Christ and Culture

While we struggle to make sense of how to live out our faith there are really only five positions you will see regarding Christ and culture.

1.      Christ in culture (transformer of culture)

a.       Focus is on influencing not engineering.  Christians endeavor to convert and redeem all man’s cultural life for the glory of God.  Focus is on influencing.

b.      Man’s cultural pursuits are a good but infected by sin.  Needs restoration and redemption.
Model is about living out the Gospel, permeating it through changed lives and living out the Gospel in all aspects of life

2.      Christ away from culture, living in paradox

a.       Christians live in the world but are oblivious to it, resting on tradition and waiting for God’s kingdom.  Appears to have a premillennial tint in some respects.

3.      Christ over culture/above culture

a.       Very puritanical, battling culture

b.      An attempt to live in both realms bringing them together asserting Christ’s dominance.

c.       Ends in trusting human means and even government, frequently theocratic in expression

d.      In the Erastian form where Government runs the church and appoints it’s officers it can shackle the church.

e.       often leaves little room for the church to speak prophetically to the culture confusing institutions

4.      Christ away from/against culture

a.       Antithesis/protecting

b.      Christian’s must break from their culture radically

c.       Anabaptists such as the Mennonites.  Out of the world but not in it in the least.  Does not allow to be the salt of the earth or light of the world.

5.      Culture of Christ, Christ of Culture

a.       Equates and assimilates.  Christians find in Christ the high ideals for their cultural life and values.  The moral example, whatever that example may be.

b.      Typical among theological liberalism.  God is perpetually speaking of his changing/continued revelation through the culture’s observation (this word often is key).  With scripture, views it as observations or thoughts on God absent of God’s revelation of himself, he is outside of and not in the text.

Every Legal system assumes and even demands a moral framework upon which it is founded.  Moral frameworks are inherently religious and philosophical because they define themselves answering several basic questions.  They have an assumption about the nature of man, the nature of God and the conduct that is demanded of man.  The Torah in Judaism, Confucius and Buddha in China, Hinduism influences India and most telling to us today the Quran stands as perhaps the biggest example that comes to our minds.  Whereas Jesus gave the moral law of the Old Testament the Quran gives a legal one as well and it was intrinsically political which is why Islam is in the turmoil it is today and has produced militant interpretations such as Daesh (ISIS).  Those countries that have a concept of “human rights” have directly or indirectly borrowed the concept from a Christian framework which is why the West is so concerned with it and why its former colonies claim the same.

The bible understands this framework as a given. The injunction to Adam and eve was a moral and legal demand to obey God and not eat of the forbidden fruit.  The legal penalty was death.  Nothing has changed.  All are subject to God’s laws, hence all suffer the penalty of sin.

When God brought Israel into the wilderness he followed this understanding.  The first thing God did wasn’t give the in depth legal law code that would form Israel as a political entity.  He instead gave a moral law, the 10 commandments upon which to base what would come after.  He reiterates this process again and again, after telling Israel “I am the Lord your God.”

The giving of the 10 commandments in Exodus 10

The unbeliever is found guilty by God because they are still under his dominion and under his laws, we need to remember this while still understanding they aren’t saved.

Our culture today has an agreed upon postmodern ethic that demands we not bring religion into our politics, and I’m hearing this from Christians.  Submitting to this we are really letting ourselves have an authority other than Christ.  We are allowing a pagan ethic to dictate our public interaction in the public sphere.  In short we are telling Christ his power and dominion ends at the ballot box or with public debate.  How are we to be the salt of the earth?  Furthermore, won’t society benefit from the Gospel being applied to their laws?

Psalm 2

The Psalmist tells the governing officials to “Fear the Lord’ and to rule justly.  You cannot honor the lord without consenting to him as God, and without keeping his law.  The magistrates serve as models for God to his people and agents placed to serve him.  The Government and rulers are judged if they fail, and they're people with them.

Matthew5:17

He came to fulfill the law for us, but doesn’t abolish them for the Moral law reflects God's character. Paul clarifies this.

Romans 3 describes the law as showing us what sin is, it is still a good instruction on how to live while showing us our own moral failings. As we grow Romans 6 shows us we follow the law of righteousness (morally) more and more.  The Law student's question and Christ's answer is a summation of the laws of God in Matthew 22:34-40, and the giving of them to us affirms the OT.

The Ceremonial laws are gone, but the moral law still abides.  This ties to the Gospel going out to all the nations.  We are a Holy Kingdom, but there is no longer one national identity that God’s people must be conformed to.  Now the Germans can be Germans, the English English, the Chinese Chinese and all God’s one holy people without having to become Israelite.  The only laws that are rescinded are the ceremonial such as circumcision at the Council of Jerusalem, no such rulings or declarations are made concerning moral conduct like murder, theft or any of the sexual ethics given in scripture.  It needs to be said as well that such issues assume the sexual revolutions definition of what it means to be human, not that given in scripture of which reflects the created order.  It is a perfect test case for showing how every legal system has moral assumptions, even religious ones (secular in this case).

The bible is one body of work, the moral law is a consistent command and reflection of God’s character throughout.  The 10 commandments and the moral laws that came from it were foundation for God’s people in the Old Testament, they are still valid today for the Israel in the New covenant.

God’s law is incredibly centered on Shalom, the fullness and peace of God’s created order. Sin is a break in shalom, as is natural disaster.  This is why any deviation, even a “victimless crime” from God’s design for the world is a break in Shalom.  In the book of Jeremiah he warns the king for failing to keep the shalom “peace peace, there is no peace”, the word is Shalom.

Jeremiah 8:11 

The passage gets pretty rough describing the penalty for the wisemen of Israel misleading the people.

As Christians we work towards the healing of the nations, a re-conquering shalom of God.  Our definition of Freedom and liberty for all as Christian’s comes from this understanding.  The law guides us into seeing what is a break in this shalom, and in ways to mitigate it in a fallen world.

Government exists to punish crime and restrain evil, and are naturally then subject and responsible to God.

This understanding is tied by Christ himself to the great commission.

