SOUTH PARK: GOD'S AUTHORITY
The hostile atheists do not want to admit that God is Creator because such an admission would give God authority over their lives. They would rather serve chance so that all experience is relative and so that there are no absolutes-—except perhaps, their certainty that there is no God.
Cruising down the cable dial the other day, I saw a portion of a "South Park" episode. I don’t recommend this cartoon and its foul-mouthed, spoiled children, but this particular episode caught my attention because a character was literally praying to science. The episode posited a future where the atheists had won. They said, "Praise Science!" "Thank Science!" and "In the name of Almighty Science!" such that Science had taken the place of God in that prayer--like language (and, I’m sorry to say, in the episode’s profanity, as well). The essential thrust of the episode was that people like Richard Dawkins (parodied by name) had taught the world that religion created hate and that no one was supposed to hate UNLESS THEIR SCIENCE DISAGREED WITH OUR SCIENCE.
I think it is most interesting that, when it comes to evolution as the mechanism for beginnings, so-called scientists break their own rules of empiricism and insist that there could not be an Intelligent Designer and there could not have been a Creator God. Why? Because if God is Creator, there is implied meaning, direction, and authority in life! If everything is chaos such that it is without meaning, direction, and authority, then no one can tell us what to do. It’s ALL GOOD! At least, that’s what they say. It’s just that it isn’t.
The early church recognized that God’s authority is established and verified in God’s creation. We submit to God because God created us and knows what is best for us. That is insulting, dehumanizing, and frightening to the secular progressives. They want the waters of morality and values to remain murky enough that they can make their own rules. So, powerful prayer begins by admitting God’s authority.