WINTER MUSINGS: VOLTAIRE

TURNER ROAD

THE SIGN SAYS IT ALL

VOLTAIRE

Tuesday, 12:30 AM.  -5 degrees F, wind WNW, moderate and stronger.  The sky is now clear, the humidity is 68% and the barometer continues to rise, now at 30.26"
   Snow and cold we have had enough of!  Stop! Halt! No Mas!  The sign says it all.
   The unrest and revolutions around the world, arguably the worst in the least democratic countries, those countries where the government has been given or has seized virtually absolute power, have occasioned me to consider that when today's materialistic, man-centered societies have assigned God-like powers to the State,  those governments, after all made of men, are bound fail and be eventually challenged by the masses of their citizens.
   It was the 18th Century French philosopher and champion of liberty Voltaire who said, "If there were no God it would have been necessary to invent Him."
   It has long been debated exactly what he meant by those words, but it is far less debatable that what he alluded to has actually happened, since as faith in God has declined, so faith in an all-powerful State has taken its place, as governments made up of mortals have been assigned the God-like powers of omnipotence, omniscience and omnipresence.  And all such states, whether  utopian, or monarchy, or theocracy,  or Nazi, or fascist, or communist, have failed or, having once failed and been resurrected, will certainly fail again.
   American style democracy, and to an extent some constitutional monarchies, which are based on faith in a Supreme Being and freedom (We believe these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, and are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights...) and equal  skepticism in the righteousness of men  (viz. the Bill of Rights, limited and divided government, the rule of law and not of men) has out-lived all the "isms" and will continue to do so as long as we put our faith in God and not in corruptible men.
   Those rights which have been given to mankind by a just God cannot be taken away by kings or emperors or tyrants or oligarchs or committees or parliaments unless by force, in which case free men have a God-given right and duty to reclaim them in like manner if need be.