Matthew 28:18-20

We know Christ will succeed, for Christ has all authority on Heaven and on Earth.  Knowing that he stands behind his commission with authority over all things we can make disciples and teach them to follow Christ's commands.  For centuries Christian monarchs possessed "sovereigns orbs" with the cross upon them signifying their authority and fealty to Christ as king.  Their responsibility to him to rule justly included making laws and policies that honored him. 

Revelation 1:4-5
Matthew 25:31-33
Revelation 3:20-22

Charlemagne and Elizabeth holding their "sovereign's orb's" or "globus Cruciger"

This is also the biggest issue Rome had with the Christians.  We forget that the early Christians were very active in civil disobedience.  To Rome calling anybody but Caesar lord was treasonous.  Those in Ephesus faced this most harshly as Ephesus was the seat of Emperor worship in Asia.  They were commended for resisting "where Satan's throne is."  The power behind bad governments and systems that oppose the Gospel is always clear, the devil himself.  Christians claimed a different lord and it was for this they were persecuted.  The early Christians were faithful in their politics to death and we should be too.

Our culture has it's own secular shibboleths which we must stand against.  They will hate us for it, but we are called to stay faithful.  I appreciate the difficulty and know that we must look to all scripture and the history of God's people.

So how do the five models tie into this?  You may think I’m going for Christ over culture, but this ends in confusing the Church with the State, and potentially the Gospel for social causes and programs.  It makes the government the savior.  Ironically so does Christ under culture, which makes the Gospel all about human progress and cultural perfection over the salvation of the culture. It forgets its own cause making a fruit of the Gospel the Gospel itself.

Christ away from leaves no ability to be the salt of the earth and forgets Christ is already king in the now and not yet that is the church age.  We can easily leave God out of politics, but more importantly he becomes blocked off.  The kingdom will come in fullness, but it is very real even now.

Likewise Christ against culture is escapist altogether and leads to saving nobody but simply separating.

Christ in culture understands perfectly being in and not of the world.  Being the salt of the earth and the light of the world requires both.  Civilizations transform one person at a time, from the inside out.  A Christian culture will simply make Christian laws by it's own nature.  The early Church built Christendom by being faithful and saving sinners who then lived faithfully speaking prophetically to the culture around them to repent.  We ought to do the same.

The breakdown in civil discussion today is due to the underlying thread of our culture being taken away.  No longer is there a Christian consensus in the West.  Different as we were we were arguing from the same book.  The regional and demographic issues stem from those consenting to Christianity and those not, whether they really believe it or not. 

Regardless all told today with our sectioning of off all things whether liberal or conservative. Faith from “Science,” Religion from politics, individuals from society as society natural comes undone. The Church (as the believers) is to be an active agent, and we have largely outsourced this and told God at the door of our homes and churches “come no further, you must stay inside.”  As a Christian we are commanded to honor God in all things, and therefore it is imperative we act in the public whether politics or otherwise as Christ would have us and take a stand for the things of God.

Next I will plan to show you the history of God’s people acting as a prophetic voice to the culture.  The church failed to act as a prophetic voice to our culture, and in many cases caved and embraced secularism.  Many took the Christ of/under culture approach, and ceased to become salty.

Secularism, the Church and the World: An overview of the ideas and history

Before I get into any real detail I realize I will need to start with an apologetic and explain how we arrived at our current culture’s understanding, which is neither typical nor historical normative even here.  I won’t recommend social engineering, but social transformation.  To do so I will start with a broad view of where we are at today, and why the church has largely failed focusing on saving souls not lives.

To say “I shouldn’t legislate morality/my morality according to my faith” is parroting the culture’s understanding and is indefensible biblically.  This runs contrary to the Gospel and Christ’s command to be salt and light to the earth and to honor him in all things.

Culture is religion in action as it is religion.  I will define religion as the foundational belief/trusted structure of the culture for understanding the world and our place in it. Religion forms the framework for how the culture makes sense of and acts in the world.  God and scripture assume this is historically the case.  I will develop this later but the bible is clear giving the great commission in Matthew 28 to make disciples and Christ’s claim that “All power has been given to me.”Christ is called “our Lord and savior” and there are frequent exhortations in the Psalms (Psalm 2, kiss the son lest be become angry) to the kings and people to honor God as king.  

Today we as a culture hold the former statement on morality not the latter biblical focus.  Keep your religion to yourself, be tolerant, don’t bring God into it are all new and in some ways bizarre frameworks.  Have we become somehow irreligious?  On the contrary, we have adopted a deformed religion known as secularism.

The  west has inherited the end fruits of the less than humble era titled “the enlightenment” itself a regression from early humanism.  Our contemporary religion is “Secular Humanism” and it arose with the mantra “man is the measure of all things.  This was accompanied by a blind faith claim that mankind is developing/evolving towards a perfect state, led to by science and the gradual phasing out of “superstitious” religion.

A perfect example of the modernist mindset that arose from this, as well as the vestigial Christianity of it's time. We were then becoming more consistent to the point of abandoning Christianityt as we have today

Broken, sinful and fallen as we are we not only make ourselves the center but fail to unite the created order together in our thinking.  Dichotomies have long been the norm, a divide between the spiritual and the physical.  Plato held that the Spirit was good, matter was evil and less real.  This thinking invaded the church in the form of Gnosticism, Docetism and still does today.  The Catholic concept of the Donum Superadditum, where Adam needed extra Grace in the garden of Eden which he lost before he sinned is likewise guilty of this error as it makes the material deficient.  Aristotle was more focused on this world with potentiality and actuality.  Everything is a potential something else, a nut is a potential tree that actualizes into a tree.  So he focused on particulars where Plato focused on ideas/absolutes. Yet he would shudder at how far we’ve taken naturalism. For the majority of history it was the spiritual world that was more real or superior, however in the last 500 years Aristotle has been misunderstood and kicking Plato’s tuckus as the material world has become treated as the real.   Our contemporary embrace of dichotomies had a negative effect on gender relations as I previously detailed here discussing the family model.

The medieval world struggled with this too, yet when John Calvin comes on the scene he affirms the goodness and unity of all creation.  Calvin affirmed Adam was sufficient in himself, the material body as much a part of him as his soul or spirit.  God was lord over all creation, uniting both physical and spiritual and redeeming it all to himself.   This explains the physical resurrection as well as the eternality of the spirit. Yet this (sadly) did not take hold in an increasingly irrational “rationalistic” world where the mind of the finite creature man measured all things.

