Philosopher Roger Scruton, in The Soul of the World, reasons that the core religious thought is the thought that the sacred and the sacrificial coincide.
Scruton writes:
"Of course, there is the greatest difference in the world between religions that demand self-sacrifice, and those (like that of the Aztecs) that demand the sacrifice of others. If there is anything that could be called progress in the religious history of mankind, it resides in the gradual preference for the self over the other as the primary sacrificial victim. It is precisely in this that the Christian religion rests its moral claim." (Scruton, p. 2, emphasis mine)
This is the core selflessness and servanthood lying at the heart of real Christianity. Laying down one's life for others is the beauty of the cross of Christ. Atheism cannot logically justify such beauty given its metaphysical assumptions precisely because atheism, as philosophical materialism, must conclude the non-existence of morality.
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My new book is - Praying: Reflections on 40 Years of Solitary Conversations with God.
