“Faith is the great cope out, the great excuse to evade the need to think and to evaluate evidence.”

Richard Dawkins

Absolutely bizarre coming from a man who believes, on blind faith and contrary to all scientific evidence that matter can create itself. He also believes that inanimate and inorganic chemicals "evolved" into life. Now that, like all of atheism, takes some faith.

Ah, The Atheist Utopia Grows

It creeps and claws its ugly tentacles into every sphere of life. In the Netherlands, a leader in Godless society, death by design has grown in popularity (almost 20%) every year for the last six years. So full of meaning and purpose (he says sarcastically) are the lives of atheists, that 5% of all deaths in the Netherlands are now people choosing to end their lives. 

That's not counting the unassisted suicides.

Mobile teams of those willing to deliver death (Levenseinde), roam the neighbourhoods, taking the lives of those whose physicians have refused to cross this line for reasons other than terminal illness. Newborns with disabilities, adults with depression, even chronic pain is enough to make atheists and functional atheists believe that this life is just not worth it.

Those who see euthanasia as the panacea to our social ills either can't see or wish to not see that our right to die today will lead directly to our Duty To Die tomorrow. As the population ages, as resources become increasingly scarce and as the fact that life without God really doesn't allow for an earthly existence of meaning and purpose, death will become the expected outcome for those requiring almost any type of extra health care.

Do you want to know what's coming to North America? Just watch the social experiment taking place in Nations where atheists lead people away from Creator God and toward human wisdom. The inevitable fascination with and longing for death goes hand in hand with atheism. 

Did I say the tentacles of atheism claw their way into every area of life? Just ask the wife of a man whose morality is based upon desire, about the atheist utopia. 
http://world.time.com/2014/01/14/hollandes-popularity-goes-up-after-news-of-affair/

Atheists Try To Ignore Determinism

On atheism, determinism must be in control of our lives. There is no rational or logical alternative to that particular world-view. 

Yet atheists often borrow from reality as Christianity describes it, and live just as though we really do have free will. This despite what leaders in the atheist community have to say. For example:

“In a deterministic universe, we understand that a criminal's career is not a matter of an unconditioned personal choice, but fully a function of a complex set of conditions, genetic and environmental, that interact to produce the offender and his proclivities. Had we been in his shoes in all respects, we too would have followed the same path, since there is no freely willing self that could have done otherwise as causality unfolds. There is no kernel of independent moral agency -- we are not, as philosopher Daniel Dennett puts it, "moral levitators" that rise above circumstances in our choices, including choices to rob, rape, or kill.”

Tom Clark, Director of the Center for Naturalism, in his article "Maximizing Liberty"

Surprised at Quebec?

People seem surprised at Quebec making a move to single out a group of people for government sponsored bigotry and discrimination.

The real surprise is that people are shocked at this move.

Unrestrained Nationalism and / or atheism turn to Fascism. It's just a fact of life.

And Quebec's Fascist longings have been brewing for decades. Whether the issue is language, or religion or the size of English signs, a desire for “Purity of Race / Culture” will always, always, always lead to this type of behaviour.

Leaders in Quebec know full well the base tendencies of human nature and it is this inherent evil to which the leaders make their appeal.

When Will This Happen?

That was the question asked by Jesus’ disciples. “What will be the sign of your coming and the end of the age?” Jesus spoke about this at length, but broadly speaking He kept His comments to four main categories:

. Religious apostasy - “Christian” churches will be teaching things directly in opposition to the teachings of Jesus.

. Persecution of the Christian Church along with the spreading of the Gospel of Jesus throughout the world.

. Continual conflict and wars around the world.

. Disturbances in the natural order; unnatural weather, earthquakes and strange ocean currents.

Paul speaks of an increased love of self and a lack of love for others as another indication of Christ’s impending arrival. Anti social and anti family attitudes will be ubiquitous. There will be much spirituality but little love for or adherence to Jesus' teaching.

We're also told that we can know Jesus arrival is just around the corner because, “People will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, they will gather around themselves teachers who tell them exactly what they want to hear.”

We're told that there will be a mass exodus from the Church that coincides with a huge rise in atheism that is matched by a huge rise in homosexuality.