In the context of the reformation secularism as a philosophy of government began to take root.  Starting with the Anabaptist separation of church and state, Europe began to suffer the Wars of Religion which furthered the spread of this kind of secularism.  Originally this was about institutions, there would be no state churches in secular societies.  Many Countries in Europe didn’t follow suit and still don’t in some sense as some still possess state churches (Denmark or England for instance) though functionally they’ve taken on secularism to a tee.  The early form of secularism didn’t keep God out of the government, but politicians out of church offices and pastors out of government.  The idea of keeping God out of anything was still absurd and the word atheist only came into existence in the Elizabethan age.  Rather Secularism originally rose in and for a Christian context for a Christian pluralism, one where the consensus of society was still the same religion in different flavors.

As we began to explain the material workings it didn’t explain away God but we acted as though it did. Society gained a means to excuse ourselves from needing him to explain the natural world.  With increased knowledge came an increase in the arsenal of depravity.  We could now make excuses.

Enter David Hume, the avowed and oft misunderstood Scottish Atheist.  Hume is known for denying miracles and supposedly succeeding in more than committing numerous logical fallacies.  Alas his success was all the latter.  His points  concerning miracles are summed up as

1.      Scepticism: We need to be skeptical of a witness to a miracle in regards to their education, intelligence, integrity or reputation and if they are lacking in any safely disregard them. 

a.       This extensive list and endless qualifications means almost anybody can be excluded, an ad hominem to say the least.  Further he disregards evidence from the discussion whatsoever

2.      Exaggeration: People are drawn to exaggeration, therefore they will gullibly believe a miracle claim. 

a.       This is a non-sequitor it won’t make their claims or belief false and I would add it is quite presumptive.

3.      Ignorance: Most are just ignorant barbarians and gullible in this way. 

a.       Again, an Ad homiem fallacy and a non-sequitor not addressing the logic of the discussion at all.  Also, people know more or less how they world they live in works, give them some credit.

4.      Diversity:  Religions Competing claims means they all cancel each other out, none are true/can be known to be true. 

a.       This is supposedly his strongest, but again is a non-sequitor.  Two people can claim an object is one color and disagree, but that doesn’t mean both are wrong or that it’s unknowable.  The issue is the perceivers not the thing perceived.  Variety of claims doesn’t make a truth unknown or unknowable, it merely provides the observation of different positions.

You can see the vitriol today among the New Atheists grounded in this, as Richard Dawkins who said when asked how to address theists “mock them” likewise calling them “stupid.”  Likewise the assertion that a miracle goes against the laws of nature even Hume couldn’t say for certain.  Rather he asserted the laws may change, but we haven’t seen a miracle yet (blind faith, a claim he assumes to be true and doesn't substantiate).  To counter him further, if there is a divine agent it is not a break of the natural order, neither would it be if I moved an object that otherwise would remain at rest.

So what does this have to do with anything?  Hume’s arguments won popularity, and now the spiritual wasn’t just less important but altogether unknowable and an intrusion into the natural world.  In the age of Deism now it really seemed as if the spiritual was beyond reach or any import.  Enter Immanuel Kant and his Kantradictions.  Incidentally his book was published 5 years after the start of the American Revolution, and at another time I will detail for you just how differently the founding fathers thought.

Kant essentially divides reality into the Neumonal (the world as it is “Der ding an sich” or thing in itself, where God is and his knowledge, metaphysical) and the Phenomenal world (the way we perceive it to be and which is observable, the physical).  The Neumonal is akin to Plato's metaphysical, absolute truth and the Phenomenal aligns greatly with Aristotle and his physical/particular focus.  Kant assumes Hume is correct and the spiritual is unknowable, since the mind of man allegedly can’t discover it. Hence there is an unbridgeable chasm between the two He then tries to correct this by acknowledging we perceive the world and cross from the world we perceive to God in the Neumonal by “faith”, blind unthinking faith not the faith of your grandpa mind you.  Of course he tells us to live as if we live with as if knowledge, and claims to know with certainty by his reason something about the Neumonal world.  General Revelation for Kant and Hume is altogether impossible, and Special Revelation even less so.

I find it sadly ironic that his name means “God with us” and yet he believed God was unknowable and unable to approach us.  Both Kant and Hume neglect that the general knowledge of God and general revelation exist and point to God.  Such a sense of the divine would be cruel and unexplainable in any other framework.  Furthermore, God is an acting party revealing himself in his creation and in his word.

The mistakes of Hume and Kant were followed by logical positivism, the philosophical expression of naturalism and secularism.  Simply put “If you can’t measure it, it doesn’t exist”.

1.      Analytic: True insofar as math, self-evident and needs no proof.  If you can’t measure an object it doesn’t exist (number of chairs)

2.      Synthetic: Descriptive of nature and perceptions (the color of a chair for example)

3.      Metaphysical: The immaterial denied. And is nonsense

Since God and the spiritual couldn’t be measured, it was concluded they don’t exist.  Of course Logical positivism can’t be measured but consistency is a difficult thing to live when man is the measure of all things.

So religion became grounds for morality not truth, and increasingly not even that as it loses all authority as secularism does to religion.  Religious belief became values, “science” became the realm of facts.  Therefore to bring “God into this” suddenly became an absurdity.  Religious truth was unknowable in an increasingly individualistic society where it became about personal peace and affluence as Francis Schaeffer notes. 

Faith is now viewed derisively, as unthinking and feeling based.  As simple values for personal fulfilment it is demanded they be kept out of the public sphere.  It is little wonder then we have consumer religion today, and where people don’t vote as Christians but as Secular humanists as we are told to “keep it to yourself.” 

With this materialism came the rise of scientism wherein science is the facts.  Statistics and studies became Holy Scripture, the scientist our clergy in the field of “reason.”  The fact that they change all the time is altogether ignored.  It’s the “Hard Sciences” and their narrative that guide due to the mind of man being the center of reason in this schema.  Man’s failure to find consensus on the true religion brought society to the conclusion that there isn’t one and modernity with its neglect or even denial of the metaphysical took root.

