Big Picture Answers for America's Big Problems -
Rebuilding on America's Original Worldview
by Leonard Ransil
Section 2: Christianity vs. Rival Worldviews
It is hard to conceive of two more contradictory positions with such drastic differences in ultimate consequences. It is important to remember that everyone, without exception, walks by faith in a set of assumptions - a worldview. But, a favorite canard of Materialists is to insist that their position is right because they base all of their conclusions on repeatable, provable scientific observations and incontrovertible facts rather than on assumptions.*
In contrast, they say, it is only the religious who believe in the existence of the scientifically unprovable, non-material realm of the supernatural and who stand merely on faith-based assumptions and superstitions rather than on fact. They insist that the only rational thing to do is to discard all beliefs in anything supernatural. Now, while this conclusion sounds so logical that it has enabled Secularists to hijack our public school system, it is, in fact, illogical and even irrational. This accusation requires an explanation.
Logic Reveals Absurdity
To be absolutely, scientifically certain that mushrooms grow nowhere else but on planet Earth, one would first have to know everything about the entire physical universe.
However, no scientist knows all there is to know about the earth, let alone in the entire physical universe. Therefore, if a scientist would insist that there are no mushrooms elsewhere in the universe, his statement would be blatantly illogical and irrational because he has violated the law of the universal negative. (Dr. D. James Kennedy provides further definition of this term.) Similarly, the only way an atheist can be absolutely certain of his belief that no Creator-God exists is if he has infinite knowledge about all existence everywhere. But then, of course, if he did have such knowledge, he would be contradicting himself (a fitting oxymoron for an atheist) because he would be God, the omniscient One. Thankfully, the Bible says that God does exist and that He rewards those who believe He exists and then diligently seek Him (Hebrews 11:6). While the atheist has the prerogative to reject this comforting thought, he can’t legitimately use logic to prove his anti-God belief. It is based on a set of assumptions; faith.
The above scenario exposes the assumption that science is the only measure of what is real. That assumption is the foundation on which atheists build their house of cards. But as already demonstrated, that very assumption is a faith statement that cannot be proven scientifically. By limiting his scope of investigation to the experiential realm of the five senses, a scientist cannot prove that nothing exists beyond his five senses. This is one reason why the Bible has less than flattering words when it refers to an atheist: “A fool says in his heart ‘There is no God.’” (Psalm 14:1.) The God of the Bible is eminently logical and rational once you understand His Big Picture thinking, Total Truth, through receiving and exercising the gift of faith that He does exist.
Materialism Believes Man is God
As already shown, an atheistic scientist, operating as a scientist, can only believe by faith that no Creator God exists. By definition, the supernatural realm in general and theology in particular are beyond his professional scope and, therefore, expertise. And, given this obvious limitation, he has no moral authority in the capacity of a scientist to even speculate, let alone make definitive pronouncements, that evolution must be true because there is no God. Simply put, science can’t prove or disprove metaphysics and it is irrational to use it to attempt it. Therefore, Materialism/Naturalism/Atheism/Secularism/Marxism (all virtually of the same anti-God mold) is a worldview based on faith, not science. It is a naturalistic religion that rejects God’s existence and exalts man as God.
Evolution Supports Materialism
But if this worldview is obviously illogical and irrational because it denies God’s existence, how and why does it have such a foothold in America which was originally founded on Biblical rather than on secular principles? The acceptance of this logically untenable worldview is the result of many scientists incessantly insisting that the doctrine of Evolution is a proven fact. Atheists enthusiastically embraced Darwin’s suggestion that man evolved from a rock (the logical starting point after the earth cooled down after its assumed Big Bang beginning) because it denied the need for a God to create the Universe. At last, science apparently justified their worldview. Materialism could firmly and confidently rest on the fulcrum of the doctrine of Evolution.
From that perspective, it is easy to see why Darwin’s 1859 book, The Origin of Species, became the bible of atheism. It ostensibly legitimized Materialism, scientifically and, therefore, irrefutably. The ground Materialism had lost to the logic of the universal negative was seemingly regained through its savior’s break-through discovery, the doctrine of Evolution by Natural Selection. In fact, the faith in Evolution as an established fact has become so strong in the world of professional scientists that its evangelizers have converted the majority of America’s schools into seminaries promoting Secular Humanism. The first two tenants of the Humanist Manifesto II, published in 1973, state:
(1) "Religious humanists regard the universe as self-existing and not created.
(2) "Humanism believes that Man is a part of nature and has emerged as a result of a continuous process.”
Lest there be any doubt, Secular Humanists believe that Evolution is the “continuous process” that caused all that exists. Again, they cannot possibly know that for certain because they do not know all there is to know about all existence. They are not omniscient, not even as a group.
