WHO’S RESPONSIBLE?
You can argue that the Inquisition and the Crusades came from Christianity, but you cannot defend either from Scripture. But you can easily defend Nazi and Communist behavior from evolutionary theory.
—Tom Willis

THE LEGACY OF JOHN PAUL II
Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne Jr. observed that commentators on the pope “will inevitably debate the meaning of his legacy in the secular terms that so dominate our times. We should try to remember that these were not the terms on which he lived his life.”
What, then, were the terms on which he lived? Perhaps the late pontiff expressed it best when he said in response to pressure from critics to soften his stance on social and doctrinal issues, “I am not severe—I am sweet by nature—but I defend the rigidity principle. God is stronger than human weakness and deviations. God will always have the last word.”

CONSCIENCE IS GOD’S PRESENCE IN US
It’s an amazing and wonderful thing that the world over, in nearly every culture and even in the most remote places, everyone seems to know the difference between right and wrong. People understand that certain things are sins, even if they don’t use that word, and they have laws against them. God’s basic moral standards are pretty universal.
The Holy Spirit is faithful and speaks to the hearts of all, telling them when they’re doing wrong. They know the difference between good and evil. They may not know their Master or the whole truth, the Good News of salvation, but they know the difference between right and wrong. “God’s laws are written within them; their own conscience accuses them, or sometimes excuses them” (Romans 2:12 TLB). God gives everybody some light, and God is going to judge each one according to how they follow the light he or she is given.
God created man as a free moral agent. He gives each of us the majesty of personal choice to choose between good and evil, between obeying the guiding voice of God and obeying the voice of Satan. Which will you do?
—David Brandt Berg

WHO MADE IT?
The noted atheist Colonel Robert Ingersoll, during a visit with Henry Ward Beecher, admired a beautiful globe portraying the constellations and stars of the heavens. “This is just what I’ve been looking for,” he said after examining it. “Who made it?”
“Who made it?” repeated Beecher in simulated astonishment. “Why, Colonel, nobody made it. … It just happened.”