Competition Is Always A Good Thing. It

America Is A Knowledge-based Society, Where Information Counts As Much As Material Resources. Therefore Those With The Power To Define What Qualifies As Knowledge - To Determine What Are The Accepted Facts - Wield The Greatest Social And Political Power.

Clearly, Enlightenment Thinkers Were Seeking A God Substitute.

Modern Secular Thought Has Its Own Dualism: It Treats Only The Physical World As Knowable And Testable, While Locking Everything Else - Mind, Spirit, Morality, Meaning - Into The Realm Of Private, Subjective Feelings. The So-called Fact/value Split.

Many People Operate As Though The Definition Of Faith Were, Don't Ask Questions, Just Believe. They Quote Jesus Himself, Who Taught His Followers To Have The Faith Of A Child (mark 10:15). But I Once Heard Francis Schaeffer Respond By Saying, "don't You Realize How Many Questions Children Ask?"

An Idol Is Not Necessarily Something Concrete, Like A Golden Calf. It Can Also Be Something Abstract, Like Matter. Is Matter Part Of The Created Order? Sure It Is. So The Philosophy Of Materialism Qualifies As An Idol In The Biblical Sense.