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     In 1992, in a discussion with an atheist, (whose country had a national policy of atheism) about who establishes morality in a society, I asked “Where did the moral code come from that undergirds the ethics and laws of the country?”  He said the government established it.  So I followed up with “Would it be alright if the government decided to eliminate a certain class of people?”  He responded that society (majority rule) would rise up against the government to stop such genocide.  When I hypothesized “Suppose society, the majority, wanted to exterminate all pensioners, would it be moral and right?”, his sense of moral oughtness prevailed – “They wouldn’t do that!”  Really?  I reminded him that his country had consented decades ago to eliminate a class of people against their will.  The unborn!  The primary birth control method was and is abortion, where the official lifetime average is 7-8 abortions per woman, but doctors confide it is actually between 11-14!

     For almost a decade I lived in that country, in a town where, if the murder rate in our town was the same, we would have 18 murders a year (as of 2002, Brookings, SD, Pop. 18000, had had no murder in about 10 years [early 1990s]).  In that last decade of the 20th century,  (1) many men think a woman can not be raped against her will (thus there is little reporting of rape, let alone its prosecution);  (2) between 500 to1000 military draftees die annually because of officer beatings and hazing by senior draftees, yet no prosecutions result;  (3) drunkenness is seen in the streets any hour and every hour of the day.

     In 1998, after three weeks into a money crisis (prices increased 300%), an elderly widow (80+ years) candidly said, our country will survive, “We sell and steal, sell and steal.”  That 30-35% of the population admitted to “regularly” stealing is evident by the booming business of barred windows and insulated double plate-steel doors on people’s apartments (mounted on a heavy angle iron door jamb, with 3/4”dead bolts that penetrate through the frame and then three inches into a solid 12” to 15” concrete wall).

     “Giving a gift” (bribery) is the fuel of the societal engine – the dentist, doctor, bureaucrats, traffic police, judges – virtually everyone requires a “gift!”  A national prosecutor stated in his book (USSR: the Corrupt Society) that everyone from the lumberjack to the president received, yea, demanded a “gift.”  This is the society whose morality was established by government, where there is no real rule by law, but which was based on atheistic pragmatism, and where respect for fellow man’s property and human life are hardly more cherished than mangy dogs.  Indeed that society had a national policy of atheist education.  God was not allowed!

     Can a society have stability and order with the national policy “There is no God,” where everyone does his own thing?  Shortly before 90% of the population of the northern kingdom of ancient Israel was removed from their land by Assyria, Hosea, the Old Testament prophet, declared to the nation, “You have plowed wickedness, you have reaped iniquity, you have eaten the fruit of lies, because you trusted in your own way,” (Hosea 10:13).  “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God!’” (Psalms 14:1).

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