Finding Truth: Test the Idol—Does It Contradict What We Know of the World?
Principle #3: Test the idol—Does it contradict what we know about the world?
The purpose of worldview is to explain what we know of the world. If that worldview contradicts what we know of reality, we need to discard it. A worldview is like a map of reality. Idols deify a part of creation. Hence, their maps only work for part of reality. But we humans keep walking off their part of the map. Materialism says that human behavior and choice can be explained completely by the chemical processes in our brains. So your chemicals force you to think and react a certain way. In other words, you don’t have free will. What stands out of the materialist box? Free will!
The undeniable fact is that humans do make choices. The testimony of all known cultures throughout all recorded history is that we do have free will. So a materialist dismisses it by saying free will is an illusion fobbed on us by our brains, according to Michael Ruse, a philosopher of science at Florida State University. Forget that there is no way to prove this. But, in reality, no one can help acting like we do have free will. Even materialists acknowledge this, they just dismiss it. They throw it into the upper story of their house that deals with things they cannot or do not want to explain. This is nothing more than a secular leap of faith.
Former University of Oxford (England) evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins believes that people shouldn’t be held responsible for their actions because they’re just doing what their brain chemicals are telling them to do. But he doesn’t practice what he preaches. He does hold people accountable. When pressed on this, he said, “…it is an inconsistency that we sort of have to live with, otherwise life would be intolerable.” University of British Columbia (Canada) professor of philosophy and psychology Edward Slingerman believes that Darwinian evolution leads to materialism, which leads him to believe that humans are just advanced robots. But speaking of his own daughter, he says, “…the idea of my daughter as merely a complex robot carrying my genes into the next generation is both bizarre and repugnant to me.” He says if you do not feel this way, something is wrong with you. So he’s wanting us to adopt his materialist view of all life when he admits it is bizarre and repugnant. WOW!
The late Harvard professor of cognitive science Marvin Minsky says, “No matter that the physical world provides no room for free will; that concept is essential to our models of the mental (health) realm…(we cannot) ever give it up. We’re virtually forced to maintain that belief, even though we know it’s false.”
In other words, materialists live with a fragmented view of life. Instead of giving up their worldview because it doesn’t match reality, they live a hypocritical life, a mental schizophrenia. But the bible doesn’t define faith as a leap to something that isn’t logical or rational or without facts. Hebrews 11:1 says it is a conviction of things not seen. To get a conviction, you need some facts. True biblical faith is not blind faith.
How do post-moderns (PM’s) resolve this dilemma? They don’t! People are relativistic when it comes to religion and morals but not when it comes to science and engineering. They too live fragmented lives. They don’t want you to force your religion or morals on them but they’re more than willing to force theirs on you., all in the name of not discriminating against a certain group of people.
You would think that when people realize their worldview is inconsistent, they would look for a more consistent one…but you’d be wrong. So they either dismiss or suppress the evidence. An effective method of apologetics is to gently get people to see the logical direction that their belief takes them in. When people begin to feel the full force of their views, it can be unsettling. We should be broken-hearted over the dehumanizing reductionisms that dishonor our fellow people.
For His Kingdom,
Dave Maynard
http://BSSSB-LLC.com