Upon the death of Christopher Hitchens, I have been pondering the nature of the struggle for which he fought. Being one of the four horsemen of the “New Atheist” movement, Hitchens crusaded against perceived rampant ignorance and intolerance in the world which has been caused by centuries of blind religious dogma. I remember when Wired magazine ran a story about this movement several years ago. I had just gotten saved and I was reading about these guys who potentially wanted to remove children from the custody of parents who gave them a religious education. In my zealotry I was incensed. I felt like God had plucked me from my disbelief specifically to combat the propaganda of the New Atheists. This ideological campaign of mine was mostly fought on Facebook and MySpace and I have yet to have the impact of a William Lane Craig, but I like to think that I made some people think twice about Dawkins style intolerance.
Anyway, NPR was running a little biographical tribute piece about Hitchens the other night. As the anchor was explaining that Hitchens saw his struggle as being one against blind ignorance and allegiance to an unreasonable dogma, and that Nazism, Stalinism, etcetera would fit into his definition, I realized something: I agree with him. Human ignorance and intolerance is primarily caused by blind allegiance to an unreasonable dogma. Who can disagree with this? This is a secondary cause, but it is definitely prevalent in our world and worth struggling against. In this way, I can honor the memory of Mr. Hitchens, even though he spoke so vehemently against the faith in which I believe. To anybody who will commit their life to fighting against what they perceive as the greatest evil in the world, a hearty kudos.
The difference is how we would define reasonable. Reason is an ability all human beings possess, whether or not we employ it is a different matter. However, it is not the foundation for anyone's world-view, even Hitchens’. At the base of all of our perceptions is a set of beliefs or assumptions that we, being limited in our sensory and intellectual capacity, cannot prove or disprove. This is obvious for people of faith. I will freely admit that my faith in Christ as our king, while it is well researched and considered, rests upon belief and not empirical evidence. However, I would submit that all world-views are this way. A Darwinist or a materialist can gather compelling evidence for their position, cataloging fossils and observing geological columns, but they still must trust that their dating methods are accurate and ignore the infinite number of unknown variables which they could never factor in. In addition, the claim that all of the matter in our universe has originated “ex nihilo” or out of nothing, is something they have in common with theists. However, we can explain it by our belief in an all-powerful creator. The new Atheists do not believe in this creator, so they must believe that this creation event simply happened, without a cause, and for no reason at all. This, I would submit, is as much a faith-based position as any other.
So, that puts us all in the same boat. There are some things we can all but prove with empirical scientific measurement, and some things which we all must assume or not assume. This is actually a really good thing. If one realizes this, it affords them a sense of unity with their fellow humans, which is nary felt in these days of polarization and ideological strife.
So what function does reason serve? People, coming from many different belief systems, will employ reason and arrive at different conclusions, so what use is it? I think that if we default to reason in all situations, it will keep us out of a lot of trouble. Have you ever heard somebody say,”be reasonable!”? It is usually directed at somebody who is letting their emotions get the best of them, somebody who is allowing their irrational feelings cause them to do something which will harm themselves or others. If that person were to breathe and consider the consequences of their actions, consider the impact of their words, and consider the lessons they have learned in life and how they apply to their situation, then the outcome of their situation will probably be much more positive. So, reason should function as a way to keep us from hurting ourselves and others.
Now, this definition does not really apply to somebody like Hitler or Charles Manson who thought it quite reasonable to commit their heinous crimes. I will explain this from my theistic viewpoint as the influence of evil. I will explain it from a secular viewpoint as the existence of sociopaths, that is, people who lack a conscience. There is really nothing we can do about these types of people. They will smile and flatter their way into power and then use that power to harm great numbers of people. They will claim belief in Christ, Krishna, or the Easter bunny if it will allow them to rise to the top. This will not change by the hands of human society and there is no foreseeable effective way to detect sociopaths en masse. Heck, they are probably running our country right now. These folks are the source of the crimes which have been committed in the name of Jesus, Darwin, and Marx. Then, foolishly, good people who would never hurt each other squabble about which ideology causes the most violence. Ideas have no hands and most reasonable people do not murder for power.
Human beings are created in the image of an all-powerful benevolent creator, whether they believe it or not. This is why we feel a pang of guilt when we lie, murder, and steal. The righteousness of God exists within us, even if we ignore it, and it is difficult to completely get around it. When we are reasonable, I believe most people will default to a position of empathy and understanding of their fellow man. When we are blinded by belief in a dogma, be it Christian or Marxist, we lose that ability to reason and thus default to out innate benevolence, and we do abhorrent things which we would never otherwise. So, I am with you Mr. Hitchens. Reason is a grand thing and I hope that people will employ it daily.
