Francis A. Schaeffer and Senator Obama

Years ago, Francis A. Schaeffer argued that "modern men" (as he put it then) had fallen into a "divided field of knowledge." Having given up on reason to deliver meaning, they instead put meaning into an "upper story" immune from argument, proof, or disproof:

Upper story: meaning, universals, faith, values, religion
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Lower story: reason, evidence, history, facts, science

(For the development of this thesis, see Escape from Reason [1968] and The God Who is There [1968]. Nancy Pearcey has further applied these ideas wonderfully in Total Truth [2004].)

Many considering the presidential election are held captive by a similar dichotomy:

Upper story: "hope," Obama as savior figure
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Lower story: Obama's actual policies, track record, (in)experience

There is no good reason, no evidence from his life, beliefs, associations (think: Jeremiah Wright, NARAL endorsement) or voting record, that Obama can deliver hope (based on a coherent policy or presidential resume) at home or abroad. All he presents is an "upper story" mysticism sans logic, reason, or evidence.

America, wake up! Romantic and irrational idealism is not the stuff of American politics in a post-9/11 world. Don't take a leap of political faith. Think through all the issues rationally. Pursue political knowledge.

Nihilism

An argument:

1. Nothing has any objective value.
2. Therefore (a) (1) has no objective value
3. Therfore, (b) (1) should not be believed
4. Therefore, (c) (1) should not be acted on, acted out.
5. Therefore (d), nihilism is irrelevant. If it is true, it cannot be known to be true; neither can it be lived out consistenly.

Neuro-theology: A Category Mistake

[A fragment from my upcoming book.]

In recent year, a host of brain researchers have been exploring and conjecturing on the biological basis for religious beliefs. The basic thesis of many of these opinions is that beliefs in God or the sacred can be explained on the basis of certain functions in the brain. That is, neuroscience gives the answer to why we have religious beliefs—it has nothing to do with any objectively real state of affairs that we perceive or discern in some sense.

Most of these views presuppose materialism. The reasons is this: Since we know that there is no God and no sacred realms (since all is material), we need to explain (and explain away) why so many have religious experiences. Of course, if this assumption is wrong, then there is no need to engage in such reductionism. I can be argued on the basis of natural theology that there is good reason to believe in a creator, designer God who is the source of the moral law. (See my book, In Defense of Natural Theology, for starters.) If so, the materialist assumption is unfounded. But it is no threat to religious belief if certain brain states correlate with certain religious beliefs or experiences. We are material as well as spiritual beings. The mind interacts with the body, as Scripture teaches and our experience confirms. The threat appears when this correlation is taken to be a reduction of the spiritual to the material. But philosophically it is impossible to translate first-person experiences (whether of carrots of or God) into third person, physical accounts, no matter how sophisticated these accounts are. These qualia (subjective experiences) are a different category of being than quantitative reports of what is going on in the brain (objective reports of states of affairs).

But there is another problem for this reductive view: it serves as a boomerang on itself. If all mental states and experiences reduce to physical states in the brain (and are so explained away as unreal), the belief that “There is no God” is also reducible to physical states in the brain (and can be explained away as unreal). Therefore, it’s all in the mind here, too, then. But if so, then all thought and reasoning is discredited by materialism (an idea we address elsewhere). It speaks volumes to note that while millions of grant money goes to explaining the neurological basis of religion, nothing goes to explain the neurological basis of atheism.

Therefore, despite all the advances in the knowledge of the neurological workings of the brain and its relation to religious beliefs and experiences, these in no way refute the truth of these beliefs. That project is the work of philosophy. Here, as in so many other areas, science is an unaccredited usurper of intellectual authority.

Victory (so far)

Colorado for Human Rights delivered the needed number of signatures on May 12 to insure (once sufficient signatures are ratified) that their ballot measure protecting all human life is part of the upcoming election in November. I collected about thirty signatures. If you are pro-life, please consider supporting this cause in one way or another. The pro-choice side will likely spend millions to preserve their culture of death.

Insane and Evil at the Goodson Rec Center

Coming out of the men's dressing room, I sat down and was looking through The New Yorker. Then I gazed at some art work on the walls. Sadly, a huge TV was on. Before I knew it, the area was full of the sounds and sights of a rape-murder scene. It was in a public area. I was shocked by the visceral evil of the scene even as I fled the area as soon as I could, disgusted, shaken--wanting to rid my consciousness of what I just heard.

