The Toddler Test

Toddlers fall down. I mean, a lot. When first starting (before, I suppose, they earn the name of ‘toddler’) it seems like they spend more time falling than doing anything else. Hopefully a controlled fall onto the pad of their diaper, but however the fall, whatever the direction, they fall. A lot.

Suppose that these small human beings were to decide that standing up was not all it was cracked up to be. All that it ever led to was falling down. Even their older brothers and sisters fell down occasionally. Why bother learning to stand if all you were going to do is to fall down?

Atheists in Crisis

Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?

The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying,

Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.

He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision.

Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure.

Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.

I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee.

Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.

Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.

Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth.

Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling.

Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.

Psalm 2

I have read, or listened to, rather a large number of atheists recently who are decrying the current state of world affairs. Not just the oil prices or food inflation, they are decrying what might be called the overall moral climate.

And one of the things that they do in their reaction is to look back into history and ask, “When was it better? What should the world be like?”

And one of the things they look at is the various periods of Christian civilisation. This or that age, they say, had a better moral tone. And they wonder if it was the presence of Christianity in the culture led to the better moral tone.

The Toddler Test

Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.

I Corinthians 10:12

And then they fail the toddler test. They look at that age, and they say, “But that age led to the next age, which led to the next age… which led to our age. Which is horrible. So that age must not have had any answers.”

Now, overall, I think this is a rather silly exercise in the first place. I think we need to look to ideas (specifically to truth) for our answers as to how a society should be managed, not to ‘ages’. But the specific problem here is that they have failed the toddler test. They have judged a civilisation, a civilisational idea, on whether it falls.

But all civilisations, like all toddlers, fall down. Indeed, all human beings fall down. Even the toddlers four year old, or eight year old, or twelve year old siblings fall down. Even their mother or father fall down. And their grandparents definitely fall down… and often die or have to go to the hospital when they do so.

You don’t judge a state of standing by whether you fall from it. You judge it by what is accomplished in it. Can you reach more things on the counter (and thus get in more trouble). Can you live more rapidly (eventually. At first it is slower.). Can you learn, starting from that state, to run, and jump, and skip?

The Civilisational Goal

Like the standing toddler a civilisation has goals. Like the toddler, it wishes to reach things. Like the toddler it wishes to run, and jump, and skip… it wishes to move through history accomplishing things.

It is important what those goals are. Obviously. But it is also important, in a secondary sense, if the civilisation is powerful enough, active enough, competent enough, to achieve those goals. In a word… whether the civilisation ‘stands’.

Conclusion

And the LORD said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do;

Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him?

For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the LORD, to do justice and judgment; that the LORD may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.

Genesis 18:17-19

And if a civilisation stands, it will fall. Indeed it is only if it stands that it can fall. And the higher it stands, the greater will be its fall… because it is only if you stand tall that you can fall far.

The atheists imagine a vain thing. They imagine that they, as atheists, can recreate a great civilisation. A civilisation built upon ideas that they repudiate, upon values that they reject. They cannot do it, because it cannot be done. It is, perhaps, not a silly idea, but it is not a functional idea. They can never stand, because they have no legs. They have no feet, they have no thighs. Atheism is void of the foundation upon which great civilisations are built.

But to argue that the problem with the former great civilisations was that they fell is to combine that lack of foundation with a lack of logic. Of course they fell. Because they stood.

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Von