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Local author’s book serves as a warning for modern society
By John Gleason
“A Race of Devils” is a novel that tells of a future society in shambles following detonation of a nuclear bomb in New York City. The first book by local investment and real estate developer Ken Schultz, the characters in “A Race of Devils” struggle to make sense of a world where order, and it seems God, have vanished. The Denver Catholic Register spoke with Schultz about the novel last week.
DCR: You wrote “A Race of Devils” because you were alarmed at the increased influence of secular humanists in American culture and politics. Give me some examples.
Schultz: Sometimes they’re so obvious you overlook them, but it’s all evidence of an active rather than passive form of atheism. There’s abolition of school prayer; Roe v. Wade; attempts to ban displays of the 10 Commandments or Nativity scenes on public property; and we have people attempting to ban Scripture quotations as “hate speech.”
DCR: Describe the plot of “A Race of Devils.”
Schultz: What I did in “A Race of Devils” was project us forward into a time when humanists have assumed the role of organized religion as the conscience of the state. As a result it gives rise to a dictator the likes of which the world has never seen.
DCR: That has an Orwellian aura to it.
Schultz: It’s very much along those lines, but that’s the great danger of humanism.
DCR: You’ve said that Christians are committed to a God-man, whereas humanists are committed to a man-god. If there is no God in the lives of humanists, if they want to keep God out of the mainstream—what happens to hope?
Schultz: There is none. But then, wasn’t that the message philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche gave us? I think it was the cart that started the ball rolling on atheistic humanism, even though Nietzsche himself remained a devout Catholic. You could say that Nietzsche more or less codified this pseudo-religion and look what happened after him. Look at the existentialist writers who tell us there’s no hope—that we live and we die in a sea of nothingness! Certainly common sense tells us it cannot be that way. We say, “No, there’s more optimism to it than that.” But it’s not easy to stand up to this. The influence of humanists over western society is way out of proportion with their actual numbers.
DCR: About the book, once you had the idea, how did you develop the story?
Schultz: My goal was to write a cautionary tale about where the death of God might lead us. I stuck with that and constantly came back to it as my point. I knew where the tale would end up and many times felt God behind me, moving me in the way he wanted. Sometimes I’d be stuck and would reread a certain passage and suddenly have an “ah-ha” moment, which would then take me in the direction I needed to go.
DCR: What do you want people to come away with after reading it?
Schultz: More than anything else, I’d want them to recognize this heresy that is facing us right now. We’re taught that life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are gifts endowed to us by our Creator. I feel that those rights and liberties can evaporate quickly if we lose our reverence and deference to our Creator.
DCR: Should people be optimistic about the future?
Schultz: If they’re humanists, no. If their Catholics, yes! The way I see it, the only way an atheist can regain their hope is to get on their knees. And at that point, they’re no longer atheists.
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