By Judie Brown
Numbers appear to be the best way for the media and other groups to share facts. One supposes this is because of the shock value contained in statistics, such as those recorded in a recent Casey Chalk article. Chalk addresses the existence of “nonverts”—the American adults “who go from identifying with a religion to identifying as a ‘none.’” She then states that “sixteen million of those nonverts were raised Catholic.”
Writer James Bradshaw suggests that this attrition away from churches is slowly but certainly creating an “ex-Christian America.” I concur in his conclusion when he says that “lost faith in Christianity will continue to become more common in America.” He then asks, “Is it any wonder that this process has unfolded at precisely the same time as many Americans have been losing their faith in their country and its political institutions?”
Both articles deal with mathematics in the sense that they compare percentages and arrive at conclusions. But if we agree with the ideas expressed, then I posit that we could say that children who reside within their mother prior to birth, or in a test tube, are numerical ciphers too.
But that is erroneous. We know as a fundamental fact that no human being—born or preborn—is a nonentity. Human beings are not just numbers. This is because each is a person created in the image and likeness of God. And by the same token, so are reverts, converts, and nonverts.
As sensible pro-life people who choose not to be mainstreamed by the contortions of the media, we proclaim that our work to defend innocent human persons occurs because we are all children of God and therefore individually far more important than a number in a math equation.
The simple math is that every man belongs to God. Thus, one plus one equals a unique, unrepeatable human person.
This truth cannot be admitted by media, public authorities, and even some so-called religious figures who are ensconced in the theology of secular humanism. For them there is no God.
Note these words from the original Humanist Manifesto, which argues that the universe is “self-existing” and that “man is a part of nature and . . . has emerged as a result of a continuous process.”
People who are wedded to such thinking believe that the value and dignity of every single human being is a nonstarter. For them, human beings are mere accidents of nature; they are digits in a math problem or equation.
Perhaps the most famous in their midst is Garrett Hardin, whose idea of “lifeboat ethics” caught on with people campaigning for population control. He wrote, “It would be better to encourage the breeding of more intelligent people rather than the less intelligent. ZPG’s [Zero Population Growth, now Population Connection] entire attraction has been among the college population. So in effect, ZPG is encouraging college‑educated people to have fewer children instead of encouraging reduced fertility among the less intelligent.”
Statements like this contribute directly to the philosophy that, as human beings, it is our identity as numbers that make it easy for others to instruct us on how we should be living, dying, and procreating.
Today’s secular humanists are far too numerous, and many are in positions of worldly authority.
But our Father is the only authority that matters. He is Truth, not to mention the inspiration that led human beings to develop simple math.