This culture has lost its sensitivity, its sense of saying "No" and leaving some things alone. There is no more childhood, as Neil Postman said. Everything is out in the open. There is no reticence, no restraint. This TV scene was from a major network and played on a public screen.

Being removed from TV culture, this kind of thing stuns me. And to think of the millions who see it every day and thing nothing of it... As Isaiah said long ago, This people has forgotten how to blush.

Think

A philosopher's work is never done.

Brian McLaren...Again

Brian McLaren is interviewed in USA Today. One should notice that he does not challenge the idea that he has given up "absolute truth." Are these absolute truths, Mr. McLaren?

1. There are no absolute truths.
2. Torturing the innocent merely for pleasure is always wrong.
3. There is one Mediator between God and humans: Christ Jesus (1 Timothy 2:5).
4. One should always love God and one's neighbor (Matthew 22:37-39).
5. There is One God (Deuteronomy 6:4).

McLaren also dodges the question as to whether he is "liberal." If we use the classic theological terms for the rejection of biblical authority as true and knowable, he is most definitely a liberal. Without the basis of biblical authority (which is not modernist, but premodern and, in fact, perennial), anything can happen morally and theologically, which is exactly what we find with McLaren.

1. People can be redeemed through nonChristian religions.
2. He refuses to deem homosexual conduct as unbiblical and unhealthy.
3. He downplays the significance of personal salvation.

One of the symptoms of a diseased movement is that incompetents get promoted as experts and visionaries. These are hard words, but true, nonetheless. I reviewed McLaren's A New Kind of Christian some years ago in The Christian Research Journal. See also Jeremy Green's review of A Generous Orthodoxy in Denver Journal.

For book length critiques of "the emerging church," see D.A. Carson, Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church and R. Scott Smith, Truth and a New Kind of Christian.

Time Has Come Today

Some of you know that I have been working on an apologetics textbook, What Matters Most, for years. I started it in 2003. Thus far, it is huge (perhaps 500 pages of typed text, double-spaced; maybe 20 chapters), but it still needs revising and new writing. Thus, I have received the word from my agent/editor that since the school term has almost ended, we need to focus on finishing this monster. This means that The Constructive Curmudgeon needs to go into virtual hibernation for several months. What does this look like?

1. No wrangling with critics.
2. No new essay posts to speak of.
3. Posts limited to links and brief thoughts.

At least, this is my goal, since I need to turn from the more ephemeral (but fast) to the more permanent (but slow). It is in a word a matter of discipline.

Blog Psychology (updated)

After nearly three years of blogging, I offer an idiosyncratic, unscientific, but possibly realistic account of the different types of personalities engaged in posting on the blogsophere. People may fit more than one category or move back and forth between them. I name no names.

1. Emotivists: Those who cheer or jeer or thank you, but do little else.

2. One trick ponies: Those who post the same chops repeatedly, hoping that repetition makes for argument (or something).

3. Thinkers: Those who engage posts thoughtfully with a desire for knowledge.

4. Stinkers: Those who take on false names, offer gratuitous insults--my favorite, "You have a mail order degree"--and, when banned, do the same thing on another blog that I like.

5. Butterflies: Those who flit about, landing briefly, writing little beyond impressions.

6. Diverters: "those who intentionally steer the blog postings into areas never intended by the original blogpost." (Thanks to Doug White, who warn me to got be diverted by such.)

7. Lurkers: Those who read, but do not post. They sometimes email me instead.

"These are a few of my favorite things..."

Since curmudgeons are sometimes accused of being only negative and grouchy, here is a list of a few of my favorite things (in no particular order).

1. The sound and sight of my wife's laughter.
2. Students who know how to write footnotes properly.
3. Warm days with no wind, which are perfect for biking 20-30 miles.
4. John Coltrane's saxophone playing.
5. Italian food.
6. Ethiopian food.
7. Sermons that sizzle with intelligence and biblical content.
8. Weekly communion at my Anglican church.
9. Gift cards.
10. Answered prayer.
11. Seeing my students grow in knowledge and wisdom.
12. Speaking Christian ideas into places where they are not normally found, such as editorials in newspapers, lectures on college campuses, and so on.
13. Old LPs in perfect shape for a few dollars.
14. Large, blank book marks.
15. Big book royalty checks (these days are long over).
16. Students who say Thank You.
17. Finishing a good book.
18. Intelligent comments on my blog.
19. (Most of) The Westminister Confession of Faith.
20 Good questions.