For the atheistic Secular Humanist, the supposed undeniable scientific basis of Evolution trumps the Bible’s explanation of man’s origins and, therefore, discredits not only God’s existence but all else the Bible reveals and declares. If you doubt the religious evangelistic fervor that propels the faith of Secularism Humanists, consider this quote:
“I am convinced that the battle for humankind’s future must be waged and won in the public school classroom by teachers who correctly perceive their role as the proselytizers of a new faith: a religion of humanity that recognizes and respects the spark of what theologians call divinity in every human being. These teachers must embody the same selfless dedication as the most rabid fundamentalist preachers, for they will be ministers of another sort, utilizing a classroom instead of a pulpit to convey humanist values in whatever subject they teach, regardless of the educational level -- preschool, day care or state university. The classroom must and will become an arena of conflict between the old and the new -- the rotting corpse of Christianity, together with all it adjacent evils and misery, and the new faith of humanism.... It will undoubtedly be a long, arduous painful struggle replete with much sorrow and many tears, but humanism will emerge triumphant. It must if the family of mankind is to survive.”1 (emphasis added)
Morality be Damned
But must Humanists conduct this struggle honestly? Of course not. Since atheists assume there is no God, there is ultimately no one but themselves to answer to. Therefore, they are free to use any means possible, including what Christianity would label slander, deceit, misrepresentation, falsification, etc., to advance their “faith” because their relativistic morality insists that the “end justifies the means". Since they “know” from the doctrine of Evolution that their humanist religion is the “true faith", and that their cause to “save mankind from Christianity” is just, anything goes. Christianity’s emphasis on objective truth, ethics or moral absolutes is ridiculed as obsolete. This revolutionary new faith in evolving Man is heralded as superior to all other worldviews and must be advanced at any cost for the sake of mankind achieving unbounded freedom. No wonder, then, that secularists hold on to their belief in the doctrine of Evolution so tenaciously and that the debate has flared into a vicious culture war.
Cataclysmic Results
Be assured, this war between two worldviews is not just an academic exercise. Ideas have consequences. Opponents to this "new faith" are quick to point out that because this worldview is unhinged from a Creator, all moral absolutes and virtues such as honesty, integrity, selfless love, human worth and dignity are being replaced with ever changing “values". Consequently, belief in Materialism and all its nefarious derivatives inevitably degenerates into societal anarchy in a misguided quest for freedom from all restraint - as history attests. Look no further than the devastating effects of Nazism, Fascism and Communism. All of this untold human suffering and death and needless economic chaos is the direct result of a fanatical faith in the doctrine of Evolution.
So the key question becomes: Is this pivotal doctrine based on provable objective science or on faith and speculation? Is Evolution a scientific fact or science fiction? Clearly, the issue of man’s origins and, therefore, his purpose and future, is a crucial question for everyone. If everything evolved from nothing, Christianity (and all other God-based worldviews) is a lie and should be discarded. Man is just a meaningless, purposeless accident who ceases at death. But if evolution is a lie, then it should be exposed by every scientist and every school teacher in America. And with that irrational smokescreen removed, Christianity would again be the logical choice on which to rest one’s future.
Investigating the competing claims of Evolution vs. Biblical and Scientific Creationism will be the focus of the next chapter. While space limitations will prohibit exhausting this vast topic, some principles, guidelines, quotes and links will help you investigate the key issues in this fascinating debate. Are you any closer to deciding which worldview is safer? More help is on the way!
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*Professor D.M.S. Watson, one of the leading biologists and science writers of his day, demonstrated the atheistic bias behind much evolutionary thinking when he wrote:
"Evolution [is] a theory universally accepted not because it can be proven by logically coherent evidence to be true, but because the only alternative, special creation, is clearly incredible."2
So it's not a question of biased religious creationists versus objective scientific evolutionists; rather, it is the biases of the Christian religion versus the biases of the religion of Secular Humanism which result in different interpretations of the same scientific data. As the anti-creationist science writer Boyce Rensberger admits:
"At this point, it is necessary to reveal a little inside information about how scientists work, something the textbooks don't usually tell you. The fact is that scientists are not really as objective and dispassionate in their work as they would like you to think. Most scientists first get their ideas about how the world works not through rigorously logical processes but through hunches and wild guesses. As individuals, they often come to believe something to be true long before they assemble the hard evidence that will convince somebody else that it is. Motivated by faith in his own ideas and a desire for acceptance by his peers, a scientist will labor for years knowing in his heart that his theory is correct but devising experiment after experiment whose results he hopes will support his position."3 (emphasis added)
"It's not really a question of who is biased, but which bias is the correct bias with which to be biased!"4 Enough said!
1 "J. Dunphy, “A Religion for a New Age,” The Humanist, Jan.-Feb. 1983, 23,26, cited by Jonathan Sarfati, Ph.D., Refuting Evolution, (Green Forest, AZ: Master Books), 20-21.
2 "D.M.S. Watson, "Adaptation," Nature. 124:233, 1929.
3 Boyce Rensberger, How the World Works, (NY: William Morrow 1986), 17-18.
4 Safarti, Refuting Evolution, 16-17.