p. 24 ) It is now 35 years later, and I don't know how far psychology has moved from the anteroom of science. But, in order to exorcise God, once and for all, it seems to me that we need an Aristotle of psychology—maybe even an Ayn Rand of psychology. And after closely examining the threat of religious dictatorship in America, I sure do hope that our psychological savior appears soon.
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