How atheism created a terrorist — but his bomb shattered secularism's illusions

Last month, a 25-year-old named Guy Edward Bartkus set off a bomb at American Reproductive Centers, an IVF clinic in Palm Springs, California. Four people were injured, and the FBI said that Bartkus was killed in the blast that tore through the building.

Akil Davis, assistant director of the FBI Los Angeles field office, called it “the largest bombing scene that we’ve had in Southern California.”

Without any standard, we should not be surprised when man begins to act like the animal that secular atheism claims he is.

Though the clinic endured heavy damage and a nearby car was crumpled in a burned heap, Dr. Maher Abdallah, who leads the clinic, said that no eggs or embryos were harmed.

“Thank God today happened to be a day that we have no patients,” said Abdallah. “We are heartbroken to learn that this event claimed a life and caused injuries, and our deepest condolences go out to the individuals and families affected. Our mission has always been to help build families, and in times like these, we are reminded of just how fragile and precious life is. In the face of this tragedy, we remain committed to creating hope — because we believe that healing begins with community, compassion, and care.”

Abdallah’s view of life stands in stark contrast to the bomber’s, as the FBI has confirmed this was an intentional act of terrorism spurred by his ideological position.

In an online manifesto, Bartkus said he was a “pro-mortalist.” Pro-mortalism is the belief that death is better than life and is supposedly motivated by the desire to end suffering.

It is related to anti-natalism, or efilism, as Bartkus called it, which is the belief that it is morally evil to have children.

His manifesto shows that Bartkus viewed humans as parasitic to the planet and other life forms. He also showed a hatred toward religion and God, stating that he preferred Satan over God.

Though he is being called a nihilist, Bartkus saw a difference between his views and nihilism, saying that “religion is retarded but there is objective value in the universe and it lies in the harm being experienced by sentient beings.”

Bartkus also said that “we need a war against pro-lifers.”

He referred to a friend he called “Sophie,” who allegedly had recently committed suicide, and that the two of them had agreed that if one died, the other would also die soon after. He claimed that they both had borderline personality disorder.

In an audio recording, he said that he was committing the attack because “it just comes down to I’m angry that I exist and that, you know, nobody got my consent to bring me here” and “I’m very against [IVF], it’s extremely wrong. These are people who are having kids after they’ve sat there and thought about it. How much more stupid can it get?”

How did we get here?

Though the philosophies to which Bartkus ascribed are not commonly known, they are gaining popularity, even being taught in university courses and recently being platformed by outlets such as the New Yorker.

I believe that these philosophies are not new, but are the logical progression of secular atheism and a society that increasingly is entitled, despises religion, and sees no meaning in life.

Our culture has been systematically stripped of its religious and moral values and our very foundation for what makes life meaningful.

When you tell people from the time they are children that the universe is an accident, life is hopeless, and that man, who is no different from animals, is a parasite destroying the planet, you cannot then expect that they will grow into happy and fulfilled people.

When you lie to people daily that we are in imminent peril of a man-made climate cataclysm that will destroy ourselves and all life on Earth because we are selfish and use fossil fuels, you should expect that at least some of them will begin to believe you.

When you champion the idea that the only life that has value is one free of suffering and promote euthanasia as a solution, you should not be shocked when young people act on such an idea and seek not only to kill themselves and the unborn but to harm those who would bring life into the world.

The reality is that secular atheism — with its desire to eliminate God and any objective morality and meaning grounded in religion — has effectively doomed mankind. All secularism has to offer is: “Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.”

Unfortunately, that isn’t enough, as most people will still seek meaning and purpose. And many will still find that all the supposed fun to be had doesn’t outweigh the hardships and suffering in life.

Without any standard, we should not be surprised when man begins to act like the animal that secular atheism claims he is.

What is the answer to the questions of life, meaning, and suffering?

In short, thankfulness — not thankfulness alone, but thankfulness to God.

G.K. Chesterton — the great author, philosopher, and apologist of the 19th and early 20th centuries — discussed this idea throughout his life, but I want to focus on what he said near the end of his life in his autobiography. You can read the book for free here.

In the final chapter, entitled “The God with the Golden Key,” Chesterton wrote that the “chief idea of my life” was “the idea of taking things with gratitude, and not taking things for granted.”

