An Unreasonable Church with a Reasonable Faith

We exist today in a globalized, secular western culture ruled by political correctness and tolerance. It is constantly being changed by the newest trends and ideas. Moreover, these trends and ideas are often propogated by the best and the brightest our culture has to offer. Rarely do these ideas subscribe to the Christian worldview. As Christians, how do we react to these trends and ideas? More importantly, how must we NOT react?

For the last several hundred years, our western culture has existed in what has been known philosophically as the modern era, or the age of enlightenment. Officially starting sometime in the seventeenth century, modernism is the cornerstone of all western thought and technological advancement. Modernism can be stated very simply in that there is an objective reality "out there" that we humans can learn about by observation and thought. Reality is in no way related to what one believes to be true, but only to what is actually true. This is the foundation of all modern thought and logic.

It is interesting to note that the majority of the men that ushered in and solidified the modernist way of thinking were Theists, and some of them Christians. Copernicus, Kepler, Newton and Boyle were just a few of the Christian minds that were there at the outset. But why were there so many Christians so deeply involved in what has sometimes been called the "scientific revolution"? Did their personal beliefs have anything to do with their desire and reason to investigate the world around them? My proposition is that they absolutely did. In order to first seek objectivity and truth in the world around them, one would have to adopt certain basic presuppostions in their worldview. They would have had to admit that the world and the matter in it is a good thing to know about. In essence, that knowledge of the thing would be a good thing to have. They would also need to admit that the universe is by nature orderly and rational, allowing oberservations to be made that will be consistent time after time. Also, they would need to adhere to logic and its transcendant nature. In other words, they would have seen that some problems can be dealt with solely within the mind with clear logic and reasoning without having to carry out physical observations and experimentation. Finally, they would have thought that humans themselves are capable in their senses to see this order within the universe and to investigate it physically and logically.

All of these aforementioned presuppositions are present in the Christian worldview. A God of infinite order and consistency created a universe that is orderly and good. It is worth knowing and is able to be studied by man, whom God created in his image with the capacity to study and learn from His creation. In a very real sense, the scientific revolution was a product of the Christian worldview, or at least aspects of it. And for many years the Christian Church was at the forefront of scientific discovery.

Then somewhere along the line, things started to go south. Perhaps the most famous example is that of Galileo. Through his work in studying the galaxy, he had come to the conclusion that the Earth was most likely not at the center of the universe. Even though we now know his results to be verifiably true, the leaders of the Catholic Church at the time held to the false egocentric view that the Earth was at the center of the universe, and all celestial bodies revolved around us. The Church subsequently put Galileo under house arrest for his views until he died.

There are many issues that have led to similar tensions between the Christian Church and the scientific community. Some have occured, as was the case with Galileo, as a result of false or exagerrated interpretations of Biblical teachings. Others have been propogated by bad science with baseless assumptions. Either way, the rift between the scientific community and the Christian faith is ever present to this day.

Today, the majority of world leaders are very intelligent individuals. Those that form our cultural makeup and thought are academics and intellects with a vast capacity for reason and thought. And most of them are not Christians. Christianity has largely been rejected as a religious placebo that is useful in calming that masses in times of trouble and keeping order in daily life. In fact, humanism, atheism, secularism and doctrinal tolerance are the worldviews held by those in power and places of influence. It is widely thought that in order to believe in Christianity, one must check their brain at the door. Why is this the case? Where have the Keplers and Newtons gone? Where has the Church which cultivated and motivated these great minds run off too? And why aren't we the Church answering these objections raised by the academic community?

I want to propose two such reasons. I am convinced there are more than just two reasons, but nevertheless, for the time being I will discuss only these two. The first has to do with the lack of clear thinking within the Church (indeed, in all of contemporary society). By clear thinking, I am referring to a proficient and understood use of reason and logic. The Bible commands us to "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind" - Luke 10:27. This is the "Great Commandment" in scripture. Most of the local churches I have been to have done a marvelous job with loving God with their heart, soul and strength, but they have been lack-luster at using their minds in a similar capacity.

You may have heard a church going man or woman utter a phrase such as "It wouldn't be called faith if you could explain it." This statement is in direct contradiction to sctripture when it commands us to "be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have" (1 Peter 3:15) or to "demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God" (2 Cor 10:5). In order to demolish an argument that sets itself up against God, one must first have a better and more logically sound argument. But instead we as the Church have propogated misrepresentations scripture that have justified our ignorance of reason within the body of Christ. I have heard it taught from scripture over and over again that we are not to rely on our own logic because the Bible teaches us to "Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding" (Proverbs 3:5). Not leaning on "our own understanding" could potentially mean many things, but it absolutely can not mean that we can't rely on or trust our own logical capabilities. Why not? Well, the question "why" itself is answer enough. How are we to respond to such to the question "why can't we rely on our own logic?" without using our own logic? It is a logical contradiction even to say that our logic doesn't hold, for if it is true, we can't logically come to the conclusion that our logic doesn't hold. Any argument against logic necessarily fails. Such teachings in the church are void of any real clear thought.

The second reason the Church is falling out of influence in the intellectual community compliments the first. Since the Church on the whole is thinking less clearly and putting even less emphasis on the intellectual cultivation of its members, most people who are coming to faith in Christ are doing so in an intellectual vacuum. This means that the vast majority of people who are accepting Christ in our culture are doing so not out of conviction that it is the truth, but out of a deep emotional need. A friend or loved one has died, there has been a disaster, a relationship has ended and they are looking for meaning and purpose in life. It is absolutely true that Christ offers us just that. But if there is a Church that is built of people who are not thinkers, but only the emotionally needy, then why should be we surprised if the rest of the thinking world looks at Christianity as nothing more than an emotional crutch? One of the most popular Christian books that is handed out on university campuses across the US says this:

"For me, the beginning of sharing my faith with people began by throwing out Christianity and embracing Christian spirituality, a nonpolitical mysterious system that can e experienced but not explained. Christianity, unlike Christian spirituality, was not a term that excited me. And I could not in good conscious tell a friend about a faith that didn't excite me... It felt like math."

If your child did not know two plus two was four, would you tell them? I would hope so. Would the fact that two and two put together make four in any way excite you? Hopefully not too much. The point is Christianity is not true because it excites anybody. It's certainly not true because it is some sort of experience. People suffer delusions every day that give them experiences, but those delusions certainly are not real. That's why they're called delusions. I propose that Christianity is true because it is an all encompassing, logically consistent worldview that is absolutely capable and standing up to any and all academic and intellectual arguments levied against it.

Finally, I would like to add that even though I believe the Church needs to return to a place of intellectual vitality, there is much more to the Christian faith than reason alone. It is far more than some cold set of laws and presuppositions. You will never argue another human being into the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus said "I am the way, the truth and the life." All things that are true lie in God, and only in God. Therefore, when He said "seek and you shall find", if we seek the truth objectively, we will find God. But many seek to find their version of the truth and choose to reject those things that are made absolutely clear to them by God's own creation. The biggest player in all of this is not us, or our thinking or our logic, but God and his loving and infinite grace bestowed upon a fallen world.