Article Contributed on: 10/13/2006 12:16:04 AM
It should go without saying that the biggest difference between the religious person and the secular person is a belief in an all-powerful, benevolent Creator/Ruler. That is, a faith in and worship of the omnipotent GOD that created all of the universe and everything in it -- and then still took the time to create humanity in His own image.
So let's pretend I didn't say it. Instead, I'd like to address a significant side-effect of said belief or disbelief: the acceptance or rejection of the idea of evil...
To the religious person, evil is a real force in this world. We know evil exists as surely as we know the Washington Monument exists. Evil is as genuine an attribute as goodness is in this world, and exactly because evil is the polar opposite of goodness. That is, the religious person would find it impossible to believe in the existence of a Holy, righteous force for Good in the world without also acknowledging that there is a competing entity.
But to the secular person - one who doesn't accept the teachings of The Bible - there is no more an evil force in this world than there is a belief in a well meaning creator of it. They seem to believe that people who commit crimes aren't actually
doing evil so much as they are the victim of some other societal cause. To that end, the secular community has invested years of their time and vast amounts of fortune in search of that cause.
When the answer has been right in front of them the whole time...
It's not the hardest thing in the world to believe that evil exists. One has only to watch a network newscast or read the front page of a newspaper (on most days), to see some horrific story about the new and fascinating ways some humans have devised in order to torment others of their species. Some of the worst of which we've seen recently; men taking hostages in a school, molesting young girls they've taken hostage in a school and a man randomly killing girls because the police arrived sooner than was expected after he'd taken schoolgirls hostage with the intent of molesting them, in a schoolhouse.
In all of this, the Religious person will see the force of evil for what it is. The secular person will try to find some OTHER cause - be it chemical imbalance, economic disparity, melanin content or the ability to see UFOs as they orbit the earth. Because to acknowledge the existence of evil would be to submit to the idea that an equal force exists for the good of mankind.
Which is all too much to admit if you're not up to it...