Darwin’s popularizing of evolution (his grandfather posited the theory, as did an ancient Greek atheist named Anaximander who Plato thought was stupid) led to the doubt in the bible, since man was already the ultimate authority and this theory in the enlightened realm of science couldn’t be wrong in any way.  Further every mind must have evolved differently, with no intended design and simply being chemical in makeup.  Relativism then naturally followed as each individual became truly an island.

Increasingly we’re seeing an imposed morality of relativism become enforced due naturalism’s assumptions that

1.      Reality=nature

2.      man is an animal,

3.      truth is therefore relative (which negates the other two, but again consistency is best left out of this if you want to indulge your depravity)

Therefore it is bigoted to impose your views on others, but this is exactly what the culture and its natural secular humanism does to you and me.  You will vote your beliefs, you can’t avoid it it’s simply a matter of what and in whom will you believe.  The consensus is the postmodern ethic, and it’s bored its way into our culture and into Christians who are swimming in this ocean but don’t notice it.

This decay and relativism is why Abortion is a big issue, and gender identity.  A video not long ago showed a man asking college students if they were fine with him identifying as a 6”5” Chinese woman, many were.  

Of course how do you define what a 6 foot 5 Chinese woman is with no absolutes?  It borrows from a concrete reality because it has to.  So far it’s brushed off as not affecting others, but that’s naïve and we can simply wait for the day when someone can identify as someone else’s spouse/parents.  The death of moral facts has become real, and with it is going all truth at all as all relativism has left us with is being “our true self”. 

This explains today our division of “Church and State” as we understand it today.  Church is private, State is Public and God only belongs in the former.  This is the culture’s consensus and the morality and religion it enforces on us, make no mistake about it.  Every legal system is founded on a morality and morality on religion, we’ve simply capitulated to that of secularism.

                                                             

Albert Mohler on the dissapearance of God from the culture.

Essentially though these thoughts didn’t begin in the enlightenment, that’s only where they took root.  It began in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve were told by the Serpent “you shall be as God’s.” The culture is coming apart, un-tethered due to its loss of God or even the concept of truth as the center as everyman becomes a morality unto himself.  I expect the book of judges to become current events. Indeed Friedrich Nietzsche acknowledged the implications, claiming after modernity a universal madness would breakout in the 20th century, and all truth would come unhinged with the death of the concept of God.
Having bought into this humanist and secular system, Christians have only hastened its effects and made Nietzsche's predictions true.  Next week I will dive into the biblical and Christian model, and detail how we are to transform not engineer society acting as a prophetic and influencing voice while winning souls to Christ.

And I leave you with the prophetic words of Francis Schaeffer on Humanism looking to what I will cover later.

The light of the World: Christ and the Church in the World

What way is the Christian to live in the world?  Our contemporary society struggles with this.  How do our beliefs affect how we are to vote, or in any way tell others to live? Well you must start with one key moment in history.  One that continues now forever more.  The incarnation itself.  So I will start off what I hope to be a series with a sermon as an introduction that you may think on it, and desire to live with Christ truly as lord of your life, and lord of all.

John 1:1-14

 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life,[a] and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. 8 He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.  9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own,[b] and his own people[c] did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.  14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

A good image, light, there’s something warming and comforting about light.  As a child many if not all of us and myself included, found comfort in having a light on at night.  I remember as a child the comfort I found in the light against the fears of what lay in the darkness.  All things can be seen by the light and nothing hid.  And while we eventually learned to sleep without a nightlight (right?), there is a greater darkness, that of sin and death which plagues this world. The light (Christ) has come to save us out of this darkness.

What kind of a person then would not choose the light?  A better question is what person would? Nobody, and indeed many of Christ’s own people denied the loving God who showed his love by dwelling among us and the world crucified him for his love.  Done in the darkness our deeds are wicked, for they are our deeds apart from God as a God and in his place.  What little good we do is still done while we are in the darkness.  The current Dalai Lama who is not the previous Dalai Lama said, “Be your own light”.  This has been the story of man.  Every other religion is a search for God trying to climb into the heavens on our own and be our own light . But we have God who came down searching for us, down the mountain we could not climb, down into the darkness into our form against our wishes.  Some form of asceticism, some form of pious living drawn from in ourselves.  Islam, Judaism have law, eastern religions have Karma.   Do good, don’t hurt others, earn God’s favor Like the Dalai Lama shows and we all live, we wish to be our own light, but how can the darkness give itself light? Those who have only darkness in themselves can only produce darkness and moreover men love the darkness rather than the light, because it hides their evil deeds, and wickedness, and as Christians we are not to do as such but we are not to hide in the darkness but be children of the light.

If Christ be the light and his kingdom of light, Satan is Darkness and his dominion the dominion of Darkness of which we were all at one time a part, or if you are now, I pray you may not remain so.  But if we did not and cannot choose the light, how is one born of the light (we couldn’t even be born at the fist of our own will?  How does one leave the darkness and enter into the comfort of this the only light of the world and be born again?
            We who receive him become children of light. Were this not so none would be here and none would be saved, but in what manner do we receive him, having neither the will nor ability to leave the darkness and enter the light?  Not by those born of the will of the flesh or by the will of man but of the will of God.  Nothing we could do as carriers of darkness could make us bring forth light.  We needed one who is light to light give us light, and that is Christ came for exactly this, being himself the light of the world.

And where light is Darkness cannot remain.  Where light is present Darkness cannot be.  When one turns on a light in a room or lights a candle, where does the darkness go?  The Darkness cannot bear to stand in the presence of the light; it runs and hides in shadow.  It cannot form a wall and claim half, a quarter or any of the room.  Not one half is lit but the whole of the room with it.  The light came into the world, and the darkness could not overcome it!

And the light was the word and was with God, and the Word was God, two persons one, with the holy spirit three but one God.  Christ is not a God, he is God, Christ is not a light, he is the light, Christ is not a word, he is the word, he is not a way, he is the way.  This person, through whom all the world was made, took on his creation, taking on flesh.  As the word, he is the agent of his father, having created the world, and now come into the world to enact salvation.  Echoing Genesis 1, there is a new beginning now in Christ, as by the light the darkness scatters, and all things are made new.  In Genesis 1 God said, let there be light.  Now the one who made the light has come into the world, as its light.

