REFUGEES, APOSTASY, AND AVERSION TO GOD

The atheist philosopher, Thomas Nagel, had argued that no one can be impartial about God:

• I am talking of...the fear of religion itself. I speak from experience, being strongly subject to this fear myself: I want atheism to be true...It isn't just that I don't believe in God and, naturally hope there is no God! I don't want there to be a God. I don't want the universe to be like that...I am curious whether there is anyone who is genuinely indifferent as to whether there is a God. (The Last Word, Oxford University Press, 1997, 130)

Nagel is unusual. Even though he has expressed a high regard for intelligent design, something for which he had incurred great disapproval, he still admits that he has an aversion to the idea of God. 

However, many others have confessed to such an aversion. Author of “The Brave New World,” Aldous Huxley, had also been very candid about his rejection of a higher meaning to life:

• I had motives for not wanting the world to have a meaning [and moral absolutes]; consequently assumed that it had none…We don’t know because we don’t want to know. It is our will that decides how and upon what subjects we shall use our intelligence. Those who detect no meaning in the world generally do so because, for one reason or another, it suits their books that the world should be meaningless. (Ends and Mean)

Nor are scientists immune to these commitments to a God-less world. Todd C. Scott admitted:

• Even if all the data point to an intelligent designer, such a hypothesis is excluded from science because it is not naturalistic [mindless and purpose-less].

Richard Lewontin also admitted the bias of present-day science:

• We take the side of science in spite of the patent absurdity of some of its constructs. . . in spite of the tolerance of the scientific community for unsubstantiated commitment to materialism. . . . we are forced by our a priori adherence to material causes to create an apparatus of investigation and set of concepts that produce material explanations, no matter how counterintuitive, no matter how mystifying to the uninitiated. Moreover, that materialism is absolute, for we cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door.

Why are they so adverse to God, even though they have everything, if not in this world, then in the next, to gain? As Huxley admitted, a belief in God doesn’t suit their commitments, lifestyle, or “their books.” Others have been less forthright about the prospect of being judged by a righteous God.

However, I think that there is even another reason – guilt and shame. Jesus taught that the Spirit convict the world of their sin:

·       “And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in me.” (John 16:8-9)

Especially for those of us who have become proud with our worldly attainments, conviction of sin and of our unworthiness is utterly intolerable. It tells us that we are nothing without the Savior and deserve only judgment. It cuts us down to size. Besides, this truth has been wired into us:

·       Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them. (Romans 1:32)

This is why we are so agitated by the existence of God. When we know that we are in sin, and we do, we love the company of others like us – escapism to the max!  This is why that even Christ’s people are a stench to them:

·       For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? (2 Corinthians 2:15-16)

I say this to warn you about the aversion of the world to us and to our faith. We will sense this aversion in the university, in the media, and even in our neighborhood.

Rejoice when you are treated well, but do not expect it. Jesus warned us of this aversion:

·       “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.” (John 15:18-20)

Jesus even warned that our “brethren” will turn against us:

·       And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. (Matthew 24:10-12)

We see this happening today. The New York Times, in an article entitled “Christian Leaders Denounce Trump’s Plan to Favor Christian Immigrants,” gave voice to the “Christian Leaders” who thought it illegitimate to favor Christian immigrants. Meanwhile, they fail to mention:

·       That, for years, we had been favoring Muslim immigrants, while deporting Christian immigrants.

·       That Muslims create massive problems and criminal abuses for non-Muslims.

·       Christian refugees are the most peaceful and the most hated.

·       That Christian refugees would be grateful for their new sanctuary, unlike Muslim refugees.

·       That our first responsibility is for our family and brethren: Galatians 6:10 “So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.”

We shouldn’t be surprised by such betrayal and hypocrisy. Jesus even promised us:

·       “I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away. They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God.” (John 16:1-2)

As horrific as these truths are, we must still repeat them to others.

“I Hope there is no God”

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is now lobbying an Oklahoma School District to remove a painting because it suggests that "real American children pray." Their attorney Andrew L. Seidel charges:

• "It is our information and understanding that in the Kenneth Cooper Middle School office hangs a religious poster with an image entitled, 'Faith in America' by Donald Zolan. The image features two children with their hands clasped in prayer, with an American Flag background. The meaning could not be more clear, real American children pray." 

So what? What’s the offense? Promoting religion in the schools? Everything that a school does promotes its underlying values, much of them secularistic and adverse to the Christian faith! The atheist can promote his values, but the Christian cannot promote theirs. Why then the double-standard?

In contrast to this hypocrisy, NYU philosopher and atheist, Thomas Nagel, writes very honestly about his inexplicable “fear of religion”:

• I want atheism to be true… I hope there is no God… I don’t want the universe to be like that.

Why not? He didn’t explain. Perhaps he is perplexed about his own deep-seated aversion. However, his perplexity mirrors that of others. One friend just confessed, “I wish I could believe like you.”

I jumped on what seemed to be a green light: “Well, let’s talk about it.” However, they never want to talk. Instead, they claim, “I just can’t believe.”

