British atheists are launching a campaign to put ads on buses. They will read
“There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life”.

It strikes me as odd that atheists think believing in God is a cause of worrying and not enjoying life. It supports my impression that many atheists are running away from God because of their guilt. They reject God so that they do not have to feel guilty, there being no one to judge them. That view of the God they do not believe in is sad, a reaction against a legalistic, law-only view of religion. They probably find it incomprehensible that belief in God–whom Christians see as gracious, forgiving, Incarnate, and redeeming–actually enables people to stop worrying and to enjoy their lives.

(I was in London recently and was struck by the advertisements for Islam on those buses. I guess those are the choices that the British see: Atheism or Islam.)

(Also, Michael the Little Boot, I don’t include you in the generalization about atheists above. I recall that you said that you wished you could believe. I also respect the atheists like Camus and Sartre who face up to the implications of their disbelief, recognizing that if God does not exist, then our own existence becomes meaningless. They would find that blithe poster-talk–there’s no God so now you can stop worrying and enjoy life–to be laughably contemptible, missing the very point even of honest atheism.)

Though some polls show the race tightening, many liberals are expecting a Reaganesque landslide and fantasizing about what they accomplish with a huge House majority and a filibuster-proof Senate. Newsweek’s Jonathan Alter hails the new era of liberalism that is on the verge of being born. From The Country is Heading Leftward:

If Obama moves “smart left” next year, he will have succeeded in rewriting the American social contract—the obligations of the government to the people on the economy, energy, health care and education. But if we see a revival of the dumb left with old-fashioned capitulation to interest groups and a series of rookie mistakes on foreign policy, even a big Democratic victory next month would be a speed bump on the Ronald Reagan highway.

Most voters are neither Limbaugh dittoheads nor ACORN activists. They’re pragmatic centrists who decided they liked Obama when he reminded them more of Will Smith than Jesse Jackson. They liked that he tried to calm their fears rather than express their anger. But this election is about something deeper than temperament. When people are scared, whether it’s after 9/11 or heading into a recession, they turn to government for protection. Cultural issues like gay marriage and resentment of elites fade. Even though voters don’t trust Washington any more than Wall Street, it’s their only option.

The question for the new president then becomes not whether he’s moving too fast but too slow. The test becomes whether he can use the powers of government to act on behalf of the American people. That is a fundamentally liberal idea.

So we’ll be back to big government, social engineering, and vast programs to improve everyone’s lives. And giving liberals control of every part of the government will mean NOTHING can stop them. I have heard it said that they won’t have any money for their schemes, but that shows a lack of awareness of liberal economics. The left will rule, and rule they will. I hope America is ready for what is about to happen.

(Liberal readers, I don’t intend to vilify you. I don’t intend “liberal” to be an insult. It will soon be the highest praise, and “conservative” will be the view that dares not state its name. You will soon get everything you want politically. I congratulate you.)

Baylor is getting criticized for offering students $300 to re-take their SAT exams, with $1000 for improving their scores 50 points or more. The university, facing ridicule, has stopped the practice. See Baptist School ‘Goofed’ in Offering Perks for SAT Retakes.

Baylor wants higher scores to elevate its academic reputation so that it will show up better on the U.S. News & World Report list of top colleges. According to the article, Baylor’s average SAT score is around 1200. Speaking of which, at Patrick Henry College, where I teach and am provost, our average SATs are around 150 points higher.

We have the reality of first-rate students, a superb curriculum, a world-class faculty, and off-the-charts academic quality. Our reputation is often formed by people who don’t like us much, who are put off by our Christian identity and who are alarmed by our prospects (mediocre Christian colleges being no threat), so stories about us are filled with distortions (we are NOT theocrats trying to take over the world). If we go by reality, PHC deserves to be on that U.S. News list of top colleges and way up in the rankings, and I’m working to make it happen. Not by cooking the books or manipulating the data but by getting out the facts.