When God is abandoned, the concept of transcendence is replaced by all manner of human enterprise. Philosophy, psychology and politics become gods to whom deference is given in full measure. Blind ideology replaces sublime divinity. In short, man replaces God with himself, so the result is a multitude of demi-gods who claim to have found the Answer, to have devised solutions to eternal ills, how society is to be ordered, how we are to conduct the minutiae of our lives, what we are to eat, what causes we should concern ourselves with.

But humanism has its limitations. For every idea there is a counter-idea. The market-place for ideas is noisy and over-crowded. It is full of people eager to make a name for themselves, to be famous, even for a moment. They practise ‘virtue-signalling’ as a way to elicit high popularity ratings. They regard themselves as contributing to human progress; they want the world to celebrate their ingenuity.

The competition for fame is fierce. There exists a furious debate amongst those rival demi-gods and inevitably this descends into a shouting match. The rising crescendo of invective soon becomes undisciplined and vicious. Truth, as they each see it in their own minds, is soon abandoned and there ensues a meaningless and unreasoning battle of words. There are winners and losers, but even the winners’ sense of victory is short-lived. New ideas, new theories have entered the fray and tickle the ears of all who have embarked on a vain search for the truth, a humanistic and atheistic quest that will always end in disappointment.

The real Truth emanates from God. It is through God that ‘we live and move and exist’….’We are all his children’ (Acts 17.28). With those quotations Paul was utilising the words of pagan philosophers who had alluded to an entity that could have seemed to them only a distant and undefined power. But we have Christ who manifested in human form the immanence of God. God has reached down to us to bring us closer to Him, to show us the Way to salvation and eternal life. Since God is the originator of Love, loving all His creation, we with our limited human perception can only stand in awe at the immensity his gifts – the gift of life and beneficence, the gift of nature, and the promises of future glory.

For love to endure it feeds on compassion and mercy. For the human person to be held up as a unique and loved being, he or she requires that we all be concerned for one another, to nurture, to console and to comfort. Christ said to his disciples, ‘Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs’ (Mark 10.14).

Therefore, if it is not the will of God to turn away any of His children but to redeem them, it is incumbent on mortal man to honour that which God has created in His own image. It is an abomination to deny love and compassion to those who are wholly dependent on the natural milk of human kindness, the instinctive love of a mother for the little child she has carried in her womb and who has now entered the world, living and breathing and in need of nourishment. This child has a right to his or her God-given destiny.

If love and compassion are withdrawn from the human heart, then humanity is debased to a horrific degree. It is lowered to enduring sorrow. What can be known through word and spirit is now a matter of scorn. What is within reach of erring humanity to enlighten – the joy of knowing the Gospel of life – is supplanted by human pride of the worst kind, so that even the sanctity of life is shattered at the anvil of political expediency. A life without God is a life without meaning….and evil will abound.

‘Children, be on your guard against false gods’ (1 John 5.21).

Thank you, Colin.