Terry Applegate | On October 13, 2020

It is my right to kill my own child, it is my right to undergo brutal and barbaric surgery to change my gender, it is my right to torch and loot businesses, topple public monuments and terrorize neighborhoods (if done for the currently ‘in’ politically-correct reasons, of course!).

The list could go on-and-on but, aren’t you amazed at the number of people who now think that they own themselves, are masters of themselves and almost give themselves credit for their very being?

They think that they should do whatever they want, how ever they want and whenever they want.

They seriously believe that culture, modernity, civilization itself is due to themselves.  They are the holy righteous ones (which explains their emotionally reactive response to any who think differently from themselves.)

We are witnessing the absolute ascendency of the individual where the only thing that matters is for me to be sovereign.  It is all about me, me, me and nobody has the right to tell me ‘no’ to any of my fancies.

All things are possible for me because, “I am that I am.”  Individual autonomy now takes precedence over relationships, nature and institutions.

Many now are gods in their own minds.

Were these poor souls to reflect on their true situation, they might have a conversation with themselves such as this:

“Can I find within myself the cause for my own existence?  No, I cannot, I was created by forces outside my control, with absolutely no input by myself, at a time when I didn’t even have consciousness, let alone the ability to reason.  Consequently, I must admit that I was created by some superior force for some particular reason known to that power and, possibly that reason can be discerned by me.

Did my mind decide to inhabit my body?  Of course not.  Therefore, it was placed there by some authority outside of myself.

Do I even understand how my body works, let alone my mind?  No, not in the least.  It just does what it needs to do without my ability to understand it at all.  I have no idea how my body is subject to my mind or, even how my mind works.  Who designed me to do all the necessary functions from breathing to reasoning?  Not me, so it must have been an outside designer.

Did I exist before I was created in my present mind/body?  Nope, I have no memory of any previous existence so, by necessity I can not be responsible for my own existence.

Consequently, I must admit that I was created by some superior being for an objective known to him and potentially discernable to myself and, therefore, I am not my own but I belong to my creator.”

Further, should these lost and pitiable people merely reflect upon the order, the beauty, the intricacies of the creation around them, they would be forced to acknowledge a master builder who constructed such an awesome cosmos.

Even the most cursory contemplation of the simplest of things (a leaf, a cloud, a tree, the sky) leads to an awareness of the complexity and sense of interconnected design.  Our total inability to understand and contain the vastness of reality results in an intuitive worshipful attitude towards the Creator.

This sense of wonder and innate acknowledgment of a super-intending God has a feel of being more real than even reality itself.

As Cicero put it, “What can be so obvious, and so clear, when we have beheld the heavens and contemplated the celestial bodies, as that there is a Deity possessed of the most consummate wisdom, by whom they are governed?  If any one doubts of this, I know no reason why he may not also doubt of the existence of the Sun; for what can be more evident?”  And, “Who is so stupid and infatuated as not to perceive, after having looked up to the heavens that there are Gods; or to ascribe to the operation of chance, works which discover so great intelligence…”

I have seen yard signs that proclaim “Science is Real”.  Yet science believes or, assumes that reality is intelligible to our very limited minds.  This is a raw naked assumption that surely couldn’t be true if all is controlled by chance.

Why should the patterns of reality be accessible to our brains?  How can it possibly be so when the immensity and complexity of the universe is so far beyond our constrained ability to understand?

The assumption is impossible unless we were constructed thus yet, science does its darnedest to deny conscious construction and replace it with chance.

Either looking inward or outward, it is beyond obvious what the true state of reality is – engineered, designed, rational, purposeful and based upon laws at least somewhat understandable by us poor humans.

Yet the obvious truth must be denied and all attributed to chance in order sustain the foundation of the age:  prideful individualism, where I am my own god and nobody can tell me what is right or, wrong or, what I am to do and not to do.

By attributing the amazing order and magnificence of the universe (from the tiniest particles to the immense galaxies) to chance, we have demonstrated our inability to reason from obvious observations to any kind of sound conclusion in a rational manner.

Based on this false foundation, individual, family and social structures sway, struggle and verge upon submersion beneath a sea of lawlessness.

Those to come will note the foolishness and primitiveness of the accepted dogma of our age.  The folly of the present epoch will be remarked upon with wonder in the times to come and those who today feel themselves to be so smugly superior will be looked down upon with derision and contempt for their abject failure to engage in basic acts of observation and cognition.

Terry Applegate

Terry Applegate writes from Utah in the winter and Michigan in the summer. He is CEO of Applegate Insulation, serves on the board for Citizens for Traditional Values, Cellulose Insulation Manufacturers Association and the European Theological Seminary and is married to Val with three children and four grand-children.