From his childhood, Chesterton said he had an almost “violently vivid sense of those two dangers; the sense that the experience must not be spoilt by presumption or despair.”

"To take a convenient tag out of my first juvenile book of rhymes, I asked through what incarnations or prenatal purgatories I must have passed, to earn the reward of looking at a dandelion," he wrote. "But in substance what I said about the dandelion is exactly what I should say about the sunflower or the sun, or the glory which (as the poet said) is brighter than the sun. The only way to enjoy even a weed is to feel unworthy even of a weed."

Chesterton noted two other perspectives on the dandelion: that of the pessimist, who saw the dandelion as meaningless, and the “offensive optimist,” who complained by comparing the dandelion to what one may find elsewhere.

He reasoned that such comparisons are “ultimately based on the strange and staggering heresy that a human being has a right to dandelions; that in some extraordinary fashion we can demand the very pick of all the dandelions in the garden of Paradise; that we owe no thanks for them at all and need feel no wonder at them at all; and above all no wonder at being thought worthy to receive them. Instead of saying, like the old religious poet, ‘What is man that Thou carest for him, or the son of man that Thou regardest him?’ we are to say like the discontented cabman, ‘What’s this?’ or like the bad-tempered Major in the club, ‘Is this a chop fit for a gentleman?’”

Chesterton said that younger generations had developed a sense of entitlement to their “right to happiness” and “right to life,” all while claiming that there was no divine source for those rights.

Chesterton responded by saying that rights “came from where the dandelion came from; and that they will never value either without recognizing its source.”

Life includes suffering, but that doesn’t mean it is without meaning or that it isn’t worth living.

He added, “And in that ultimate sense uncreated man, man merely in the position of the babe unborn, has no right even to see a dandelion; for he could not himself have invented either the dandelion or the eyesight.”

Secular atheism, he argued, logically leads to the types of despairing philosophies that Bartkus ascribed to, which undermine the beauty of life.

“When first it was even hinted that the universe may not be a great design, but only a blind and indifferent growth, it ought to have been perceived instantly that this must for ever forbid any poet to retire to the green fields as to his home, or to look at the blue sky for his inspiration,” Chesterton stated.

"There would be no more of any such traditional truth associated with green grass than with green rot or green rust; no more to be recalled by blue skies than by blue noses amputated in a freezing world of death," he wrote. "When there is no longer even a vague idea of purposes or presences, then the many-colored forest really is a rag-bag and all the pageant of the dust only a dustbin. We can see this realization creeping like a slow paralysis over all those of the newest poets who have not reacted towards religion. Their philosophy of the dandelion is not that all weeds are flowers; but rather that all flowers are weeds. Indeed it reaches to something like nightmare; as if Nature itself were unnatural."

Chesterton did not mean that everything in life is always pleasant or beautiful, but that overall, life is a gift from God.

Life includes suffering, but that doesn’t mean it is without meaning or that it isn’t worth living.

But the only way for life to have meaning, or to make sense of the troubles in life, is through God.

The way forward

I sympathize with those who have been failed by the secular philosophers, teachers, politicians, and other “experts” who have given them nothing to look forward to but suffering.

I am a man who has suffered little but does not suffer well. I understand why people like Bartkus feel as though they wish they had never been born. In their worldview, there truly is nothing to give them hope through life’s toils and tribulations.

But for the Christian, there is always meaning, purpose, and hope.

And when one becomes a Christian, it is with the knowledge that we do not deserve anything but God’s wrath for eternity. The key to life is understanding this and knowing that every good thing we experience is the result of God’s grace.

I share with you an anecdote from the 18th-century preacher Matthew Henry that has helped me when I have been suffering.

Henry was on his way home one night when he was robbed. That night Henry wrote in his journal:

I thank Thee first because I was never robbed before; second, because although they took my purse, they did not take my life; third, although they took my all, it was not much; and fourth, because it was I who was robbed and not I who robbed.

As a Christian, there is always something to be thankful to God for — even if in the moment it doesn’t seem like it.

To avoid future tragedies like that of Guy Edward Bartkus, let us endeavor even more to counter the lies of secularism and our pro-death culture with the truth and hope of Jesus Christ and to teach people that peace and happiness will only come from humbly thanking God for every good gift He chooses to bestow on us.

This article is adapted from an essay originally published at Liberty University's Standing for Freedom Center.