I think our society reflects an intellectual interpretation of reality--what philosophers refer to as "philosophical presuppositions" or a "worldview." In the Academy, even when I was in graduate school many years ago, there was a presumption of "naturalistic materialism." That view excluded the transcendent and spiritual. Though many of…
I think our society reflects an intellectual interpretation of reality--what philosophers refer to as "philosophical presuppositions" or a "worldview." In the Academy, even when I was in graduate school many years ago, there was a presumption of "naturalistic materialism." That view excluded the transcendent and spiritual. Though many of my professors at that time would have fallen outside this classification, the dominant schools of thought could be described in this way. And in the late twentieth century, post-modern thought has gone beyond dismissing morality to rejecting even science, logic, and mathematics. For example, Dr. Donna Riley, a professor of engineering education at Purdue University, published an article a few years ago arguing that "scientific rigor" and "mathematical precision" were tools of the white patriarchy in science used to suppress minority and marginalized populations. Just one of her papers will tell you what she is about: Rigor/Us: Building Boundaries and Disciplining Diversity with Standards of Merit."
My point is this. Scripture tells us that as a person thinks in his heart, then that is the way that person will be. And that is very logical. If our institutions are becoming increasingly dystopian, then we may find the cause of that in the twisted ways we have to come think as a society. In fact, noted academic voices, such as Dr. Patricia Churchland (an eliminative materialist philosopher) and Dr. Sabine Hossenfelder (a physicist) deny the existence of personal identity and free will. Hossenfelder, for example, calls free will “logically incoherent nonsense,” and Churchland dismisses traditional notions of personal identity and thought as illicit "folk psychology." But these assaults on human personality and dignity have been going on in the Academy for more than a century, and it has now leaked into general society as a set of materialistic assumptions about the nature of reality. These assumptions are rarely questioned by most people. As the Barna Group documents, even self-professed Christians have become more like their secular neighbors in the way they think. That is amazing, but Barna's surveys provide the evidence. If society denies any real basis for the "humanity of man" and dismisses any objective foundation for moral values, then should we be surprised that its commercial and governmental institutions follow suit by becoming more inhuman? And if Christians seem to be embracing the same way of thinking, is there any wonder that Christian opposition to this trend is less than forceful?
In fact, attempting to reform commercial institutions, I would argue, is pointless. As long as society embraces a dehumanizing worldview and places that view at the center of education, such attempted reform must fail. In fact, if it is true that the ideas taught in the school room in one generation become the ideas of that condition society and its institutions in the next, the dystopian trend that you discuss in your article will only grow worse over time. If our intellectual environment does not support the affirmation of human value, save as an empty rhetorical proclamation adorning protest signs and bumper stickers from time to time, then why should Amazon care? The people that this corporation and others are dehumanizing have been taught by academic authorities that they deserve this kind of abuse. In fact, the worldview they have been taught would say that if humankind were destroyed tomorrow by a cosmic disaster, the universe would go on without noticing and without recognizing any moral loss in the disaster. In fact, the universe would not recognize that a disaster had occurred. The universe does not mourn for the dinosaurs, so why should the universe mourn for us? If Christians buy into this way of thinking, then we extinguish our light by putting it under a bushel.
Of course, the biblical Christian worldview opposes this kind of thinking, but society seems to be less inclined today to listen that it was in previous times. Moreover, Christians seem less inclined to be counter-cultural. Perhaps God will bless us with a move of His Spirit that leads us to repentance, but I see little evidence of that. What I see is, perhaps, what Augustine saw as the city of Hippo was deteriorating under siege by barbarians. The entire Western Empire, in his view, was in a similar state. From an "earthly" point of view, he did not see hope. But he did not view events from this perspective. He saw the events of history from the towers of the Heavenly City, so he could have hope. We can join him in that hope, and share that hope with others.
Thank you for taking the time to think through this problem alongside me, and share your thoughts. It seems to me that large swaths of those who identify as Christian, because that's how they were raised or that's what their parents practiced, simply do not hold a Christian worldview at all. It's for that reason that so many were fine with the closure of churches under the auspice of "fighting covid" while liquor stores were left open -- they could see the utility in the latter, but no longer the necessity of the former. It is also why we see the erasure of community and the reduction of man to his utility. We have much to rebuild, and as Christians, we always have cause for hope and resilience.
