A recent Kokomo Tribune letter to the editor extols the virtue of reason. According to its author, Shaun Slack, reason means rejecting belief in God. His reason for this is that since we reject a culture, such as Saudi Arabia, that say they are under a god, then we can likewise reject claims that "the god of American Christians is true."
Actually, reason is making rational conclusions from available evidence. It is a search for and recognition of truth. Rather than using reasoning skills, Mr. Slack slaps together some selective anecdotal portrayals of Christianity and completely ignores the body of evidence that sheds light on the truth of the self-revealed God of creation. Numerous notable religious skeptics and atheists have changed their mind about the Christian faith after embarking upon the challenge to prove Christianity false using the available evidence.
Although Mr. Slack suggests that belief in God has held up progress, he fails to acknowledge the reality that every major social advance in America has been born from Christians seeking to implement God's message of grace and justice. It appears that his axe to grind now, however, is over the issue of homosexual marriage. He writes, "Well, it makes it more likely that gays might be stripped of the right to marry the person they love because someone says it is not biblical." Hmm. There are many kinds of unions that are not afforded the legal status of marriage. Besides, if Mr. Slack actually applied reason, he would recognize that an evolutionist worldview demands the eradication of homosexuality, not the opportunity to marry.
In his closing sentence, Mr. Slack tells us that "if we want to be free, we have to be free to think, reason and run our society for ourselves, not a god." There are historical examples of such societies. One example is the Jacobin government of the French Revolution. Rejecting all religious authority, it sought to be a completely secular government. The result is the infamous reign of terror in which 16,000 to 40,000 citizens are estimated to have been executed.
Evidence such as this leads me to reason that running a society for ourselves is not in our best interest.
"'Come now, let us reason together,' says the Lord." - Isaiah 1:18
