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I recently read a book about the D-Day invasion of Normandy, one of the major turning points of World War II. On June 7, 1944, the day after D-Day, the New York Times ran a lead editorial, which read in part, “We pray for the boys we know and for millions of unknown boys who are equally a part of us….We pray for our country.” Then the editorial said the cause for which the U.S. military was fighting “is the cause of the God who created man free and equal.”
Can you imagine the New York Times writing an editorial today that mentions praying for our country and that God created mankind? Of course not. Nowadays, they wouldn’t even print a letter-to-the-editor that made those statements.
It’s been a long time since the D-Day invasion at Normandy, approximately three full generations. But compared to all of recorded human history, 1944 was not that long ago. Many people alive today can still remember that historic day.
So, the question is, what has changed since D-Day to make the editors at the New York Times go from patriotic Americans who acknowledged the power of prayer and God as Creator to today’s situation, where people who sincerely believe in God are not welcomed on their pages?
Were the Times editors in 1944 church-going believers? I have no idea. I suspect some may have been, but even the ones who were atheist or agnostic understood the vast majority of Americans believed in God. Hence, the strong words of that editorial.
Since 1944, the percentage of Americans who profess faith in God, who go to church or synagogue regularly, and who consider religious faith important has dropped drastically. Why is that? Did something happen that offered strong proof that God in fact does not exist?
Actually, no. If anything, the discovery in the 1950s of the double-helix structure of the DNA molecule, the basic building block of life, presented strong evidence that life is far too complex and intricate to have come into existence by accident. And don’t forget, the key foundational belief of the secular worldview is that life on earth was formed by unplanned, unguided, random chemical processes. It was all just an accident, as molecules randomly followed the laws of physics. One day there was a swirl of various chemicals banging into each other, and the next day there was a living organism that could take in nutrients, expel waste, and reproduce itself. All by accident. From that moment in time, secularists argue, a series of genetic mutations (that is, more accidents) and survival-of-the-fittest adaptations produced all the varied forms of life found in the natural world, including human beings.
In the years since 1944, this secular explanation of how life began became official doctrine among America’s ruling class. Any claim that a divine Creator may have been involved were at first politely dismissed. In our current culture, the politeness has disappeared. Claims that the God of the Bible is real and that He is mankind’s Creator are now either sarcastically mocked or angrily denounced. The editorial staff at the New York Times certainly is not the cause of this seismic shift in cultural thinking, but because of their high profile, it’s convenient to say they epitomize this intolerant point of view.
The reason the God-fearing, hard-praying culture of 1944 changed into the skeptical and secular culture of today is simple: religious faith went out of style. Nothing in all of science or philosophy came along and torpedoed Judeo-Christian belief; we simply drifted away from it. Probably because human beings wanted to be the center of the universe.
The thing is, God’s existence does not depend on our opinion about it. He is real, whether we want to acknowledge it or not.
Please keep this in mind the next time you’re wondering why our society is such a mess. We are currently conducting an experiment to see if a civilization can survive without faith in God. The early results don’t look good.
And please do what the New York Times said in 1944: believe that God is Creator, and pray for our country.
Bill Dunn returned to the Catholic Church many years ago after losing his faith in atheism. He works as a freelance writer and his humor column appears weekly in the Republican-American newspaper in Waterbury, CT. Bill posts a faith essay called “The Merry Catholic” each week on his website and can be heard on WJMJ, the radio station for the Hartford Archdiocese. He also lectors in his parish, sings (if that’s what you want to call it) in the church choir, and leads two different parish Bible study groups. Bill has published the following books: Boomer Trek: One Baby Boomer’s Surprising Journey from Secular Humanism to Faith in God, A Matter of Laugh or Death, Purge the Evil, and The Gospel According to Morty. Bill and his wife Joyce are empty-nesters in Torrington, CT. His websites are www.boomertrek.com and www.merrycatholic.com.