Christ attends tabernacles in John 8.  In this feast the people remembered their wilderness wandering and built small erect booths on the housetops and in the streets where they and those coming to celebrate the festival could find shelter, and remember how God was present in the tabernacle with them in the wilderness.  There were special water rituals symbolizing the rock in the wilderness (to us Christ the rock, and giving the water of life).  Through a torch ceremony the whole of the temple mount ceremony was lit, lighting as they said the whole of the city and visible so far off that those coming could see it miles away symbolizing how God’s salvation would extend to the whole world.  It is during this feast, Christ proclaimed of himself “I am the light of the world” with this lit temple as background.
            This light dwelt among us, the light TABERNACLED among us literally.  Christ came into this world for this purpose and today is so in his people in the power of the Holy Spirit (as we are temples of our God), where his spirit is he is also.  Through his work in us Christ lights the world.

John takes this imagery from Christ who speaks much of this, and you are made vessels that his light is in the world.  Jesus’ in Matthew 5:16.

 “¹⁵Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.¹⁶ In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

As those saved by the light, the world can see the light in us and this is our calling.  This was widely held and today lost, John Winthrop references this in his sermon a city on a hill saying you are the light of the world.  Africa was called the Dark Continent not out of racism, but because Africa, was under the blanket of spiritual darkness and without the light of the Gospel, it was a call to bring them the light.

There is a song you all know, and maybe you don’t know its true meaning, I know our society today has forgotten and even uses it in commercials to sell things or in school tell children they can do anything they themselves desire because of the self-esteem education they receive, I remember in grade school with my peers being taught to sing it while many of them remained in the darkness. It goes.
            “This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine.  Let the whole world see this little light of mine.” How far we’ve fallen back into the darkness that such a beautiful children’s hymn has had its meaning so perverted, our society took a candle and placed it under basket.  But do not fear, nothing overcomes the light that is in us in Christ Jesus.  We are called to be different from the world, to be a light in the darkness as agents of the light. Christ lightens the darkness , let the whole world see the light that is in you placed there by the only God that they too may know him, the only light of the world our lord and savior Jesus Christ.

Let us pray
            Our God and light unto the darkness, we glorify your name for that while we were yet sinners, lost in the darkness you found us and gave us light, and brought us out of the darkness by your will, not by our flesh for we would have you not.  You made us new, gave us a new song to sing and called us to be a light unto the world by your true light in Christ Jesus.  May Darkness flee, and all the world see.  The Glory and love of our God and the light, Christ Jesus, Amen

^Sermon ends here 

As such, we are indwelt to be the light of the world, the salt of the earth.  To put Christ out of the public sphere is to put our light under a basket and to cease to be salty.  I will develop this and detail it's secular origins further but I leave you with that question "what does it look like to be the light of the world and the salt of the earth?  It is through us he acts, through you and me he is the light of the world.  Go live it.  God bless, and I hope to write again soon.

Things Get Physicalist: The Cognitive Science Debate

Recently the field of Cognitive Science has become engaged in a heated discussion about whether or not it can or has disproven religion.  Some within the field have noted this as a startlingly recent development stemming from the theories of men like Richard Dawkins and Daniel Dennet.[1]  While not directly affirming the naturalness of religion or the truth of religion, their indirect arguments have stirred the controversy within the field.[2]  Jesse Bering has quite boldly proclaimed “We’ve got God by the throat, and I’m not going to stop until one of us is dead”.[3]  Clearly there are many within the scientific community who champion this theory.

            This bold theory has pressed forward under the assumption of so called “Physicalism”.  Based on a naturalistic assumption, Physicalism assumes that all that exists is the physical world.[4]  Therefore since the physical world exists in isolation only the natural sciences can lead to truth.  Truth then becomes synonymous with science and “scientific fact” for the Physicalist.[5]

            Strict naturalists espouse three core claims concerning methodology, epistemology and nature itself. Usually Darwinian in nature, natural science methods are demanded to be used in all other sciences as well.  Ontologically it is asserted that “only matter in motion is real[6]”.  It can only be real if it can be measured through the scientific process[7].

This leads to the assumption that physical or material existence alone is provable, and only that which is reducible to physical theory.[8]  Physicalism holds that only science can provide any truth, and therefore has priority over all other types of knowledge.  While most theistic religions cannot tolerate this, certain nontheistic pantheisms fit suitably into this system of beliefs.  For those acknowledging a spiritual reality however, this system is diametrically opposed.

            Within the debate theism is largely assumed to entail two thigs about god and the world.  The theistic god is nonphysical and existing; the pantheist need not have a physical god.  This spiritual god actively works in the physical world, contradicting the naturalist teleology[9]. Having an immaterial god is the source of contention between those favoring physicalism and those against.  The question of whether or not such a god can be measured and the implications for this play form an underlying thread in the debate.

            Any resolutions cannot be by proofs alone.  Resolutions are always filtered, and are therefore dependent on their assumptions.  Cognitive scientists may claim “there is only one religion; there are minor variations at the periphery.”[10]  This displays an underlying assumption through which resolutions are filtered forming and shaping practice and interpretation.  The underlying assumption of cognitive science as a whole is that religious beliefs and experiences are accounted for by the same processes and structures we use for all of life.[11]

            Religion provides a way of making sense of the world.  It provides a perspective of the world and reality and the place of the individual within it.[12]  All religions do one thing functionally; they assess a man’s place in nature and prescribe a path/remedy.[13]  Religion encompasses the private and the public, the individual and institutional, the subjective and the objective elements of reality.  Religion therefore cannot be understood as being merely personal or idiosyncratic.[14]

            Saler Benson finds three characteristics in the study of the cognitive science of religion.  CSR operates on human beings as individuals over religions and cultures.[15]  The common approach likewise affirms that the processes’ and supports used in religion are not exclusive to religion.  These support other aspects of human life distinctive from religious function, both intuitive and counter-intuitive ideas.  Supporters see this approach to cognitive science as applying a realistic and moderately reductive model.[16]

            The Physicalist definition of cognitive science assumes a bottom to top cognitive approach.  Conscious thoughts in this schema are entirely caused by lower level cognitive mechanisms such as input and instinct.  Therefore there is only a bottom up flow of causation.  The lower levels are the unconscious, unthinking realm of human existence.  The sequencializing “A leads to B” is considered largely a teaching tool as the mind is too complex[17].

