Theology on Thursday

One of my all-time favorite movies is the 1981 Paramount feature, Raiders of the Lost Ark.  The hero of the film, Indiana Jones, is an adventurer and professor of archaeology.  While lecturing, he quips to his students, “Archaeology is about facts, not truth.  If it’s truth you’re interested in, Dr. Tyree’s philosophy class is down the hall.” There exists a contemporary myth which asserts scientists are concerned only with facts while philosophers and theologians are preoccupied with meaning.  As a theologian, I am obviously a theist – one who believes in the existence of a transcendent, eternal divine being who is the ultimate origin of the universe.  As such, I am decidedly not a naturalist – one who believes that blind chance and natural causes alone are sufficient to explain everything that exists.  Theism and naturalism are competing worldviews which are unable to concede any ground to the other.  As science historian William B. Provine of Cornell University, an avowed atheist and staunch evolutionist, has rightly observed, if naturalism (e.g., Darwinism) is true as he contends, then there is absolutely no ground for theism, no absolute foundation for morality, no ultimate meaning of life, and no free will [“Evolution and the Foundation of Ethics” in Science, Technology, and Social Progress (Research in Technology Studies), ed. Steven L. Goldman (Bethlehem, PA: Lehigh University Press; London; Cranbury, NJ: Associated University Presses, 1989), 253-67].

Naturalists (e.g., Darwinists) claim all scientists of their bent are purely objective, simply collecting evidence from the natural world and comparing theories an on ongoing basis without bias.  They declare religious explanations for the order of the universe are not science because they are based subjectively upon faith and are not subject to objective analysis.  While it is true that religion is based upon faith, it is untrue that faith remains untouched by evidence or reason, or that Naturalists themselves are purely objective in their approach.  With claims of neutrality and absolute scientific proof, naturalism holds sway over the thinking of contemporary culture.  This was evidenced by the 1987 U.S. Supreme Court decision (Edwards v. Aguillard) which claimed views affirming divine creation are not science and therefore cannot be taught in public schools as an alternative theory to naturalistic evolution.  Views related to creation were said to belong to the realms of religion, philosophy, and history.  More recently, in 2005, District Judge John E. Jones III ruled in Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District that intelligent design is not science and “cannot uncouple itself from its creationist, and thus religious, antecedents.”  He claimed the school district’s promotion of intelligent design therefore violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.  In 2007, the Council of Europe’s Committee on Culture, Science and Education issued a report entitled, “The Dangers of Creationism in Education”, which states, “Creationism in any of its forms, such as ‘intelligent design’, is not based on facts, does not use any scientific reasoning and its contents are pathetically inadequate for science classes.’”  The report describes intelligent design as “anti-science” involving “blatant scientific fraud.”  The Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly approved a resolution declaring schools should “resist presentation of creationist ideas in any discipline other than religion”, including intelligent design.  It is disturbing that leaders in the realms of government have failed to comprehend a major factor in their determinations, namely, that naturalism is not strictly science, but the Weltanschauung of Darwinists.

One’s Weltanschauung, or worldview, is the overall perspective from which an individual or group views and interprets life in this world and which directs that individual’s or group’s daily decisions and actions.  The elements of one’s worldview, one’s fundamental beliefs about certain aspects of reality, are:

epistemology – beliefs regarding the nature and sources of knowledge;
cosmology – beliefs regarding the origins and nature of the universe, life, and humanity;
teleology – beliefs regarding the meaning and purpose of the universe, its inanimate elements, and its inhabitants;
metaphysics – beliefs regarding the nature of reality;
anthropology – beliefs regarding the nature and purpose of humanity in general and oneself in particular;
theology – beliefs regarding the existence and nature of God;
axiology – beliefs regarding the nature of value, what is good and bad, right and wrong.

Bringing these elements to bear, every worldview can be analyzed by its answers to three essential questions:

1) What is the origin (and therefore meaning) of life?
2) Why is there moral chaos in the world?
3) How can, and why should, moral chaos be remedied?

Christianity answers these questions by affirming that God created the world, that life is meant to be lived in subjection to His will; that there is moral chaos in this world as a result of humanity’s rebellion against God’s will; and that the only remedy for moral chaos is the redemptive work of the triune God through Christ Jesus.  The basis for this worldview is divine revelation – Holy Scripture (the Bible).

Naturalism asserts the world is a closed, autonomous system with no supernatural intervention.  Life exists as a result of blind chance, therefore there is no real meaning of life.  Any meaning of life is simply arbitrary.  Human life, according to the Darwinist, is no qualitatively different than animal life.  Because of this, there is no basis for distinguishing between human life and animals.  This means, practically, that “superior” human beings, who have evolved through rigid determinism, have the right to treat non-human animals and “inferior” human beings with indifference or even cruelty.  Naturalism perceives humanity’s problem as simply having too much influence retained from his animal past (e.g., aggression, violence).  The solution to solving animal retention within human beings is to simply provide education or behavioral alteration in some other form.  For the consistent naturalist, there is absolutely no basis for morality.  Emphasis is placed on survival of the fittest.  What is not fit may be destroyed to make way for that which is superior.  It was this worldview which led to the murder of millions in Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.

Naturalism, which dominates secular society, has long distinguished between fact and truth, science and religion, objective knowledge and subjective feeling.  Evangelicals have largely fallen prey to this worldview, erroneously subjecting themselves to thinking Christianity is little more than a subjective experience – emphasizing personal decision and religious commitment – rather than comprehending that Christianity is itself a worldview.  Everything which exists has come into being as a result of divine action.  This means every sphere of thought and activity, not just the religious and spiritual, is to be brought under the Lordship of Christ.  Ethics, economics, ecology, philosophy, logic, the arts and sciences, are all subject to Him.  Genuine knowledge within these realms means investigating and discerning the ways and God has ordered these matters and utilizing them for His glory.  The Christian faith cannot be reduced to a simple formula and restricted to a mere portion of our lives.  Our faith must touch everything we see, hear, touch, think, and do, because  God is our ultimate reality.