Category Archives: Atheism

Descent Into Madness: Dostoevsky and the End of the West

Article by Boyd D. Cathey.

Excerpts:

Of course, it is not at all fashionable to believe in a literal Hell these days. Yet, the imagery of such a state envisioned by a number of our greatest authors over the centuries describes a reality which is becoming all too palpable in our day, at least for those who care to notice.

As tiny individual specks in the Universe we are as atoms, at times self-important, but in the scheme of things, miniscule and falling back continually on our own very limited powers and abilities, with the great leveler, Death, our conclusion.

Has this not been the insight and wisdom of our Christian civilization, that without that spiritual understanding, life becomes a mere few short years of banging about until our time is up?

It is Hope, that belief in something beyond ourselves, eminently spiritual, which enables us to lead lives according to both the Natural Law and the Divine Positive Law, which properly and superbly fit, guide and measure our own human natures.

Dostoevsky, through Father Tikhon, reminds us that there is a way out of the fetid and poisonous bog we are drowning in. In his day it was not taken by the revolutionaries who eventually would have their way in Russia and later in the world, with the charnel house counting eventually 100 million victims.

Like Verkovensky, that frenzied youthful demonstrator against Confederate symbols back in March 2019 was possessed, incapable—unlike Stavrogin—of recognizing his diabolical possession.

Good and evil stand in eternal conflict; one must triumph and one must be extinguished. Dostoevsky fully understood that, and so must we.

Message for the Reawaken America Tour

From Bishop Carlo Maria Viganò

Text found here.

Video of the message is here.

Dear friends,

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Allow me to address you first of all to thank you for the witness you are giving to your fellow Americans. The awakening of consciences is the first step toward liberation from the subversive leadership that has usurped the highest places in both national and international institutions. Because opening one’s eyes and looking at reality is essential, if you are to understand what is really happening, denounce the globalist coup d’état, and regain the national sovereignty and fundamental freedoms that have been taken away from you.

You have all witnessed, in recent years, a radical change in society. A change planned by people without any electoral mandate and imposed by sold out rulers. The United States of America, like many other nations hostage to the Agenda 2030, is facing a very serious crisis: inflation, an out of control self-induced migration crisis, human trafficking and child trafficking, rampant crime and the weakening of law enforcement, the liberalization of crime and impunity, social degradation everywhere, new drugs that ruin the people who take them; the aberrations of woke ideology, the LGBTQ+ agenda imposed in schools, discrimination against whites. And there is still more: the war against President Donald Trump, the electoral fraud in the presidential election, the Great Reset plans that seem to be proceeding smoothly, and the bottomless pit of funding and military aid that seeks to prolong the conflict in Ukraine, thereby covering up the crimes of the Biden family and the Democrats. And finally, a very disturbing new scenario of war in the Middle East. This multi-pronged siege has all the hallmarks of an unconventional war that is far more devastating than an armed conflict.

This elite wants us to believe that the changes they are imposing on us without any democratic legitimacy, are for our good. This seemingly inexorable process has been planned for decades, and those who have desired it and are implementing it belong to openly anti-Christian and antichristic lobbies. Divorce, abortion, euthanasia, gender transition, pedophilia, moral corruption, cancel culture, immigration and manipulated crises, a way to eradicate every trace of Christian morality from our societies and to deliberately create the impoverishment of the population and favor civil war. Their purpose is to divide us, make us enemies of each other, and see us fighting against each other instead of uniting and fighting them. And ultimately all this chaos serves as a pretext to suppress protests with new restrictions.These subversives want at all costs to make us think that there is no alternative, that the crises they provoke – the pandemic farce, the climate emergency, the energy and water crisis, the proxy wars – are irreversible and inevitable.

Today we know that it is not so. We have the ability to escape from this hell on earth – and we must – but we can do it only if we understand two important and interconnected things.

First: the globalists are certainly very well organized and have enormous economic means, but they are very few, and the members of this tyrannical elite almost have a name and a face, starting with the Rothschilds and the Rockefellers, with Bill Gates, George Soros and Klaus Schwab. All their wealth and profits derive from the exploitation of the peoples and the complicity of the rulers who have been corrupted and bought out. Here too the names are well known: many politicians and representatives of the leading institutions in various nations have participated in the “Young Global Leaders for Tomorrow-program,” the school of subversion, run by the World Economic Forum. How are the exponents of supranational organizations whose purpose is their own enrichment and our enslavement different from the mafia? What prevents us from rebelling against them in the same way that we would rebel against mafia leaders?