            This theory would lead to a deterministic interaction and Physicalists like to claim overcoming religion is done by thought (top down) which is not possible in this schema where our beliefs are derived from natural mechanisms.[18]  Emergence of a true consciousness remains an impossibility in a physicalist framework.  A person must fight their baser instincts to change a belief, but is wholly driven by those unconscious influences.[19] 

            Cognitive Science assumes like all experiences, religious practices are cognitively mediated.[20]  Any religious activity would show on a brain scan, if it weren’t so mediated it would be impossible to study scientifically.  Brain scans and lab tests have confirmed this theory. Religious experiences display in activity in the body of the person engaging in the experience.[21]

            Sorensen theorizes that structures of culture and society are domain specific to the world around us.[22]  We have a “schematized structure guiding the expectations of the world, temporal unfolding of events within a domain.[23]  Rituals are considered a rather significant part of this event.  These serve as part of broader cognition and divisions such as agent/non-agent, animate and inanimate distinctions in the world around the mind.[24]  Metaphor exists as the realm of abstraction. Jesper Sorensen classifies ritual within this realm where it engages people to create change.  Ritual serves objective and subjective effects, worshiping the external god and affecting the subject.[25]

            Scott Atran, Pascal Boyer and Justin Barret propose that these mental tools serve to significantly constrain religious beliefs.  Religious beliefs in their estimation are an evolutionary byproduct (the theory of byproductism).  Unintended they prove instead to derive from the brains wiring as it evolved our variety of cognition to survive more effectively[26].  They theorize this arose accidentally but provided benefits such as group cohesion and created a reproductive advantage.[27]  Humans possess an unacknowledged inner mentality wherein religion plays a key role.[28] Historically it has been noted as being a binding quality that creates community.[29] 

            Sorensen supposes that among its benefits the accidental creation of religious cognition would have created a sense of morality, a desirable attribute.  It is interestingly worth noting this does reflect Kant’s observation of religion as “the recognition of all our duties as divine commands”. The theory posits that children would personalize objects, being hyper-vigilant so as to survive any possible threats[30].  Belief in gods and spirits evolved from this and tendencies within children to attach anthropomorphic language to objects.[31]  This “hyper referential system” affecting belief in the divine are theorized to be likewise stimulated by interaction with other material agents.[32]

            Studies of children with this theory have confirmed the interesting presence of the universality of a concept of god in children.[33]  Scientists studying the field have long noted that religious ideas come to children naturally and display always even when raised atheistically.[34]  Infants as young as five-months old display what appears to be perception of agency.  This promiscuous teleology found within children can only be overcome with education.  While this assumes older generations were identical with our own, there exists also the possibility from history and this study that older generations did not possess a natural/supernatural dichotomy.[35]  Based on these studies the theory holds large sway and appears to have worked out pragmatic results of human religious cognition.

            Religion also displays an ability to meet the emotional needs of individuals.  Religious belief may serve a compensatory function emotionally when other people don’t provide or offer what an individual’s felt needs are.[36] When a person is flourishing in other areas religiosity can act positively in correlation.[37]  A good life can cause an individual to feel thankful to a God and more religious.  So according to Pruyser, religion can be conceived of as “at-one-ment” in the sense of alignment and attuning to the divine not union.[38]

            In practice ritual has been theorized by Pascal Boyer to use repetition of words to increase effectiveness, as magic or to gain favor.[39]  Boyer states that originally this would be ritual from priests or other religious specialists using their voicing and posturing.  Eventually audiences became participants and call/response was added to ritual and liturgy.  The question is raised, are rituals a result not a cause of representation as Boyer posits?  Boyer’s theory assumes it is not in our genetics but that religion is a learned behavior through ritual.[40]  Sorensen posits that cultural models and even framing narrative are based entirely on human experiences. Paul Pruyser notes rituals like confession can serve to create human and divine contact to bring relief and free the conscience.[41]

Structures of culture and society tie to group cohesion.  According to Sorensen these possess a schematized structure that individuals use to understand the whole world.[42]

The effects of religion as group cohesion and the modern world have interestingly displayed themselves in contemporary church decline.  Since the 1950’s in America church attendance has declined significantly, "with a Gallup poll declaring “believing is becoming increasingly divorced from belonging.[43]  It is notably worse in England and Holland where Church attendance is only 5% any given week.  Likewise a majority of Catholic Italians disagree with the Pope.  This has been an outworking of old ties but also the distinctness today of spirituality from religion in the “spiritual but not religious” movement.[44]  It seems that for all the religionlessness religious belief itself remains inescapable.

            Religion has been shown to provide significant benefits and possesses genetic rooting.  In study there has been shown a strong association between vat2 polymorphism and feelings of “self-transcendence” for those with a C in their DNA in one or both chromosomes.[45] This creates a feeling of transcendence and oneness with the universe, and with the loving nature of God.  While occurring more in females the results are the same in males.[46]

            Michael Persinger set about on what is now the “Persinger experiment” when accidentally stimulating the “God spot” on his brain.  In making the temperal proprietal region of the brain fire, he and later subjects were able to experience a “God high”.  When temporal lobe epileptics were exposed to religious imagery and words, this region of the brain spiked[47]. 

            The 6 year study of Piedmont North Carolina study has shown personal benefits as well.  3968 adults were examined between 1986-92[48] and of those attending less than once a week, 37% died in that time frame.  Only 23% attending at least once or more died.[49]  Those that never went to Church in a related study had a 50% increased mortality rate even with all possible demographic factors accounted for.[50]

            Religion does personally create a consciousness and concept of one’s self.  Pruyser asserts self-concept contrasts with the other and the beyond, differentiating us from other peopled and the world beyond us.[51] God or the deity becomes defined as the wholly other “das ganz andere” under a creator/creature distinction.  Pruyser may here assume the Judeo-Christian worldview, but the concept of self as distinct appears in all religions.  Eastern religions differ where “God is all” is the central focus and assertion ye the self is distinct and needing of reunion with the all.  Religion evaluates the self, tests the self and provides a course for molding oneself universally.[52]

            Contrary to evidence, Dawkins asserts that genetics have nothing to do with spiritual belief.  Rather they are a “virus of the mind” and serve no purpose or advantage.[53]  He appears to concur with the belief of Sorensen that religion is wholly taught with no internal inclination.  His influence over science is unfortunate, but one can understand his wishful thinking and his objection predicates itself on the knowledge of many of the same issues that kill Physicalism.

