It was I believe Abraham Lincoln who said that when a nation turns from God it turns to heroes. There are heroes and heroes. A recent poll taken globally put Bill Gates, the computer billionaire at number one, President Obama at number two and the Pope at number three. Given Bill Gates’ ‘benign capitalism’ one can accommodate this choice but the most alarming was the most admired Britain who turns out to Steven Dawkins. As well as being a celebrated scientist in the area human biology Dawkins is equally well known for his atheism. His atheism is more than just a person belief but a cause that seems to drive Dawkins. His book The God Delusion which sets out to prove the non existence of God has sold two million copies.
It is quite staggering to see the switch in in the UK in a short hundred and fifty years. We have gone from being a country with Christian missionary zeal to pretty much apostate. In the Commons in Victorian Britain a politician could take a stand on an issue because of the shared faith of the country eg on slavery. Now a politician can only argue in terms of the ‘common good’ having to take into account a variety of faiths and practices that late 19th Century Britain would have dismissed and in some cases found abhorrent.
So how do the minority, believers, respond? Perhaps by quoting the Psalmist.
Preserve me, O God, for in Thee I take refuge. I say to the Lord, ‘Thou art my Lord; I have no good apart from Thee. ‘ Psalm 16. 1.2.
And how does God see us?
‘As for the saints in the land, they are the noble, in whom is all my delight. ‘ v 3