With sardonic wit, Jesus points out that many can predict the weather by interpreting atmospheric signs but they can not predict His coming by watching the fulfilment of prophetic signs.

‘Be prepared. I will come suddenly, in the blink of an eye.’ 

The Cemetery Song

When you drive by a cemetery, what do you think?

Anything?

Do you contemplate the brevity of life?

At 62 years of age I can hardly believe how fast this life is going. I’m not going to have enough time to read all I want to read, to see all I want to see, to learn all I want to learn. Life is blowing by so fast I can almost feel the wind in my hair.

When you drive by a cemetery, do you mull over the fact that none of us get out of this life alive? Or do you keep your mind from going down that road? 

When you drive by a cemetery, does it make you want to spend some time evaluating the different world-views out there? Or are you convinced of the truth of what you already believe?

I’m mean, either this life is it, or it isn’t. And if there’s more to life than this brief existence on earth, doesn’t it make sense to invest some time trying to understand, as much as possible, what type of preparations we can make, if any, for the next stage?

James Gandolfini was interviewed a bit ago. The guy asked James, “If it turns out that there is a heaven, what would you like God to say to you when He meets you at the gates?”James gave some flippant answer that indicated he'd given virtually no thought to the prospect looming before him. No answer at least than what's possible by the arrogant human assumption that our Creator would be thrilled to have us spend eternity with Him.

Just think for a moment of all the assumptions in the interviewer's question.

. Does that mean that hell also exists?

. Based on what criteria should I assume that I'm going to heaven?

. If God exists, what can I know, and what should I know about this God?

These are just three of dozens and dozens of questions that come to mind from that interviewer's question. Yet most people ask none of them. The one and only time that I've seen Gandolfini was channel surfing. In the few and only seconds that I've ever watched The Sopranos he, James, was humping some woman from behind. She was oooing and aaahing and obviously lying to James about how good his sexual prowess was making her feel. That was enough to ensure that I would never watch a single episode of the Sopranos. 

The acting portions of his life was of course a teeny, tiny part of a life that would put Gandolfini a long, long way from God opening His arms in a welcoming embrace. 

Has Gandolfini, did Gandolfini put any thought at all into what lies beyond the Cemetery?

Do you put any thought at all into what lies beyond the Cemetery?

Before I stopped a month or so ago, I’d been reading atheist blogs for five or six years. I’m struck by the fact that they have this world-view that contradicts science. It explains almost nothing of what we see taking place before us in terms of human relations. Atheism cannot even explain right and wrong. Yet they cling to the hope that this life is all there is.

Does this lead atheists to consider that they might be wrong? Do they consider that if they are wrong, the consequences, according to Jesus, are daunting, to say the least?

You are going to have a spot in a cemetery sooner than you think.

Jesus says you’d better be prepared for the next stage.

The cemetery is singing your song.

Are you ready?

Atheism is not the opposite!

“The opposite of theism is not atheism, it’s idolatry.” In other words, everyone is going to worship something. We were created to be worshippers, as birds were created to fly and rivers were created to flow. It’s what we do. The question then, is who or what will be the object of your worship? Here are a few questions that might objectively reveal your god:

What is the area of your life where you are most disappointed? An area where there is a disproportionate amount of disappointment reveals where we have put our hope. Show me what you have put your hope in and I’ll introduce you to your god.

Where do you go for comfort when life gets hard? Maybe you open up the fridge for a little comfort food or you stop by and pick up a six-pack on the way home from work. Maybe it’s in the arms of a stranger.

Where do you make financial sacrifices? Where your money goes shows what god you are worshipping. The Bible puts it this way “where your treasure is there your heart will be.”

Peter Kreeft 

Atheists and “Which God Is It?”

Atheists love to ask how Christians decide that “it's your God instead of some other religions's God?”

Well, when one gives just a few moments of thought about what would be required to bring a material, mathematically precise, life sustaining, moral universe into being out of literally nothing material, it doesn't take long to rule out Thor and Krishna and what have you. It doesn't take long to realize that you can have only one Greatest Conceivable Being.

However there are a lot of people in the world that, like atheists, reject Creator God in favour of an impersonal moral authority called Karma. And, true to form, in the West, the arrogant West, we take Karma, twist it and bent it and shape into a form that forces Karma into something by which we're always getting better and better. That's because, like atheists believe, “We're really good people.”