Fantastic Deal on Excellent ID DVDs

Access Research Network is offering a 50% discount on the three best DVD's giving the scientific case for Intelligent Design. I have seen all of these several times and endorse them highly. The empirical case is made effectively through the video format and the production values are very high. These are the DVDs.

1. Unlocking The Mystery of Life
2. The Privileged Planet
3. The Case for a Creator

These films give "the beef" for ID that the film "Expelled" only briefly touches on.

"Is Christianity True or Relevant?"

The answer is: both.

Wellspring Anglican Church is sponsoring a summer lecture series with professors from Denver Seminary, who will address matters of apologetics and ethics. Please visit the web site for details. Meetings are free and open to the public. I am giving two lectures: (1) Christianity and the life of the mind and (2) Christianity and science. These are oriented toward thinking Christians and nonChristians.

Rare Opportunity to Interact on Gender Matters Theologically

Author Rebecca Merrill Groothuis, at Men and Women: Leaders Together, has been posting some very thoughtful theological essays on matters of gender equality. (This is rare, by the way.) This comes out of many years of writing, speaking, and thinking over these things. She takes the time to respond carefully to whatever questions are raised on the blog. Please consider visiting and posting something civil and thoughtful.

Technological Laments

Lament is part of a healthy life of a world in travail (Romans 8:18-26), because the world is fallen and because we need to recognize this sad fact. Without lament, we lose loss. We fail to emotionally and intellectually record the passing of objective goods that ought to be there, but which now are not there. In this biblical spirit (an entire biblical book is called Lamentations), I note two losses:

1. Bookstores are dying. Christianity Today recently featured this in an article on the decline of the traditional Christian bookstore as a place for books, fellowship, and counseling. Corporate chains sell the bestseller cheaper and more people acquire books on line. So, we loss the physical personal place once again--a place to browse and serendipitously encounter people and ideas. Corporate chains are also taking over bookstores once owned by colleges and seminaries, because the latter are less profitable because of on-line buying. There will be fewer titles and more "merchandise" unrelated to the mission of the schools.

2. Email and class web pages seem, to me at least, to cut into the time I spend with students in my office hours. This hit me just recently. I'm sure that ten to fifteen years ago far more students stopped into to talk about class issues and other things because they did not have email. Now students rarely leave phone messages or come by my office. There may be many other reasons for this desertion (use your imagination), but the Internet is surely one cause. Once again, the physical and personal place is abandoned for more impersonal contexts.

For these things, I lament. I hope you do as well. If you don't, you should lament your loss of lament and lament your loss of loss. Selah.

On lament, see:

1. Michael Caird, A Sacred Sorrow.
2. Nicholas Wolterstorff, Lament for a Son.
3. C.S. Lewis, A Grief Observed.

Evangelical Manifesto

The Evangelical Manifesto is now out. Os Guinness is the principal author. He is always worth reading.

Positivism: Not So Logical

[Someone emailed me who was concerned about someone was shaken in his faith by Logical Positivism. This surprised me, but I composed the following email for him. A day in the life of a Christian philosopher. He mentioned that he read something about Positivism on the Wikipedia.]

Wikis are not consistently reliable, because of multiple authors and anonymous authorship.

Logical positivism (LP) is widely viewed as a failed philosophy, although it took some time to die. It is self-contradictory, so it is necessarily false--not small defect. See J.P. Moreland, Scaling the Secular City, pages 197-20o, on the limits of science for a refutation (although he may not use the term itself). You probably had this for a text in PR 501. See also the chapter on this in Carl Henry, God, Revelation, and Authority, vol. 1.

LP claims:

Statements are only meaningful if and only if:

1. They are tautologies or necessary truths (as in mathematics or A=A) or:
2. They can be verified by empirical observation.

Since they claim that the statement, "God exists," fails to fulfill (1) or (2), it is meaningless (which is even worse than false). Actually, if the ontological argument works, "God exists" is a necessary truth, and so fulfills (1). And there is strong indirect empirical evidence (Big Bang, fine-tuning of the universe) for (2). But hold that for now.

