The Western Culture’s Sad Disconnect from Reality.

When Laurie and I lived in Mexico, we met a fellow from Germany. He was bright and witty, and we enjoyed talking with him. I don’t remember how, but somewhere the conversation turned more serious, and Christianity came up. He rejected it out of hand, and then as we parted on the sidewalk, he said, “Be human.”

This is the moral worldview of the West. I think. Because I’m not sure they or I know what “be human” means. Perhaps it’s something like Google’s new motto: “Do the right thing.”

But what does “be human” or “do the right thing” mean? What is human? What is right? What is wrong?

“Being human” and “doing the right thing” means signing on to the post-Christian worldview that takes God’s moral law and selects the ones you like and dismisses the ones you don’t. But this way of thinking is absent a center if one thinks it through.

Please allow me to explain.

Most Westerners believe evolution is a fact, not a theory. I know for sure that the scientists at NASA do. They have announced recently (again, I think) that the “basic building blocks for life” have been found on Mars. They will be sending up a probe to drill into the Martian surface in an attempt to discover life. Therefore, intelligent scientists—much more intelligent that I am—truly believe that life spontaneously comes into existence if the “basic building blocks” are there. Add a little carbon, a little water, a little oxygen, nitrogen, and other stuff, and—poof—you’re good. But may this relatively science-ignorant man ask a very basic question? If life just spontaneously comes into existence—time plus chance plus building blocks—why can’t scientists create it here? Sincerely, I’m baffled. You are going to spend billions of dollars to send a drilling probe to Mars to find life that just “happened,” when you cannot create it here, with intelligence and technology at work? I don’t get it.

Nevertheless, if we truly are just “stardust,” random blobs of goop that evolved from some unknown, spontaneous—what shall we call it—combination of things; if we are the tree and the flower and the star and the leopard and the frog and the chimp, what does it matter what we do? Why do right and wrong matter? Who cares what evolved blobs of goop do to other blobs of goop? Are we concerned when bacteria die? Worms? Parasites? Are we concerned when an alpha predator, like a lion, destroys and eats its young? Or when it kills an antelope? No, we are not because, despite our solid belief in evolution, we know lions are different than we. If we awake in a house that is on fire, would we rescue our dog or cat or fish or gerbil before our own children? No. We know we are not all just time plus chance, but somehow there is a disconnect between reality and belief. Thus, while condemning Christianity as outdated or anti-science or superstitious or weird, Western unbelievers hold to its values.

Well, some of those values. For example, we believe rape is wrong but not pre-marital sex. (Please note that a recent poll stated that only 28% of Christians believe pre-marital sex is a sin. Welcome to the church that has been compromised by worldly values.)

Incest is wrong and even illegal but why? Are we worried when apes do this?

Why is bestiality wrong and illegal? Hey, those animals are just stardust, time, plus chance like we are. Eat, drink, be merry and bestial, for tomorrow we die. Whatever—we are all just star dusty blobs of goop. Have sex with whatever blob you wish. What difference does it make?

How about adultery? Well, it is generally frowned upon, unless, of course, love strikes in the cereal aisle at the grocery store. Then it’s—understandable. They’re in love! Everybody—well, all random blobs of goop, should be loved.

Poor, lonely, goopy blobs.

Scripture says that everyone on earth knows God exists: “For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse” (Romans 1:19–20). But because we do not give thanks to Him or honor Him, our hearts become darkened. Therefore, God gives us over to dishonorable passions, impurity, and debased minds (Romans 1:21-28). ¹

This is the current state of the West. I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised at the madness we witness.

However, before the Christian reader yields to self-righteous, we must confess that all of us are subject to this God-forgetfulness as well. You and I both know that we fail very often to honor God in our lives and to give thanks. The only difference between the Christian and the unbeliever is God’s gracious revelation of Himself to us. We are to shed the light we have been given —forgiven, nasty sinners that we are—into the darkness, so people who are bound up in the same nasty sins we were can come out of depressing darkness into the light. To live forever. To be set free from sin’s bondage. To find meaning in life. To be God’s sons and daughters. To be co-heirs with Jesus.

It is a difficult battle. I understand. The West has strongly rejected what I just wrote. But that doesn’t make void its truth. And there is only one true truth, and it resides in the Lord God Almighty, Creator of all things and Savior to all.

 

¹The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

Gif courtesy giphy.com