Karma on the other hand is found in a reality whereby simply not picking up a banana peel is enough to make one regress in form / being. Karma, in “reality” creates “An endless wheel of rebirth and suffering.”

So why can Christians can reject Karma?

If a Creator God is rejected, then observation could make a person think that along with mathematical laws, laws of logic and laws of objective morality, one could posit impersonal moral laws that seem to reside in us. This is what atheists and reincarnationists propose, though for different reasons. If you think about it however, you would see that these moral laws must be quite complex indeed. So complex that these laws are able to regulate the connection between the soul of every single person's moral life now, today, and the same soul's total and complete circumstances in the next life. This would include the power to dictate what kind of body the soul will have, where it will live and how much pleasure or difficulty it will experience.

This, or perhaps these impersonal moral laws would have to be able to take into account every single act, every single intention (see Bhagavad Gita and the banana peel) and every single choice that has been made for every soul that's ever existed and make certain that person gets nothing less than exact and perfect justice in the next life for actions performed or not performed in this life.

So what's the problem with this? Why would a Christian reject this type of absurd belief system in favour of that which was taught by Jesus? Well, the degree of complexity required by these moral laws is beyond imagination for something immaterial, inanimate and impersonal. Especially when Karma's goal is to achieve perfect justice. But we know that brute facts do not possess the ability to bring about justice. Brute facts just are. “Two plus two equals four,” doesn't DO anything.

On the other hand a structure that promotes justice seems intuitively probable. A moral order that we all believe exists calls for an Intelligent Agent along the lines of something that Christianity describes. This Intelligent Moral Agent, from which objective moral values, duties and obligations emerge is far beyond anything a human agency could produce. It requires an appeal to Divine Intelligence. That is why both atheism and reincarnation type beliefs point directly to a personal God.

Not Guilty By Reason of Atheism

Most people in North America have heard on the News, the account of three young women escaping 10 years of captivity and rape. A man is in custody. He has yet to enter a plea. However, I think that we have arrived at a place in history where atheism should either put up or shut up.

Yes, as things currently stand, the man is guilty of committing a civil crime. However, based upon the “logical” flow of thought put forward by atheism, can we seriously believe that the law is fair? Being that our laws are based upon a Christian understanding of human nature, which all atheists recognize as being deeply flawed, should there even be laws? On atheism, do we have any right to sit in judgement of someone in such as way as to give the impression that this alleged kidnapper is a bad man? For as one atheist, Anna, says, We're all good people. Or at least she knows that she's a good person and she's far from alone on that count. 

Hmm.

“Judged from a scientific and logical perspective, the belief that we stand outside the causal web in any respect is an absurdity, the height of human egoism and exceptionalism.”

Tom Clark at Naturalism.org

Absolutely! On atheism, determinism rules. Firing neurons and biochemical exchanges drive our behaviours, especially those that compel us to pro create in order to preserve our genes. We men are genetically predisposed to grab her by the hair and drag her back to the cave. And if we're born that way, then it can't be wrong.

“Before we can talk of being responsible for our decisions, we need an account of why those decisions belong to us. But the trouble is, on a naturalistic view, there is no entity that can plausibly own any mental states, there is simply a plurality of parallel, impersonal processes in the brain.”

Dr. Angus Menuge,

Like a lot of things regarding young people in North America, atheists know more about how they feel about atheism than they know about atheism itself.

The Absurdity of Atheism

On materialism, nothing of ultimate significance takes place. Because of that atheism itself, and those adherents of atheism who strive to invent meaning and purpose, live within a belief system that is absurd, illogical and incoherent.

This need not be the case, for the answer is as close as their next heart-beat.

"Living the awareness of the risen Jesus is not a trivial pursuit for the bored and lonely or a defence mechanism enabling us to cope with the stress and sorrow of life. It is the key that unlocks the door to grasping the meaning of existence. All day and every day we believers are being reshaped into the image of Christ. Everything that happens to us is designed to this end. Nothing that exists can exist beyond the pale of His presence (“All things were created through Him and for Him” - Colossians 1:16), nothing is irrelevant to it, nothing is without significance in it.