            It is a largely ignored reality that not just “religious” but Physicalists approach reality with a contextual background of assumptions. Specific explanations perform their own functions; physics has a different focus than biology.  All explanations of any field perform specific functions and are only convincing in the given field they are a part of.  The axioms and assumptions on which a theory depends cannot be demonstrated within that field.[54]  Demanding proof/warrant results in an infinite regress.

            Proof and faith are actually opposite sides of the same coin.  They are not opposing each other ontologically as James Jones notes, in reality without believing something we can’t make any proofs.  Rationalism’s goal is to satisfy our own minds that our beliefs are rational[55] but this is impossible to do without faith.  Proving this does not remove belief rather it requires it.[56]  More often than not, the issue with evidence is interpretation.[57]  To put it another way, trust and thought are impossible to separate.

            Physicalism carries the assumption that explaining the origin of the belief makes continued belief unjustified.  This assumes that if religion is true it must have no natural cause.[58]  Cognitive science really deals with function, how things work.[59]  Likewise disproving “parts” that aren’t even universal like Goblins/Ghosts wouldn’t disprove the whole of religion.

            Jones notes the existence of the assumption of a bottom up instinct in Physicalism.   Instincts and subconscious biological wiring is assumed to filter up into the conscious mind and action. People possess a conscious mind that acts on their instincts, making this demonstrably false and leading in Physicalism to chemical determinism. Jones finds on this basis that if it were true the mind doing the science could not be trusted.[60]  If this were true then the scientist is merely firing chemicals.

            Saler proposes a solution by defining worldview as set of propositions for the world.  He places a primary precept as “A”, that which is undeniable for the sustainability of a belief.  “B” is that which is not necessary.  For a theist A is God, for Atheists A would be there is no God.  B is God did this, the supernatural exists.  Theory can be neutral if it doesn’t address/ suppose an “A” claim.  So a neutral theory is possible.  IT must be noted that B is always founded on A, so in itself it may be neutral but it predicates itself on a founding belief meaning true neutrality is not possible for an observer.

            Jones notes the issue is one of framework.  Science and religion have different focuses on different experiences. Religion he claims is helpful in making sense of experiences beyond ourselves and giving us meaning, morality, answers and the sacredness of personhood.  There exists between science and religion a degree of compartmentalization as Stephen Jay Gould says “non-overlapping magisterial” division as each is totally separate in every way.[61]  Often, scientists of the physicalist persuasion go beyond scientific data in doing science.

            There is only conflict if a person is committed to an “epistemological zero sum game, in which there is only one single valid way to see the world.[62]  If religion and science perform the same functions answering the same questions then there will naturally be disagreement.  Likewise “science” is not neutral as it has arisen in its own culture and biological context so it functions not as an unbiased observer.

            I agree largely with Jones’ assessment of the serious issues of Physicalism’s assumptions.  He understands very thoroughly by experience and knowledge in the field the assumptions of his compatriots.  The assumptions of the Physicalist are unsubstantiated and unprovable as Jones suggests.  My main point of disagreement may be one more of definition or absence.  Jones is addressing fields of study it would appear.  As such his division between religion and science works.  Religious practice and divine revelation have different focuses and intentions than the field of natural science.

            He does not define religion as anything other than a practice.  This does make sense in light of the discussion being of study and evidential concerns.  However religion is far more than these things.  Religion must be defined as the fundamental framework for all of life, the belief and trusted system by which we do make sense of the world.  A person finds no meaning and makes no sense of themselves and the world around them without religion. For the Christian this means seeing the world as God ordered, a contribution that made science largely possible.  One cannot leave his religion at the door when he engages in science or one must ask whether he really believes it.

Physicalism appears as the natural ends of enlightenment philosophy.  Its base assumption is the logical positivist notion of knowledge.  Only what can be tested by passing through the material is real, anything else is nonsense.  By my given definition, this is why Physicalism functions as a religion all its own taking Darwinian method and applying it to all things.[63]  Religiously, Physicalists believe constant advancement of man from the primitive state to our current “enlightened” mindset.  This is accomplished by reason, reason does so through science and this is largely assumed the “neutral and factual” unbiased observer which Jones rightly rejects.  Theories are at best “suggestions of what has been observed, or suggested groupings of facts.”[64]

While Psychology itself is not an evil, the anti-religious bias was present early.  Freud insisted religion itself was an infantile regression from maturity.[65] Freud in speaking on religion noted an assumption that a feeling of insignificance in relation to the universe was typically religious said ““He who goes no further, he who humbly acquiesces in the insignificant part man plays in the universe, is on the contrary, irreligious in the truest sense of the word”.  Freud assumes that it is possible to be without religious belief, something that contemporary studies make hard if not impossible to stand by.

            Dawkins seems to understand that if the brain is wired by evolutionary development to have religion which is a lie he can’t trust evolution or his own mind.  If it was wired by God he can’t escape that God exists and must admit he is stifling a natural part of his biology.  If religion is a cruel trick of evolution he can’t trust anything.  Barbara Herrnstein Sith notes the new naturalism is “highly speculative, impoverished but not necessarily wrong”[66].  Frankly it is plainly wrong.

It is also worth noting this follows Hume's assumptions concerning miracles.  Those believing them are to be doubted on the basis of intelligence, sophistication, and are in other ways gullible.  Further he assumed that the sheer number of separate religions makes them cancel each other out.  Hume's view of the miraculous, and then religion as primitive contributes to the assumption it must be a remnant of a lesser and more primitive time in human evolution.

Men like Dawkins and the Physicalists quite plainly assume that explaining the mechanism explains away the mechanist.  This is assumed because they assume a God of the gaps. They’re assuming that religion derives from a primitive mind explaining what it can’t understand.  Here we can return to Paley’s watchmaker.  If a person finds a watch they assume a personage, more so explaining the watches mechanics doesn’t explain away a mechanist.

