For a number of reasons, it’s rather easy to feel despair at this moment.
From whatever you’re dealing with personally, to the bloody war instigated by Hamas terrorists in the Middle East, to the general state of this country … it’s easy.
That’s why it’s so important to periodically be reminded that God provides genuine good in this seemingly bleak world.
A stark and beautifully written reminder of that came from Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a columnist for British news site UnHerd and a research fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, as well as an author and podcaster, who described her journey from self-described “atheist” to a woman of faith in an essay for UnHerd. (She was also an observing Muslim at one point.)
In a piece titled “Why I am now a Christian,” Ali offered her thesis right off the bat: “Atheism can’t equip us for civilizational war.”
Ali argues that so much of what ails the world currently — all of those potential points of despair — are being addressed only on a superficial level.
“We endeavour to fend off these threats with modern, secular tools: military, economic, diplomatic and technological efforts to defeat, bribe, persuade, appease or surveil,” Ali wrote. “And yet, with every round of conflict, we find ourselves losing ground.
“We are either running out of money, with our national debt in the tens of trillions of dollars, or we are losing our lead in the technological race with China.”
Those are fair, if alarming, points.
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Ali continued: “In this nihilistic vacuum, the challenge before us becomes civilizational. We can’t withstand China, Russia and Iran if we can’t explain to our populations why it matters that we do.
“We can’t fight woke ideology if we can’t defend the civilization that it is determined to destroy. And we can’t counter Islamism with purely secular tools. To win the hearts and minds of Muslims here in the West, we have to offer them something more than videos on TikTok.”
Ali posited that an embrace of Christianity was the ultimate salve for what ails you, and explained how it worked for her: “Yet I would not be truthful if I attributed my embrace of Christianity solely to the realization that atheism is too weak and divisive a doctrine to fortify us against our menacing foes. I have also turned to Christianity because I ultimately found life without any spiritual solace unendurable — indeed very nearly self-destructive.
“Atheism failed to answer a simple question: What is the meaning and purpose of life?”
Indeed atheism presupposes that humans will fill a religious void with pragmatism and intellect — which is a wild assumption given human history.
Ali noted that in place of faith, atheism ultimately filled that void with “a jumble of irrational quasi-religious dogma.”
As to how Christianity does adequately answer that question, the exact answer may differ from person of faith to person of faith, but the framework is largely the same: God loves you and has put every tool at your disposal to make it to heaven.
Not only was mankind made in God’s image, but He wants us to follow Christ and follow His word — almost everything a soul needs to thrive.
The entire essay is legitimately worth a read. You should check it out.