Everything that is comes alive in the risen Christ. Everything - great, small, important, unimportant, distant, and near - has its place, its meaning and its value. Through union with Him, nothing is wasted, nothing is missing. There is never a moment that does not carry eternal significance - no action that is sterile, no love that lacks fruition, and no prayer that is unheard. “We know that by turning everything to their good, God cooperates with all those who love Him.” (Romans 8:28)." 

Hard To Defend

I've said in other places that when someone does something to hurt us, we know in an instant that what they've done is wrong – objectively wrong. We don't have to think for even one second if this is something that society approves of or if it is sanctioned by the law. We know experientially that objective morals, values, obligations and duties exist. Yet atheists struggle with this concept because if the universe arose by natural means then objective morality simply cannot exist. The reality of Objective Morality makes atheism hard to defend. For example:

“I think there is a certain degree of plausibility among atheists in the view that without some kind of transcendental intelligence in the universe there can be no objective moral laws. Moral laws are maxims which tell sentient beings that certain actions are to be deemed moral or immoral. But how could such laws exist in the absence of a mind or sentience in the universe at all? Are moral laws objective in the way that laws of nature are? They don't seen to be, for few would argue that the law “murder is wrong” existed in some Platonic realm of ideas when galaxies were forming over ten billion years ago and there was no sign of consciousness anywhere in the universe.

The use of the word “law” implies and objective existence of unchanging moral maxims independently of sentience. Yet it appears that there can be nothing objective about so-called “moral laws”, because it seems absurd on its face to say that maxims which tell sentient beings that certain actions of sentient beings are moral or immoral could exist in the absence of an even greater sentience.

It seems to me that all ethical codes must ultimately be man-made, and thus there could be no objective criteria for determining if human actions are right or wrong. Admitting that moral laws are man-made is equivalent to acknowledging that ethical rules are arbitrary and therefore human beings are not obligated to follow them.

But ethics does not come into play in the history of the universe until very recently – when Homo sapiens appeared. It is possible that moral laws have existed since the Big Bang, but that they could not manifest themselves until sentient beings arose. However, such a view implies that there is some element of purposefulness in the universe – that the universe was created with the evolution of sentient being “in mind” in the mind of a Creator. To accept the existence of objective moral laws that have existed since the beginning of time is to believe that the evolution of sentient beings capable of moral reasoning (such as human beings) has somehow been predetermined or is inevitable, a belief that is contrary to naturalistic explanations of origins which maintain that sentient beings came into existence due to contingent accidental circumstances.

If moral laws are part of the natural universe then the universe cannot be unconscious – it must be, in some unknown sense sentient.”

Keith Augustine in Defending Moral Subjectivism

Sheldon Cooper's Heidegger

On the show The Big Bang Theory, Sheldon Cooper admires, among other scientists Martin Heidegger. An interesting observation that Heidegger made (as an unapologetic supporter of Hitler I might add) is as follows:

“The Fuhrer, and he alone, is the present and future law of Germany.”

On atheism, Heidegger was right.

On atheism, might makes right and on atheism Hitler was right until an even greater power put him out of business. This greater power brought in a new perspective of right and wrong.

On atheism, the concept of right and wrong belongs to the individual, subject to sanctions or approval from one's society. That's because in a secular world the greater power always subjugates the lessor power. You might say you have value and your neighbour might say you have no value. In an atheist world, your neighbour is just as correct as you are. All things being equal, in atheist-world, one person's moral code is as good as the next.

Of course atheists will tell you that the basis of our moral code comes from enlightened self-interest but the result is the same – what I want is right for me. Or as atheists are infamous for singing, “Anything that feels this right can't be wrong.” 

Pfft!

This is the freedom that atheists imagine they will attain by rejecting the objective moral code of the Bible, by rejecting the objective moral code of Creator God. 

On atheism, moral values, duties and obligations are decided preferably by the self, slightly less preferably by society, and less preferably still by those in power – as with Hitler. Unless you happen to be the one with the most power.

Hitler too believed that he was the definer of right and wrong. With no belief in a power greater than himself, there would be no future accounting for his actions. He wasn't entirely wrong. Whether it's Hitler the pagan, or Heidegger the atheist, this type of belief presents a form of freedom to the individual.

