Days of Noah

   Yesterday I heard a new (to me) term in the news. "Flexible reality." What on earth is that? It was used in relation to the transgender issue to argue that reality can be bent to accommodate the desires of the individual. Come on! What's real is real and cannot be bent simply by thinking it's something different than what it really is. The idea that there are no absolutes has been around for a very long time, but thinking a person can change their gender is taking it to a higher level. 

   Some of the humanistic philosophies found in Ecclesiastes 3 are:

   1. Fatalism (v. 9)  everything is predetermined

   2. Skepticism (v. 11)  you can't know anything for sure (no absolutes)

   3. Epicureanism (v. 12-13)  have fun, that's all there is to life

   4. Deism (v. 16-17)  we'll all come out all right in the end

   5. Evolution (v. 19-20)  man and beast are all alike

   6. Universalism (v. 22)  just be sincere and you'll be okay; we all go to the same place anyway

   Some of the modern thinkers expanded on these ideas. Charles Darwin and evolution, John Dewey and no absolutes, Julias Wellhausen and humanism which led to Albert Einstien and relativism, Soren Kierkegaard and situation ethics.

   These philosophies have permeated our society and are taught as fact all the way from grade school to graduate school. It has gone so deep that people can't distinguish fact from fantasy and now it is being called flexible reality.

   I wonder how long God will put up with all this nonsense. It seems to me the world is pretty much in the same shape as it was in the days of Noah when "GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." It had reached the breaking point and God put an end to it with a worldwide flood. The world is again ripe for judgment.

   Is there such a thing as flexible reality? Absolutely not!

National Suicide

  We still get a physical daily newspaper. However, along with the subscription comes a digital version. I usually have read the digital version before Leroy brings in the paper version. He is computer illiterate so the paper version is for him.

  All that background to say I read an interesting commentary in the paper this week. The title was "Poll shows strong signs of a nation committing suicide." After a brief introduction it goes on to give some statistics. Only 38% of Americans say patriotism is "very important" compared with 70% in 1998. Just 39% say religion is "very important" compared to 62% in 1998. And 30% say having children is "very important" compared with 59% in 1998.

   In 1990, 67% of American adults between the ages of 25-54 were married. This was down to 51% in 2021. In 2020, there were 56 births in the U.S. for every 1,000 women ages 15-44. In 1990, there were 70.9. Among the births in 2021, 40% were born to unmarried mothers.

  The picture looks even more dismal among the younger sector of the population.  Of those under 30, just 23% say patriotism is very important to them, 31% say religion is very important, and 23% say having children is very important.

   What is important to Americans today? A whopping 91% say self-fulfillment is very or somewhat important, and 90% say money is very or somewhat important. The devaluing of marriage, children and patriotism, and the focus on "self-fulfillment" and money are signs of a culture sunk into egotism and materialism, with a loss of a sense of being part of something larger than oneself.

   The article goes on to describe the problems created by the lack of population growth and patriotism. It ends by saying Joe Biden will run in 2024 on more of what is destroying the nation and it is up to the Republicans to mend our rapidly sinking ship of state.

   While the article makes some valid points, it totally missed the most important point, the loss of faith in God and increasing secularization of society. The answers to this nation's problems do not rest on the Republican (or Democrat) party. The core problem in America today is loss of faith in God. Legislation does not produce righteousness. 

   The answer to the nation's problems is found in 2 Chronicles 7:17 "If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land."