A mash-up is a combination of existing texts, graphics, audio or video files or animations that create a new work. Here’s the first draft of one I hastily mashed up … the Gospel of Ayn the Apostle.
And God saith unto Moses, ‘I AM THAT WHICH I AM; A IS A.’ There is only one fundamental alternative in the universe: existence or non-existence. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
It is only a living organism that faces a constant alternative: the issue of life or death. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
It is only the concept of “Life” that makes the concept of “Value” possible. Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me; apart from me you can do nothing.”
Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: My morality, the morality of reason, is contained in a single axiom: existence exists—and in a single choice: to live.
It needs work … but in a nutshell, Ayn Rand chose life; and, in so doing, yes! Rand chose Jesus!
Unconvinced? I’ll pass the baton to blogger du jour Ann Barnhardt.
One of the hallmarks of Rand’s Objectivist philosophy is the supremacy of an individual’s capacity for logic and reason. Those two words, logic and reason, appear over and over again in all of Rand’s writings. Here is a quote from Rand herself, emphasis mine:
My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute.
The Christian reconciliation of all of this lies in the Gospel of John, chapter 1, verse one: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
In John’s creation narrative, he immediately identifies and establishes Jesus Christ as divine, co-eternal with God the Father, begotten, not made. Today, we simply say that Jesus Christ is the Second Person of the Holy Trinity. But what we must focus on in terms of this discussion is the word that John uses to name and identify Jesus: John calls Him “the Word.” In the original Greek, the word John uses is “Logos.” The word “logos” in Greek is the same word used for the concepts of logic and reason. This Greek root is indeed the etymological source for the modern English word “logic.” What John did in the very first sentence of his Gospel is to specifically identify Christ, the Second Person of the Trinity, as Logic and Reason Itself. Logic and reason are intrinsic, constitutive qualities of God. They are His essence. They are who He is. This is why Christ identified Himself as “The Truth.” Logic and reason are the process and mechanism by which statements are determined to be either true or false. A true statement is simply a statement that is aligned with God. 1+1=2. True. Why is this true? Because it is in alignment with the existential reality that is God Himself. Or, for you math buffs, consider Euler’s Identity, which I and many, many others consider to be the very thumbprint of God:
Here are the five great constants of mathematics: e, the base of natural logarithms; i, the imaginary number which is the square root of negative 1; pi, the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter; the number one — the multiplicative identity; and the number zero, the additive identity. Now look at how simply and beautifully these numbers combine to form a true statement. That, dear readers, is God winking at us. Rand was right — reason is our only absolute, because Reason is God Himself. If one re-reads Rand making this simple, conceptual substitution, it will literally knock you to the floor.
Knock yourself out. Ayn Rand was a Christian!
I do like what she is saying about Identity, truth, and reality are unified and embodied in God.
It is better to call Christians ‘Objectivists’ in it’s true sence, rather than label Rand ‘a Christian’ because Rand used the term ‘Reason’ in antithesis to the above argument. Ie She rejected ‘Divine Reason’ and deified ‘Godless Human reason’.
To the Extent that Christians today reject the inerrancy of The scriptures is the degree that they are Randoids too! Whom have fallen from Faith in Divine Reason and instead trust in Godless human reason.
Rand plagiarized Christianity, and attempted to secularize its values and ideals… thus ‘Atheize’ Rights, justice etc. This counterfeit is the ‘Holy grail’ to many atheists whom hate to admit their Faith is fundamentally Amoral and Nihilistic.
This gives them that false claim to ‘Moral superiority’ without submitting to all those annoying ‘Divine judgments’ for Vanity, perversion, Selfishness, etc.
I agree.
I reject the inerrancy of the Bible. So call me an Objectivist! (In the true sense!)
Tim, there is no distinction between “Divine Reason” and “Godless human reason”. Reason is reason. Reason (logic) is isomorphic with the fundamental structure of God’s Creation. (Barnhardt makes this point well.) To the extent that human reason parts company with Divine Reason, it is human unreason.
Was Ayn Rand a Christian? I make a more convincing case in Part 2 (forthcoming).
There is a difference Richard.
One is infallible, the other very falible.
One has all the facts, the other works in the dark.
When you say “I reject the inerrancy of the Bible” you are as unobjective and as unreasonable as Rand. “Without faith it is impossible to please God”
“Let God be true, and every man a Liar”
“Study to shew thyself approved unto God; a workman that needeth not to be ashamed Rightly dividing *The word of Truth*.”
“Thy word is Truth”. The children of Satan “Recieve not the Word of God” They are The Wayside, The stoney and thorny ground. He who believes is the ‘good soil’ whom brineth forth much friut.
He who trusts in the scriptures ‘Buildeth his house upon the Rock.
he who trust in human wisdom buildeth his house upon the sand, and when the storm cometh it shall not stand.
“The world by wisdom knew not God”
“For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, To The Unknown God. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.”
Ann Barnhardt wrote. This is why Christ identified Himself as “The Truth.”
(end quote)
It was not “Christ” who identified himself as “The Truth”; it was the writer of the text passage who had this idea and put it down in writing (about 100 years later).
A. B. :
“Rand was right — reason is our only absolute, because Reason is God Himself.” (end quote)
If that is the case, I suppose the first thing ‘Reason’ (aka God in your opinon) would throw into the garbage is the irrational human nonsense about original sin, where eating from the tree of knowledge is regarded as a crime against God’s will. 🙂
Angela, here‘s something to make you feel more at home. 🙂
It was about 60 years later. (And the gospels are fact, not fiction. John was a space cadet, not a science fiction author!) Do you care about facts? Or only about promoting your atheist ideology?
Xray, The ‘Toxin’ that spiritually ruined Mankind and cause his separation from God was not physically within the ‘apple’, (though concievibly the fruit may have indeed contained a genetic toxin and Gods warning that it will bring death a literal warning) The Toxin that brought about the fall was in the moral choice to disobey God… who sets the rules. *Rand was wrong!* Adam was *not a Robot* but a Reasoning free will moral agent… and it is Atheist materialism which renders man an Amoral Automation …an unreasoning Robot!
Thus Rand was 100% wrong…. and John Galts AntiChrist speech is founded in error!
http://blog.eternalvigilance.me/2011/10/we-are-not-robots-ayn-rand-we-are-moral-agents/