If atheists know that there will never be an accounting for their behaviours, as long as they don't get caught by human authorities, they certainly have the perception of freedom. The problem of course is that this same freedom is available to the worst among us. We see this in Columbia and Mexico as Drug Cartels make governments look impotent. However, there is an even greater problem that strikes much closer to home. On a personal level:

. Where is freedom to openly love when you can't trust that your spouse will believe in marital fidelity for the length of your marriage? After all, on atheism right and wrong changes with the ebb and flow of one's thoughts.

. Where is freedom to live when you can't trust that your mother will still choose life after you're conceived? After all, on atheism right and wrong changes with the ebb and flow of one's thoughts.

. Where is freedom to trust your business partner when you can't be assured s/he will continue believing that stealing is wrong? After all, on atheism right and wrong changes with the ebb and flow of one's thoughts.

. Where is freedom to live honestly and with integrity when you can't trust those who are in power to continue to work for your benefit? After all, on atheism right and wrong changes with the ebb and flow of one's thoughts.

I'll allow atheists to worry about the world they are creating. I cannot be touched by such foolishness.

Jesus came to bring us a different type of freedom, the freedom from the tyranny of self, freedom from the tyranny and power of sin.

What kind of a fool would reject the offer of that freedom?

Merry Christmas

God Bless

Happy Holidays

Ladies and Gentlemen - Richard Dawkins!

"In a universe of blind physical forces and genetic replication, some people are going to get hurt, other people are going to get lucky, and  you won't find any rhyme or reason in it, nor any justice. The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil and no good, nothing but blind, pitiless indifference." Richard Dawkins 

If you disagree with Richard Dawkins on this point. If, when someone harms you, you think that what they've done is “wrong,” then you have good reason to also believe that atheism itself is a bogus world-view. For on atheism, what that person has done, at most, is flout social convention. 

"If there are objective values, they make the existence of God more probable than it would have been without them. Thus there exists a defensible argument from morality for the existence of God."

philosopher J.L.Mackie 

Atheism Makes The World a Better Place

When Christians say that the farther we get from God, the more likely it is that things like this happen:

http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/03/sport/football/dutch-linesman-killed-football/index.html?hpt=hp_t3

and when Christians tell you that rejecting God makes the world a worse and more dangerous place to live, just tell them, “Referees and linesmen have always been killed after sporting events. It's just being reported more now.”

That always helps people to relax in the presence of evil.

. There have always been 50,000,000 pre born children killed every year. It's just being reported more now.
.  Rates of depression have always been staggeringly high. It's just being reported more now.
. There have always been snuff movies. It's just being reported more now.
. So what if, as prophecy says, there are 100 times more earthquakes now than there were 100 years ago. Tell people they're just being reported more now.
. So what if, as prophecy says, there are more famines in more lands than ever before. Tell people they're just being reported more now.
. So what if, as prophecy says, economic upheaval with rampant inflation for food and social upheaval is increasing. Tell people that stuff is just being reported more now.

. Kid's have always been going into schools and killing their classmates. It's just being reported more now.

. Kids have always been killing homeless people for fun. It's just being reported more now.

. Kids have always had higher rates of STD's than adults. It's just being reported more now.

. Kids have always been – well – you get the picture.

Crisis? What crisis?

We don't need God in order to be good people. 

The god of Atheism

At blog Makarios I wrote about the Triune god of atheism: Science, Pride and Intelligence. Atheists actually believe that technology and intelligence can save us. 

Stephen Hawking and like minded atheists take the absurdity one step further. They think that all we need to do is inhabit a different planet to save our species. 

These people can’t seem to figure out that where ever we go, we and our inherently flawed nature will go too.

These men can't see that our problems lie a little deeper than where we live. I'm not surprised. They can go no deeper in search of solutions than to invent machines to help us move further away from our neighbours.

When you only believe in the material, well, the material is all there is to save us. Atheists believe that we can think our way out of our problems, but on atheism, our beliefs and in fact our thinking is based upon determinism.

Oh sure, atheists would like to borrow from the Christian concept of free will and believe in our ability to be rational, but on atheism that is simply not allowable.

