The talk of the NFL season thus far has been the replacements referees. The veteran referees are holding out on some labor dispute with the NFL and have been in a lockout for the past few months. So the NFL decided to bring in a bunch of replacement referees.

I bet football fans never thought they would be wanting their officials back!

The discontent has been growing over the past couple of weeks. A bad call here. A missed call there. Confusion about the call followed by a five minute staff meeting on the field.

But last night and this morning, all of football fandom is in an uproar over a botched call on the last play of Monday Night Football between the Green Bay Packers and the Seattle Seahawks.

On a last minute Hail Mary to win the game, the Seahawks’ quarter back tossed a jump ball into the end zone. The Packers’ defensive back came down with the ball. Game over.

Except that the Seahawks’ receiver had one arm wrapped around the defender with his hand touching the ball. The replacement refs signaled a touchdown, giving the Seahawks the victory.

Now, all of the fans, commentators, players, and coaches know the call should have gone in favor of the defender who clearly had first possession of the football. But the officials signaled the call, the officials reviewed the call, the officials confirmed the call. There is nothing else to be done. Game over. Seahawks win.

Think about it. The ruling of a few trumps what everyone else knows to be true. Even when the ruling is clearly inaccurate, the ruling still stands.

Now think about how this works in society.

Nietzche declared in the late 1800s that God is dead.

Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Stephen Hawking, Sam Harris, and others have devoted their lives to “proving” that God does not exist.

Philosophy classes in colleges across the country declare that God does not exist.

Okay. If you say so!

But who put these guys in charge? Why do they get to make the call? Where do they get their authority?

There are literally billions of people worldwide who would beg to differ. Why does the ruling of a few declare something to be universally true?

Their bad call could cost millions of people more than just losing a game. This missed call will cost people their souls for all eternity.

These “Brights,” as they call themselves, are no better than the replacement referees.