The second important thing to keep in mind is that in this spiritual battle the globalist elite, however powerful it may seem, obeys Satan, the Adversary, the one who is a murderer from the beginning, while We the People, with all our weaknesses, are aligned with the Almighty God. Do we believe that their master, Satan, is more powerful than the Lord God? Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God, became incarnate and faced his Passion and Death on the Cross, precisely in order to break the chains of sin and death with which Satan holds us captive. By the Redemption we have been ransomed from the yoke of the devil, and through Grace we have supernatural assistance in fighting the holy battle against the Adversary of mankind. If we understand that victory has already been won and that God is truly Almighty, we also understand that if we side with the Lord and fight with Him against His and our enemies, we will share in the victory. The question is not “whether” God will win over Satan-His victory is certain because Satan has already been conquered on the Cross. The question is whether we want to win with God or inexorably lose with Satan.

It is God, Almighty God, who holds the destiny of the world in his hands. He is the Lord, the Giver of Life. We must obey Him and Him alone, because He is a good Father who wants our good, to the point of giving the life of His Only Begotten Son for us! We must believe only in God, because He is the Truth and He does not deceive us!

Come forth, in the name of God! Come forth from this horrendous infernal theater set up by subversive criminals who want us dead! Do not allow the deception of this house of horrors to become a dystopian reality. Do not let yourselves be killed in body and soul by those who hate all that is Good, True and Beautiful because it is an image of God and His greatness! React and get up!

Wake up, dear friends. Wake up from your slumber and rediscover the pride of serving the Good, knowing that God is at your side and that, however powerful His and our enemies may seem, He has already won, but He wants us all to participate in this spiritual battle in order to make us sharers in His victory and triumph.

And if in this battle you also want to help the priests and religious who courageously resist the tyranny of a corrupt and apostate Catholic hierarchy, you can do so with a donation to Exsurge Domine, the international association founded by me that helps pastors faithful to Christ and fights so that the Word of God is not silenced, so that the light of the Gospel shines in the darkness, so that there may always be priests who offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass to the Divine Majesty. May the Blessed Virgin Mary, Our Lady and Queen, and Saint Michael the Archangel, the Prince of the Heavenly Host, help us in this endeavor.

Do not be deceived, dear friends: Christus vincit, Christus regnat, Christus imperat!

And may GOD bless you all.

+ Carlo Maria Viganò, Archbishop
Former Apostolic Nuncio to the United States of America

Why I am now a Christian

Atheism can't equip us for civilisational war

Article by Ayaan Hirsi Ali on UnHerd.com.

Quotes:

Western civilisation is under threat from three different but related forces: the resurgence of great-power authoritarianism and expansionism in the forms of the Chinese Communist Party and Vladimir Putin’s Russia; the rise of global Islamism, which threatens to mobilise a vast population against the West; and the viral spread of woke ideology, which is eating into the moral fibre of the next generation.

We endeavour to fend off these threats with modern, secular tools: military, economic, diplomatic and technological efforts to defeat, bribe, persuade, appease or surveil. And yet, with every round of conflict, we find ourselves losing ground. We are either running out of money, with our national debt in the tens of trillions of dollars, or we are losing our lead in the technological race with China.

But we can’t fight off these formidable forces unless we can answer the question: what is it that unites us? The response that “God is dead!” seems insufficient. So, too, does the attempt to find solace in “the rules-based liberal international order”. The only credible answer, I believe, lies in our desire to uphold the legacy of the Judeo-Christian tradition.

[. . .]

To me, this freedom of conscience and speech is perhaps the greatest benefit of Western civilisation. It does not come naturally to man. It is the product of centuries of debate within Jewish and Christian communities. It was these debates that advanced science and reason, diminished cruelty, suppressed superstitions, and built institutions to order and protect life, while guaranteeing freedom to as many people as possible. Unlike Islam, Christianity outgrew its dogmatic stage. It became increasingly clear that Christ’s teaching implied not only a circumscribed role for religion as something separate from politics. It also implied compassion for the sinner and humility for the believer.

[. . .]

In this nihilistic vacuum, the challenge before us becomes civilisational. We can’t withstand China, Russia and Iran if we can’t explain to our populations why it matters that we do. We can’t fight woke ideology if we can’t defend the civilisation that it is determined to destroy. And we can’t counter Islamism with purely secular tools. To win the hearts and minds of Muslims here in the West, we have to offer them something more than videos on TikTok.

The lesson I learned from my years with the Muslim Brotherhood was the power of a unifying story, embedded in the foundational texts of Islam, to attract, engage and mobilise the Muslim masses. Unless we offer something as meaningful, I fear the erosion of our civilisation will continue. And fortunately, there is no need to look for some new-age concoction of medication and mindfulness. Christianity has it all.

That is why I no longer consider myself a Muslim apostate, but a lapsed atheist. Of course, I still have a great deal to learn about Christianity. I discover a little more at church each Sunday. But I have recognised, in my own long journey through a wilderness of fear and self-doubt, that there is a better way to manage the challenges of existence than either Islam or unbelief had to offer.