On this International Human Rights Day, two people died that offer us competing visions of humanity.
Alfred Nobel, the atheist inventor of dynamite, nitro-glycerine and the modern arms industry died today in 1896. This man who produced the means to efficiently destroy the most fundamental of human rights; the right to life on a mass, industrial scale, left a legacy upon his death, the Nobel Prize.
In contrast, Karl Barth, the Swiss theologian who defied the Nazi horrors and redefined Protestant Christianity died today in 1968. Barth inspired a committed, socially conscious spirituality that promotes Jesus Christ as the living principle of faith.
– Posted by Douglas Racionzer (serendipiday.blogspot.com)