by David Ettinger

Back in the 1990s, I watched a TV program called “Seventh Heaven.” The popular show centered on a pastor and his “Christian” family. One particular episode stood out, its closing line a poignant one. The 20-plus-year-old plot is sketchy to me, but it involved an estranged father who behaved disgracefully toward his daughter. Disgusted, the show’s main character, Reverend Eric Camden, chastised him by saying, “Do you fear God?”

It wasn’t a question, but a stinging accusation, Reverend Camden’s point being: “Only someone who has no fear of God can behave as reprehensibly as you.” He is absolutely right. If there is no fear of God, no reverence for His divine being, no accountability to His infinite power, then all restraint has the potential of being removed from human behavior.

This lack of divine fear is humanity’s fatal disease in a nutshell, and it is the human…