Well said. I have concluded that resting in God is the only solution. We are not answerable for what others think, say, or do. We are only answerable for whether we are listening to our Father and obeying him out of love and faith. Nothing else matters.
I think our society reflects an intellectual interpretation of reality--what philosophers refer to as "philosophical presuppositions" or a "worldview." In the Academy, even when I was in graduate school many years ago, there was a presumption of "naturalistic materialism." That view excluded the transcendent and spiritual. Though many of my professors at that time would have fallen outside this classification, the dominant schools of thought could be described in this way. And in the late twentieth century, post-modern thought has gone beyond dismissing morality to rejecting even science, logic, and mathematics. For example, Dr. Donna Riley, a professor of engineering education at Purdue University, published an article a few years ago arguing that "scientific rigor" and "mathematical precision" were tools of the white patriarchy in science used to suppress minority and marginalized populations. Just one of her papers will tell you what she is about: Rigor/Us: Building Boundaries and Disciplining Diversity with Standards of Merit."
My point is this. Scripture tells us that as a person thinks in his heart, then that is the way that person will be. And that is very logical. If our institutions are becoming increasingly dystopian, then we may find the cause of that in the twisted ways we have to come think as a society. In fact, noted academic voices, such as Dr. Patricia Churchland (an eliminative materialist philosopher) and Dr. Sabine Hossenfelder (a physicist) deny the existence of personal identity and free will. Hossenfelder, for example, calls free will “logically incoherent nonsense,” and Churchland dismisses traditional notions of personal identity and thought as illicit "folk psychology." But these assaults on human personality and dignity have been going on in the Academy for more than a century, and it has now leaked into general society as a set of materialistic assumptions about the nature of reality. These assumptions are rarely questioned by most people. As the Barna Group documents, even self-professed Christians have become more like their secular neighbors in the way they think. That is amazing, but Barna's surveys provide the evidence. If society denies any real basis for the "humanity of man" and dismisses any objective foundation for moral values, then should we be surprised that its commercial and governmental institutions follow suit by becoming more inhuman? And if Christians seem to be embracing the same way of thinking, is there any wonder that Christian opposition to this trend is less than forceful?
In fact, attempting to reform commercial institutions, I would argue, is pointless. As long as society embraces a dehumanizing worldview and places that view at the center of education, such attempted reform must fail. In fact, if it is true that the ideas taught in the school room in one generation become the ideas of that condition society and its institutions in the next, the dystopian trend that you discuss in your article will only grow worse over time. If our intellectual environment does not support the affirmation of human value, save as an empty rhetorical proclamation adorning protest signs and bumper stickers from time to time, then why should Amazon care? The people that this corporation and others are dehumanizing have been taught by academic authorities that they deserve this kind of abuse. In fact, the worldview they have been taught would say that if humankind were destroyed tomorrow by a cosmic disaster, the universe would go on without noticing and without recognizing any moral loss in the disaster. In fact, the universe would not recognize that a disaster had occurred. The universe does not mourn for the dinosaurs, so why should the universe mourn for us? If Christians buy into this way of thinking, then we extinguish our light by putting it under a bushel.
Of course, the biblical Christian worldview opposes this kind of thinking, but society seems to be less inclined today to listen that it was in previous times. Moreover, Christians seem less inclined to be counter-cultural. Perhaps God will bless us with a move of His Spirit that leads us to repentance, but I see little evidence of that. What I see is, perhaps, what Augustine saw as the city of Hippo was deteriorating under siege by barbarians. The entire Western Empire, in his view, was in a similar state. From an "earthly" point of view, he did not see hope. But he did not view events from this perspective. He saw the events of history from the towers of the Heavenly City, so he could have hope. We can join him in that hope, and share that hope with others.
Thank you for taking the time to think through this problem alongside me, and share your thoughts. It seems to me that large swaths of those who identify as Christian, because that's how they were raised or that's what their parents practiced, simply do not hold a Christian worldview at all. It's for that reason that so many were fine with the closure of churches under the auspice of "fighting covid" while liquor stores were left open -- they could see the utility in the latter, but no longer the necessity of the former. It is also why we see the erasure of community and the reduction of man to his utility. We have much to rebuild, and as Christians, we always have cause for hope and resilience.
Well said. I have concluded that resting in God is the only solution. We are not answerable for what others think, say, or do. We are only answerable for whether we are listening to our Father and obeying him out of love and faith. Nothing else matters.