Rather it argues for him and it is far more reasonable to assume a mind behind the mechanism.  The universality of religion further demonstrates an innate mechanism wired by a mechanist. This more consistently fits into a religious framework where we can account for this as a function that drives us to God who created us.  Explaining why some people are more religious than others doesn’t explain away the truth of religion or a supernatural agent behind it.

  Christianity has long accounted for this as Paul declares in Romans 1.  Quite evidently, the Physicalist demonstrates the desire to “not keep God in their knowledge:  Science cannot explain away religion, but demonstrates the logical assumption in a God.  Rather than being an enemy of religion, science mounts evidence for God that is wholly illogical to reject or interpret otherwise.  Likewise the Judeo-Christian concept of God as lawgiver and of creation made modern science doable.[67]  Miracles were miracles because they demonstrated God acting upon the natural laws he established, much like a human moving a cup goes against what the laws of nature otherwise dictate.  Science actually lends itself to natural theology and with it the belief in God.  But as always, it is a matter of the heart of man.

Bibliography

Jones, James.  Can Science Explain Religion? The Cognitive science debate.  New York: Oxford University press, 2016.

Pruyser, Paul W.  A Dynamic Psychology of Religion.  New York: Harper and Row Publishers, 1968.

Oates, Wayne E.  The Psychology of Religion, Waco, Texas: Word Books, 1973.

Thouless, Robert H.  An Introduction to the psychology of Religion.  New York: The Macmillian Company, 1923.

Tayler, R.O.P. Does Science Leave Room for God?  Nashville, Tennessee: Cokesbury Press, 1933.

Hamer, Dean.  The God Gene.  New York:Doubleday, 2003.
            David Leech and Aku Visala, “The Cognitive Science of Religion: Implications for Theism?” Zygon. 46, no.1 (March 2011), 47-64.

Purvis, Joseph E. “Dealing with the brain in Social Science: Rethinking Cognitive Theory Approaches to Religion through the Work of Boyer, Whitehouse and Sorensen,”Religious Studies Review. 39, no. 2  (June 2013) 65-71.

Saler, Benson, “The Cognitive Sience of Religion.” Method and Theory in the Study of Religion 22 (2010), 330-339.

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[1] David Leech and Aku Visala, “The Cognitive science of religion”, Zygon, vol. 46, no.1 (March 2011),  47.

[2] Leech and Visala, “Cognitive Science,” 47.

[3]James Jones, Can science Explain Religion? The Cognitive science debate, (New York, NY:Oxford University press, 2016 ), 1.

[4] Leech and Visala “Cognitive Science,” 3.

[5] Jones, Can Science, 10.

[6] Leech and Visala “Cognitive Science,” 53.

[7] Leech and Visala “Cognitive Science,” 53.

[8] Leech and Visala “Cognitive Science”, 53.

[9] Leech and Visala “Cognitive Science”, 53.

[10]Jones, Can science, 12.

[11] Jones, Can Science, 14.

[12] Paul W.Pruyser, A dynamic Psychology of Religion (New York, NY:Harper and Row Publishers, 1968) 329.

[13]Pruyser, Dynamic Psychology, 331.

[14]Pruyser, Dynamic Psychology, 331.

[15]Benson, Saler, “The Cognitive Science of Religion” Method and Theory in the Study of Religion 22, (2010): 334.

[16] Benson, “The Cognitive Science”, 53.

[17] Wayne E. Oates, The Psychology of Religion, (Waco: Texas: Word Books, 1973) 60.

[18] Jones, Can science, 141.

[19] Jones, Can Science, 143.

[20] Jones, Can science, 24.

[21] Jones, Can Science, 25.

[22] Joseph E Purvis,” Dealing with the Brain in Social science: Rethinking Cognitive Theory Approaches to Religion through the Work of Boyer, Whitehouse, and Sorensen” Religious Studies Review 3, no 2. June 2014)  69

[23] Purvis “Dealing with the Brain,” 68.

[24] Purvis “Dealing with the Brain,” 68.

[25] Robert H. Thouless, An introduction to the Psychology of Religion (New York: The Macmillian Company, 1923) 161.

[26] Purvis “Dealing with the brain,” 68.

[27] Jones, Can Science, 27.

[28] Robert H. Thouless, An introduction, 141.

[29]Wayne E. Oates, The Psychology of Religion, 21.

[30] Jones, Can Science, 31.

[31] Purvis “Dealing with the Brian” 66.

[32] Purvis  “Dealing with the Brain” 66.

[33]Jones, Can Science, 29.

[34] Jones, Can Science, 31.

[35] Jones, Can Science, 40.

[36]Pruyser , Dynamics Psychology 224.

[37]Pruyser, Dynamics Psychology, 224.

[38]Pruyser, Dynamics Psychology, 227.

[39] Pruyser, Dynamic Psychology, 133.

[40] Purvis “Dealing with the Brain,” 66

[41] Pruyser, Dynamic psychology. 136.

[42] Purvis “Dealing with the Brain,” 69

[43]Dean Hamer, The God Gene (New York: Doubleday, 2004), 5

[44] Hamer, The God Gene, 5.

[45] Hamer, The God Gene, 73.

[46] Hamer, The God Gene, 74.

[47] Hamer, The God Gene, 135.

[48] Hamer, The God Gene, 146.

[49] Hamer, The God Gene, 146.

[50] Hamer, The God Gene, 146.

[51] Pruyser, Dynamic Psychology 287.

[52] Pruyser, Dynamic Psychology, 293.

[53] Hamer, The God Gene, 143.

[54] Jones, Can Science, 44.

[55] Thouless, Introduction, 83.

[56] Jones, Can Science, 45.

[57] Jones, Can Science,57.

[58] Jones, Can Science, 77.

[59] Jones, Can Science,84.

[60] Jones, Can Science, 36.

[61] Jones, Can Science, 185.

[62] Jones, Can science, 185.

[63] Jones, Can science, 116.

[64] R.O.P Taylor, Does Science Leave Room for God? (Nashville, Tennessee: Cokesbury Press (1933), 15.

[65] ,Oates, The Psychology of Religion, 47.

[66] Saler, “Theory and Criticism” 338.

[67] Taylor, Does science, 70.