I see another green light and respond, “Your inability is no problem at all for God!” At this, they shift to another subject. It seems that they too are afflicted with Nagel’s “fear of religion.”

But where does this fear come from? A cousin related how she had experienced an incredible miracle. As a result, she instantaneously knew that God loved her. However, her joy was quickly replaced by an inexplicable fear. Why?

Frank Sinatra sang about the appeal of being a captain of his own ship. We want to be in charge. However, if there is a God, especially one who loves us, we fear that we can no longer be the captain and that the helm belongs to Another. Are we willing to make this sacrifice? No! It’s our ship, and we are intent on planning its itinerary. And the Claimant?

The Freedom From Religion Foundation conveniently denies that there is such a claimant and wants remove any sign of him, even a religious poster of children praying.

Cognition and Thomas Nagel

Can thought and cognition be reduced to a matter of mere chemical-electrical materials? NYU Professor of Philosophy and atheist, Thomas Nagel, reasons that there must be more to thought than just the materials:

·        It is not merely the subjectivity of thought [the experience of thought] but its capacity to transcend subjectivity and to discover what is objectively the case that presents a problem. Thought and reasoning are correct or incorrect in virtue of something independent of the thinker’s beliefs, and even independent of the community of thinkers to which he belongs…There are norms [laws] of thought which, if we follow them, will tend to lead us toward the correct answers to those questions…Mathematics, science, and ethics are built on such norms. It is difficult to make sense of all this in traditional naturalistic terms. (Mind and Cosmos, 72)

It is one thing to accurately perceive the world; it’s another to put the data together into a reasonable, logical, useable and comprehensive package. Somehow, our minds must be amenable to the world around us and they both must be amenable to a set of common logical laws that can enable us to convert the external, material world into accurate ideas about it.

Our minds are more than mirrors or cameras that provide exact reflections of our slice of reality. They are synthesizers. However, in order to function in this way, there must be an “operating system” or set of transcendent rules in place that instructs our mental circuitry about how to organize the data. Besides, the real world data has to also be conformable to these rules.

Without this set of rules, we are no more than firing circuitry leading nowhere. Instead, this glorious package we call “mind” gives every appearance of a grand and intelligent design – the kind alluded to in the Bible:

·        Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:26-27)

Thomas Nagel: The Hated Atheist who Broke Rank

NYU Professor of Philosophy and avowed atheist, Thomas Nagel, is 75 years of age and has taught for the past 50 years. Perhaps this helps to explain his courage in bucking the evolution establishment:

• For a long time I have found the materialist account [that the world consists of nothing more than molecules in motion] of how we and our fellow organisms came to exist hard to believe, including the standard version of how evolutionary process works. The more details we learn about the chemical basis of life and the intricacy of the genetic code, the more unbelievable the standard historical account becomes…The current orthodoxy about the cosmic order is the product of governing assumptions that are unsupported, and that it flies in the face of common sense. (Mind and Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature is Almost Certainly False, 5)

Indeed, common sense would argue against the notion that the universe and all of its incredible design features sprang forth uncaused out of nothing. We just don’t see those kinds of things happening today. Besides, uncaused and unexplainable phenomena represent a denial of the scientific enterprise, which understandably assumes that understanding is possible.

This book is clearly a threat to “the current orthodoxy.” Harvard psychologist and Darwinian Steven Pinker dismissed the book as “the shoddy reasoning of a once-great thinker.” Pinker’s assumption is that if you violate this orthodoxy or even call it into question, then you call into question your own rationality. The Guardian named Mind and Cosmos the “most despised science book of 2012.”

Nagel regards materialism as reductionistic – it reduces reality and causation, without the support of science or reason, to no more than energy and matter. However, he doubly makes himself a pariah by also challenging the theory of evolution:

• The process of natural selection cannot account for the actual history [of species] without an adequate supply of viable mutations, and I believe it remains an open question whether this could have been provided in geological time merely as a result of chemical accident, without the operation of some other factors determining and restricting the forms of genetic variation…With regard to the origin of life, the problem is much harder, since the options of natural selection as an explanation is not available. And the coming into existence of the genetic code – an arbitrary mapping of nucleotide sequences into amino acids, together with mechanisms that can read the code and carry out its instructions – seems particularly resistant to being revealed as probable given physical law alone. (9-10)

However, what Nagel says about intelligent design (ID) theorists – the enemy - represents the unpardonable sin in the eyes of the evolutionist:

• They [IDers] do not deserve the scorn with which they are commonly met. It is manifestly unfair. (10)

Nevertheless, Nagel reluctantly rejects ID. I write “reluctantly” because the basis of his rejection is insubstantial and not on par with his rejection of evolution:

• I confess to an ungrounded assumption of my own, in not finding it possible to regard the design alternative as a real option. I lack the sensus divinitatis that enables – indeed compels – so many people to see in the world the expression of divine purpose… (12)

Nagel’s queer hesitation about ID seems to coincide with Jesus’ words:

• "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.” (John 6:44)

Reason alone will not bring us to the Father. Salvation requires supernatural intervention. We must be born from above. Let’s pray for Nagel!