Posted on 06/30/2011 7:30:00 PM PDT by AustralianConservative
B.P. Terpstra
Another week. Another shocker. Yes all is revealed in Bishop Edward S. Little’s post on Christianity Today, about how one anti-Christian philosopher prepared him to hear the gospel. Her name: Ayn Rand. The Bishop explains:
Ayn Rand changed my life. When I embraced her philosophy, Objectivism, the conversion was far more dramatic than my decision, several years later, to follow Jesus Christ—more dramatic, but in the end transitory. Yet Rand, the novelist, philosopher, and uncompromising atheist, inadvertently opened a door for the gospel. I don't believe dead people spin in their graves, but if they did and she could read these words, I imagine Rand would be twirling violently.
As many have noted, Rand's ethic of rational self-interest is incompatible with the gospel, and leads to social as well as spiritual disaster. “Most observers see Rand as a political and economic philosopher,” wrote Gary Moore last year in Christianity Today. “I believe that she was first and foremost an anti-Christian philosopher.” A six-foot dollar sign wreath towered over her casket, Moore pointed out, an icon of the false gospel she labored to proclaim. I agree entirely that Christianity and Objectivism are utterly incompatible. But my gratitude to Rand remains profound.
As an awkward teen, growing up in a secular family environment, Ayn Rand was treated like an all-knowing cult figure:
Because my family lived in New York City, I was able to enroll in a 20-session “Basics of Objectivism” course at the Nathaniel Branden Institute. (Branden, an early Rand associate and a psychologist by training, spent many years teaching Objectivism in partnership with Rand.) The course included sessions on metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, aesthetics, and political and economic theory, with a heavy emphasis on laissez-faire capitalism.
But? The rest is here.
(Excerpt) Read more at weekendlibertarian.blogspot.com ...
Not surprised. Lots of Bible thumpers lead folks away from God.
God works in strange ways. I imagine Ayn Rand is having some fascinating conversations with Thomas Aquinas and others.
BTW, the “excerpt” insertion was kind of lame. It was the ENTIRE article (except for the link to the original source, which was the “here” mentioned).
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2011/june/aynrandled.html?start=1
Next time, just post the link instead of the redirect.
I'm trying to imagine how that could possibly be.
They sit together, pop a Heaven beer, and talk about stuff.
Rand’s beer would be a bit warm...
She’s British?
Within seven posts your point was made.
How many souls has the government ever saved?
When it comes down to it, Randian philosophy is about being the best human being you can possibly be.
If you take the spiritual component away from Christianity, it leads you on the same path.
Being a whiney liberal dependent on the government from cradle to grave and demanding other people take care of you because you never are responsible for your own actions leads you to a secular hell, regardless if you believe in Jesus or not.
bookmark
However I don't think Steve and Jane are around to do this anymore.
LMAO!
I can’t tell you how many times, people have turned me off before I’ve said anything. Many as if they have a chip on their shoulders and either afraid I’m going to condemn them, or try to shove Christianity down their throats. The church(not all churches but enough of them) and misunderstood verses in the bible have done a lot of harm. You have also got to understand, new Christians are like babies and their understanding is very limited. But, they are so on fire they just want to share and often do a very poor job of it. Christianity is a life long learning experience many people don’t understand that.
“God works in strange ways.”
Very true. But I wonder. If Ayn Rand, in the afterlife was given the choice - would she choose God or whatever is behind Door #2? On one hand her rational mind might STILL say “there is no God”. OTOH, perhaps it is ALL somehow spelled out and people that have been searching for something (Truth, Reality, Meaning of Life, Pefection, etc.) when given the chance to see the true God some of them will go “Oh! So that’s what I was really after!”
Bookmark indeed...
What is generally called a slut, to call her what she was. It is no great shock that she produced a system in which her catting around was something laudable.
So yeah, that is going to be diametrically opposed to Christianity, and who wouldn't expect she would take a caustic tone toward any who believe in a God who desires holiness and is himself perfectly holy?
Very conservative (and educated) Catholics will go so far as suggesting that Friedrich Nietzsche led them to a religious view of life.
My problem with some evangelicals is that they deny God’s power to bring people to faith via means that are not completely obvious.
‘Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God’(Rom.10:17)
yes, but you can’t hear the word of God unless you are in a position to actually hear and understand. People can come to God through many paths, Ayn Rand or Nietzsche. Ultimately it doesn’t matter how.
Rand was a psychopath
http://michaelprescott.net/hickman.htm
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