God Is Not a Religion: Why America Is in Decline

By James K. Karlson

God Is Not a Religion: Why America Is in Decline leads readers to ask the difficultbut necessaryquestions. It probes the nature of God, His ties to the American people and their long national experiment, and the characteristics of the broadly based decline cutting across the countrys social, political and cultural institutions. Then it offers a path to follow for returning to the fundamental tenets that originally grounded the country. It suggests that this road to recovery will take the American people to a place in which they reaffirm the sovereignty of God and the accountability of the nations governmental servants.

In this insightful diagnosis and prescription author James K. Karlson, a chemist and business executive, brings to bear his analytical and managerial experience, seasoned by his Christian convictions, to fill the pages of God Is Not a Religion with historically informed analysis and biblically grounded guidance. He proposes that the journey of faith beckons both to individuals and to the country. He applies his diagnosis and prescription to the many challenges facing America, such as education, racism, marriage, global climate change, taxes, and guns.

God Is Not a Religion: Why America Is in Decline promises to take seriously history, theology, morality, politics, and personal responsibility as it turns a critical eye, tempered by the Christian faith, to the nation and its people. An examination of the political, moral, and spiritual decline characterized in modern American culture that offers a path for individuals and the nation to follow to return to living under God.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Archway Publishing
• Release date: Sep 23, 2016
• ISBN: 9781480833913

James K. Karlson

James K. Karlson, the son of an immigrant from Sweden, has worked in the chemical industry as a chemist and business executive for four decades. Taking to heart his father’s insight that education is an irrevocable investment in oneself, he has enriched the practice of his faith through study. He lives in Danbury, Connecticut.

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Copyright © 2016 James K. Karlson.

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ISBN: 978-1-4808-3389-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4808-3390-6 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4808-3391-3 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016914473

Archway Publishing rev. date: 9/23/2016

CONTENTS

Introduction

1. God versus Science

2. The Bridge between Science and the Scripture

3. America in Decline

4. Religion

5. Morality in America

6. Education

7. Political Correctness

8. Racism and Bigotry

9. Marriage and Government

10. Global Warming / Climate Change

11. Taxes

12. Freedom or Slavery

13. Lies and Deception

14. The Right to Bear Arms

15. God Is Needed in Education

16. Aliens from Outer Space

17. Marriage, Not Government Marriage

18. Are You a Doubting Thomas?

19. Reflections

INTRODUCTION

I have chosen to write about people’s perceptions of science and religion in America and how they are affecting the culture in American society today. Unfortunately Americans, for the most part, have mistakenly viewed God as a religion and not as a personal being or their Creator. Additionally, Americans are permitting the scientific community to influence answers to creation and life itself. Believe it or not, this type of thinking is eroding American culture, resulting in a massive division within America today.

When you speak of God in America, people will generally say they are or they are not religious. Religion is perhaps one of the most misunderstood words in our Constitution. When you read the Constitution, I believe the Founding Fathers understood religion to mean a belief in Yahweh or Jehovah and salvation by accepting Jesus of Nazareth as one’s Savior as told to us in the Bible. I would also conclude that the word religion was used in order to distinguish between the various denominations of Christianity and Judaism at the time our Constitution was being developed. At that time, the scientific community was in its infancy stage and people possessed a strong faith and belief that God created life. We know there were Catholics, Puritans, Quakers, Baptists, Jews, and other forms of Christian worship that made their way to this country. We know that all of these religions worship the one true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, otherwise known as Yahweh. I firmly believe the Founding Fathers did not consider belief systems such as Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, or totem pole worship as religions. Instead, I believe they were looked upon as a form of heathen worship. Ask any member of these religious orders if they recognize Yahweh as the one true God, and they will simply tell you no. This gets us back to the dawn of creation, a question that always seems to be debated by humanity—who is the one true God? One must always remember that, in colonial America, Yahweh was recognized as the one true God.

Because of this belief, we can appreciate the success America has had because of the founders’ belief in a supreme Creator. This is the crux of this writing: America is in decline, not because of its culture but because it has chosen not to maintain its reverence to our Creator, God. America has closed the book on God and turned Him into a thing called religion. Religions that were once considered heathen worship (when this country was founded) are now lumped together with our Creator, God. Our schools teach the theory of evolution, but our Constitution and Declaration of Independence tell us our rights (i.e., liberty, and the pursuit of happiness) were given to us by our Creator. What kind of education are we truly giving our children today? We tell them we are made via some freak accident of nature through billions and billions of years of evolution, and yet the documents that are the foundation of our country and its government recognize a supreme Creator as the one who gives us these rights. Go figure.

What I hope to convey is that after you have completed reading this book, you will make it a point to read the scriptures regularly and follow them throughout your life and daily activity in life, that you will come away with an understanding that science, which has provided a multitude of conveniences, does not explain the purpose of the human existence—that is, why we are here.

Moreover, I hope that when you select and vote for men or women to represent you in government positions, you will choose men and women who are firmly grounded in God and His word, men and women who choose to live obedient lives based on God’s instruction and who possess the experience and wisdom necessary to represent we the people.

Whereas so many people are in awe of science, which is the study of God’s creation, I also hope to convey to the reader through this book an understanding of the Bible, which is the study of our God, that answers the fundamental questions: Who created us, and why were we created?

1 GOD VERSUS SCIENCE

Initially, what we need to do is to distinguish between science and the function it plays in our daily lives and how God functions in our daily lives.

Science answers questions such as how life behaves within the creation the Bible answers the question of who created everything and why we were created.

Let me begin by saying that God created the universe as opposed to saying the universe was created by some unconfirmed scientific theory. When God created the universe, He set up a series of laws (i.e., physical laws and moral laws). After God secured the Israelites’ freedom from the Egyptians, God gave moral laws to Moses and to the children of Israel in the form of the Ten Commandments. The physical laws remained for humanity to discover and understand as they grew intellectually. This is what is known today as discoveries in science—the laws pertaining to motion, thermodynamics, gaseous substances, electricity, and the like. The fact that our benevolent God created humanity in His image does not mean in His physical image. It means that He gave us the ability to create as He does but within the confines of His creation, in addition to being able to reason and to liken our character after His.

Here is a simple illustration on how humans demonstrate their creative abilities. Throughout the centuries, humanity has eventually learned what makes up matter. Matter consists of the elements as outlined in the periodic table.

Figure1.psd

What we learned from the chart is that the elements have order and design.

Humanity has learned that the elements combine together to form all types of materials organic and inorganic as well as life itself. With this knowledge, humanity has been able to produce materials that are not found in nature, such as synthetic fibers, plastics, cosmetics, fuels, synthetic coatings, and other products useful in our daily lives. By learning mathematics and understanding the physical laws, we have been able to make machines, such as airplanes, automobiles, computers, ships that can cross the ocean, and rockets that can reach the moon. We have created from the creation materials and ideas that have helped human beings achieve all sorts of wonders pertaining to our survival and not survival of the fittest, as surmised by Darwin. Darwin’s theory of evolution may be interesting