Atheists: Masters of Nothing. Captains to Nowhere.
Most of the atheists I know have wonderful suburban lives.
(Click the Button Below To Read an earlier blog post - Suburbia Disturbia)
They have the luxury of being atheists – to have the feeling of total control. Most atheists could claim this quote for themselves:
“I am the Master of my fate and the Captain of my soul.”
That’s the famous quote from Invictus, a poem by William Ernest Henley in 1875. Apparently, you can ask him about it. Surely he lives since he claims ultimate control over his fate and his soul. Right?
Unfortunately, Henley, as with all humanity before him, found the same fate for his soul. He is no longer here. I wonder what Henley was thinking when lying on his death bed. No one knows. But one thing is certain, he was NOT thinking he was master of his fate. His soul, wherever it may be, must still be feeling the tragic foolishness of the statement.
My mother, the first atheist in my life, loved quoting Henley. When I was young and impressionable, I remember thinking how appealing it sounded – so powerful, so confident. Being the “Captain” and “Master” of your future sounds so bold, so strong, so invincible. Unfortunately for Henley, and for my mother, it sadly lacks any semblance of reality.
It sounds meaningful but is rendered meaningless. It seems powerful but is truly powerless in its mythical presumptions.
Today, atheists don’t usually make such bold statements. They are more sophisticated and more reliant on scientific realities. Today’s certainties easily expose Henley’s foolishness. But subtly, quietly, and without much contemplation, today’s atheists act as if Henley spoke gospel truth. And most in our culture today live as if Henley was correct. This is a conundrum. Henley’s Invictus is a cleverly-worded delusion. What could be more delusional than the presumption of control?
For my mother, like all atheists, her final days proved only one thing — the dreadful truth that she was Master of Nothing and Captain to Nowhere. Our culture has whitewashed humanity’s inevitable final moments. If you are sick, you go to medical facilities, away from everyone else. You die, not in the village as did our ancestors, but in the sanitized, sequestered spaces of hospitals and rest homes. Few, if any, see it or feel the utter emptiness of the moment.
Without faith in something or Someone beyond this life, death is without meaning. And so is the life that preceded it.
Henley’s words are proven over and over to be hollow nonsense in the most critical of times.
For those of us who have suffered in life, (See my life’s story at lizherenow.com) Henley-thinking is especially flawed. It provides -
no answers…
no hope…
no healing…
It is a powerfully worded illusion devoid of meaning. Further, it has no capacity to restore, no answers for past hurts, and no hope of mending the deep wounds so many of us carry. This alone, does not make me a Christian. But it most definitely makes me NOT an Atheist.
Christianity may seem like an equally illusory endeavor. It certainly does for my atheist friends. Regardless, I choose Christianity over the Henley lie, any day. Some think my faith in Jesus can be proven to be an illusion – much like Henley’s lie has been with the last breath of everyone gone before. I have looked at this extensively. I have lived on both sides of the belief systems – both Atheism and Christianity. The false notion that Christianity lacks evidence is simply “fake news”. More to come in future blogs.
Further, faith in Jesus has the power to heal. I am living proof of that. Ironically, the healing power of Christianity has overpowered the damage of the most prevalent Henley follower in my life. She wears the contradictory titles of Mother – also Tormentor and Abuser.
I am grateful to have found my faith in Jesus and the healing power it provides. And to have abandoned mind-numbing nonsense like Henley’s Invictus. I am not Master of my fate. Nor am I Captain of my soul. But I rest in the ONE who is.