“Atheism deserves better than the new atheists whose methodology consists of criticizing religion without understanding it, quoting texts without contexts, taking exceptions as the rule, confusing folk belief with reflective theology, abusing, mocking, ridiculing, caricaturing, and demonizing religious faith and holding it responsible for the great crimes against humanity. Religion has done harm; I acknowledge that. But the cure for bad religion is good religion, not no religion, just as the cure for bad science is good science, not the abandonment of science.”

Chief Rabbi Johnathan Sacks

"When New Atheism was loosed upon the world, birthed by writers like Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens, the Center for Inquiry was plunged into a crisis. But Harris, Dawkins and Hitchens were not especially interested in humanism (or tolerance, or kindness) and as a “new generation” of ungentlemanly soldiers they were not especially interested, either, in doing business with religion, at any level. CFI moved from being a beacon of sophisticated speculation about religion and secular values to becoming a support group for angry anti-religionists and college faddists. An organization that used its stable of worthies to fund worthy projects had chosen instead to become a celebrity booking agency for sideshow atheism. If atheism once had an ugly face (think Madalyn Murray O’Hair) this was its reincarnation."

Atheist R. Joseph Hoffmann – friend of the late Paul Kurtz

Atheism + = Christianity?

Hardly!

“The religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” James 1:27

There's your difference!

The leaders of A+, while looking to do good in the world (and that is a good thing), are looking to do the most good for their own cause, their own fight. They're encouraging people to get on board to fight for their own agenda (things that affect women and any and all perversions of our sexuality).

Jesus' brother James passed on to us, as did ALL the other New Testament writers Jesus' teaching that our good works are to be “other focused.”

“Christianity, when stripped down to the basics means to feed, clothe and treat the fatherless as members of one's own family.”

Hence along with the advent of Christianity came hospitals, shelters; places of safety, comfort and justice; things that had never occurred to the pagans and secular members of society up to that time. As one leader and enemy of Christianity of the time observed,

“These Christians don't just take care of their own sick. They take care of our sick!”

“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for in our relationship with Jesus we are all one and the same,” (Galatians 3:28).

Nobody before Jesus attempted to promote such a concept. What's more, in complete contrast to Greek and Roman societies, Jesus inspired His followers (who now formed “the Church”) to “take care of widows.” In those days, if a woman did not have a husband or sons to take care of her, she did not have any means of support. 

In the Greek and Roman societies of the time it was very unlikely that men would be punished for even killing their wives. In complete contrast Christian men were taught to be ready to die for their wives, to be faithful to their wives, and in fact to model submission for their wives. Did you hear that last one? Unlike any other teacher before Him or since, Jesus told men then as He tells us today, that as the head of the home, as the leader, the teacher, rather than demand from our families the following, we men are to model for our families submission, forgiveness, patience, mercy and kindness and to remain with our wives for life, ensuring and providing for them tender loving care – not because they are somehow less-than, but because this is what it looks like to “Love one another as I have loved you.”

This is servant leadership.

And when it comes to enemies? Well, Jesus says love your enemy, do good to your enemy, pray for your enemy.

As progressive as they deem themselves to be, writers for Atheism+ have been ranting to exclude their enemies, and to call anyone who disagrees with them vile and disgusting names. Actually that's what atheists on both sides of the issue have been practicing. 

Don't you know? They don't need God in order to be nice people. 

As a side note, have you noticed how atheists almost always use the body parts of women in a disparaging manner to do character harm to their enemies? “Cunt,” “Twat,” “Boob,” and such epithets make a regular appearance during atheist rants. Interesting.

Nevertheless it's nice to know that finally, in the 21^st century, atheists (make that some atheists, because most are fighting tooth and nail against being told to be nice) are discovering that being a good person is important even if it's just to your in-group or even if it's just to the current trendy cause.

Better late than never.

Go A+! Rah, Rah, Rah.

The root of most atheism is not argument but attitude, not intellection but feeling, not the love of truth but the fear of truth...The point —that atheism's origin is not intellectual but volitional and moral -follows from Christ's promise that all who seek (God) will find (him). For unless this promise is a lie, and Christ a liar, there can be only two causes for not having found God, that is, for unbelief: (I) not seeking him, or (2) time. For eventually, however long the delay, all seekers find.

Peter Kreeft

We know this to be true because atheists existed long, long before there was anything that they now call evidence. In fact there is no evidence “for” atheism. It's simply a chosen belief to deny any power greater than self.