Ultimately, it will be revealed to all humanity that we have been caught in a cosmic struggle between good and evil, that deception and exploitation has been the foundation of our fallen society, and that we already have a King who will come and make things right. Until that time, the world will be a mixture of different viewpoints and belief systems; I just pray that we can all be more considerate of why we believe what we do. More thinking, less shooting.
"...the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to Him, 'All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.' Then Jesus said to him, 'Away with you, Satan! For it is written, "You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only shall you serve."' ~ Matthew 4: 8-10
To Christ's human nature, this must have been a very tempting moment. What man, save for Jesus Christ, could have resisted such a proposition? Satan was offering the literal control over the entirety of human society: world domination. How many power hungry conquerors have dreamed of such an end? How many scheming politicians are, at this moment, sacrificing their lives and souls for such a goal? What's more, this was the very reason Jesus was on the Earth. He came to take the throne of this world and be our rightful King (Acts 2:30, Revelation 19:16), and here it was offered to Jesus for nothing more than a quick act of worship. In short, Satan was trying to tempt Jesus into skipping the pain and torture of the cross and to simply take his throne prematurely. His flesh must have been yearning deeply to avoid that painful fate. Thankfully, our wise and good King resisted this temptation and thus made a way for all of us to have eternal life under His lordship.
The subject of this post however, is not the amazing character Jesus exemplified in this account. It is the intriguing fact that Satan seemed to be under the impression that the kingdoms of this world were his to give. Jesus did not correct him on this claim, he simply rejected his offer. This leads me to believe that the kingdoms of this world do belong to Satan. What does that say about power on our fallen planet? If you want it, you've got to go to the source. Additionally, what does that say about the powerful? Can we rightly assume that those in positions of real power have compromised their character and allegiance in a way our Saviour did not? I think so.
Doesn't this make so much sense, though? Look at the way in which our societies interact with one another. The standard is violence and death, diplomacy is only tried when it can serve the selfish interests of the nation state. There is no self-sacrifice or Christlike humility when it comes to international politics. Some of you are probably thinking, "Of course not! Do you know what kind of world we live in? Nuclear weapons, terrorism, communists!" You're right, we live in a cut-throat and dangerous world run by evil men. This is exactly the kind of world you would expect to find after realizing that the figure behind it all is, in fact, the father of lies.
The point is, many of us are under the impression that there are good countries fighting bad countries. That the United States, for instance, is a Christian nation and therefore our wars are fought to make the world a better place. I submit that, if this were true, we would have responded to 9/11 much differently. A truly Christian nation, first of all, would probably never have been attacked in such a way. Second, if it were attacked, it would have sought to forgive and understand the attacker, to know their motivation for the attack and to take steps to create a relationship in which the attacker would not have that motivation any longer. Did not Jesus command us to "Love your enemies" and to "Pray for those who persecute you." Instead, the U.S. bombed and invaded two nations, creating more enemies for herself and making the situation much worse for everybody. That was not the mark of a Christian nation, that was the mark of a satanic kingdom. The response was understandable from a secular government with a tradition of militarism, but the tragedy was and is just how supportive Christians are of these wars of aggression which claim the lives of so many of God's children.
Christians need to understand that they live in an occupied world, that this place is a beachhead of rebellion against the almighty creator God, and that this will not change until Christ returns and destroys the kingdom of the Devil and sets up His righteous throne by His own hand. With this understanding, we are free from having to justify wars of aggression from a biblical perspective. We no longer feel the pressure to make our secular governments fit into the mold of a holy God's righteousness, because they never could. Instead, we can renounce our spiritual citizenship in Satan's kingdom and live as Godly expatriates among those who have yet to see the truth. We can become ideological saboteurs and try to convince others to withdraw their support from the works of the devil which have been so cleverly disguised. We can become Babylonian Turncoats and betray the kingdom of our birth, swearing allegiance to the coming Kingdom where we have been reborn.
Now, this definition does not really apply to somebody like Hitler or Charles Manson who thought it quite reasonable to commit their heinous crimes. I will explain this from my theistic viewpoint as the influence of evil. I will explain it from a secular viewpoint as the existence of sociopaths, that is, people who lack a conscience. There is really nothing we can do about these types of people. They will smile and flatter their way into power and then use that power to harm great numbers of people. They will claim belief in Christ, Krishna, or the Easter bunny if it will allow them to rise to the top. This will not change by the hands of human society and there is no foreseeable effective way to detect sociopaths en masse. Heck, they are probably running our country right now. These folks are the source of the crimes which have been committed in the name of Jesus, Darwin, and Marx. Then, foolishly, good people who would never hurt each other squabble about which ideology causes the most violence. Ideas have no hands and most reasonable people do not murder for power.
