Where have we gone?

"We have educated ourselves into imbecility," said the famous journalist Malcolm Muggeridge as he mourned over the many ideas currently shaping our modern culture. It is true that in many ways, people in America today are obese on knowledge. We know so much that we don't even know what to do with it, and practical application of simple wisdom has become something quaint, often associated with the days of horses and carts. No longer do we have men such as Benjamin Franklin, who seemed to gain insight about this world and willingly shared the practical wisdom necessary to live in it fruitfully. Where are such men today? Where do we turn for wisdom and guidance in a time filled with deceit and sordid gain?

Only a couple hundred years ago, a short time for a nation so young, 3 million Americans produced men such as George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and John Quincy Adams. Today, 300 million Americans have produced...nothing quite as impressive. Is there a reason for this? Is there an explanation? Have we degraded so much over time?

While I am confident that the evil side of man existed as much then as it does today, I have to recognize the shocking degree of the atrocities around me. On the morning news, one is told that a few blocks away some estranged boy-friend murdered a young lady, cut her into pieces, and then burned her remains on an outside grill in order to cover his crime. We hear of the rapists, the child molesters, and the sexual predators...and it becomes almost normal. There is an alarming level of desensitization in the modern mind. What is most shocking to me, is the fact that there is no more any wrongdoing for which some professor cannot offer an explanation, as pointed out by Ravi Zacharias. For any crime that is committed, there is an explanation for it which bids us to "understand."

The parallel I see, is that over the years we have witnessed our higher learning institutions bent on making a one-sided case against God with the goal of developing a serious prejudice in the minds of young learners. Theistic belief has been portrayed as lacking any form of reason, and if any shred of doubt could be cast upon any Biblical subject, it was gleefully proclaimed that the entire system of thought should be thrown out. For instance, I have read a group of essays which were supposed to prove that God was an illusion, based on the confusion about why He didn't heal amputees. The essays were strewn with nice language, and even did a fair job of appearing to be unbiased. The essays sought to disprove the existence of God by asking why He does not heal amputees. A fair question, but a question does not prove a conclusion, and a lack of understanding does not propel oneself into greater knowledge. And this has been the goal of this movement as I see it: to give the impression that new saviors will deliver us from an "old" way of thinking, and provide the freedom from moral constraint that has for so long held sway. God has been made into a tyrant, and the distortion of language and misrepresentation of truth have been the main weapons used by those who claim to lead us into a bright future. Without a doubt, it has been a successful tactic to take over our universities and colleges, and to infuse this thinking into the young minds of this generation. Sadly, this was predictable, as it was the logical outcome from the thinking of men like Nietzsche. We have seen the results of a generation that "killed" God. Who can forget the acts of Stalin, or the Third Reich?