Too many Christians allow low-simmering doubt into their minds because the dominant Western secular cultural narrative assumes materialism at every point, that is that the material, matter, is all that exists. And, if materialism is true, Christianity is not. In the secular West, we are programmed to be materialists. From our earliest memories media, entertainment, and education are indoctrinating us into a materialist view of reality, as if it were the true nature of reality. It is not, and scientific knowledge is making it more untenable every day. Unfortunately the average Christian in the pew every Sunday doesn’t know this, and doubt easily creeps in: maybe, they think, this Christianity thing is a bunch of hooey. It also is not.
If I were to be polemical, and less than sensitive as I can easily be, I would state plainly: Materialism is a joke! Both in the sense that the joke is on us, and also in the sense that it is completely absurd. But the joke had some plausibility in Western history since Aristotle postulated that the universe is eternal (he could know no better), and then thinkers in the Enlightenment (1600-1800) increasingly bought into the idea that the universe is a closed system of “natural” causes. Sir Isaac Newton‘s system of physics was based on this assumption. IMPORTANT POINT: It can’t be proved that the universe is a closed system (no intervening God) of material cause and effect. It had to be assumed for Newton’s physics to work. You won’t hear that in any high school or college physics class.
Fortunately there are organizations that are fighting back against this dominant materialist narrative, and one of those doing yeoman’s is the Discovery Institute. They recently developed a series of videos called Science Uprising that creatively educates open minded people about the poverty of the materialist view of reality. John Stonestreet and Shane Morris at Breakpoint explain why the series is so important:
This series is a must watch for students, especially, but really for anyone ready to unmask the worldview currently masquerading as “settled” science.
That worldview is materialism, and Christians need to realize just how weak it is as an explanation for reality. Christians are not the ones who should feel insecure about our worldview, that the material, that matter is not all that there is. In fact, ever since Einstein’s theory of general relativity undermined the concept of a simple universe of cause and effect, and the discovery of the Big Bang pointed to the universe having a beginning, Christians have been on “the right side” of scientific history. Science far from undermining the plausibility of Christianity, increasingly reveals a universe that supports a Christian view of reality. We can stand confidently with the Apostle Paul when he declares:
20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
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