LP itself fails to fulfill (1) or (2). It is not a necessary truth (1); it is not an item of empirical observation (2). So, by its own criteria, it must be meaningless!

We can also attack it by a particularist method. There are meaningful items of our knowledge, things we are very sure about, that don't fit (1) or (2).

A. Bach was a better composer than Eminem. (Yes, we can empirically hear this, but the judgment is not a simple issue of empirical observation.)
B. I existed ten minutes ago.
C. It is wrong to discriminate on the basis of race.

If things like A, B, C, are known to be true (even though they don't fulfill LP's requirements), then LP is false.

I hope this helps.

Education in the Church

Pastor Rob Paris, of Wellspring Anglican Church, preached a superb message on a Christian view of education in the Church on April 27, 2008. You can get here, but must find that date and sermon. It was a gem theologically, biblically, and exhortationally. Please listen.

An Evangelical Manifesto

This Wednesday a document called An Evangelical Manifesto will be released to the public. It appears that the contents will reflect much of Os Guinness new book, The Case for Civility, which is reviewed favoribly elsewhere on this blog. (A longer review of it by me should come out May 18 in The Denver Post). Eighty evangelicals leaders have reportedly signed it.

The Other Side of Abortion

Prison Fellowship has promoting a new campaign called Abortion Changes You. This is a compassionate outreach to the survivors of abortions who must live with the consequences. Materials explore the side of abortion you often do not hear about--the human cost to those who have made the wrong choice. Mark Earley wrote an editorial explaining the ministry.

Academic Freedom Needs Legal Support When It Comes to Darwinism

The Florida Senate has passed a bill to protect the teaching of scientific critiques of Darwinism. It is now headed for the House. Other states have similar bills pending. More power to them, I say, in light of the kinds of things exposed in the movie, "Expelled."

Indian Prime Minister Denounces Sex Selection Abortions

Read this article from The New York Times for a denunciation of India's growing practice of aborting female fetuses because they are female. The Prime Minister has condemned this in strong terms, as he should.

Of course, elective abortions are performed in the US all the time for just about any reason. Sex selection abortions are not as pronounced here as in India, but they do occur, as do abortions of Downs children and of many others with "defects" that the living in power deem intolerable.

Truly, we do not welcome the least, the last, and the lost into our culture with open arms. We kill them in order to alleviate suffering, theirs and ours. How humane: killing the innocent in the name of compassion.

Would Obama or Hillary speak out against sex selection abortions in India--or in the US? No, they would paper over the social pathology with the language of "choice" and "freedom" and "we trust the women to make the right choice."

A Surreal Moment from Cyberspace Education

On a campus somewhere in the physical world...

Hello, Dr. Screen!

Hello. Have we met before?

I'm one of your students.

Really? Well, I have had so many, it is hard to remember all of them.

I took your Philosophy 101 class class term.

Oh, the on-line class?

Yes.

I think I remember your photo on your ID from the class roster. But wasn't your hair blue then?

Yes, I change it quite a bit.

Didn't you post something about Socrates?

Ah, well, actually, no. I did post something about Kant, though.

I see...ah...

I really liked your recorded lectures. The technology was terrific.

Thank you.

I told a philosophy professor friend of mine that I took your class and he was very impressed. He says you are an expert on Pascal.

I have written quite a bit about him, yes.

Well, I'm really happy that I took a class from someone so distinguished. It will look really cool on my application to graduate schools.

Best wishes on that.

I have a question before you go.

Yes.

Will you write me a recommendation for graduate work in philosophy?

Well...

----

If you cannot see how absurd this situation is, I'm not sure what to say. How can there be a student-teacher relationship in the classic sense within this kind of situation. There is no mentor/mentee dynamic. Dr. Screen has never met the student and vice versa. Of course, he is in no position to write a recommendation. The student cannot really claim to be the students of Dr. Screen, only the partaker of his data and the receiver of his grade.

Three Books to Shake Your World

1. Brother Yun, The Heavenly Man. The amazing story of an underground Chinese Christian who lives and risks and suffers for Christ. Read it, then repent of being a typical American Christian (if you are).

2. Soren Kierkegaard. Purity of Heart is to Will One Thing. Existential/theological shock therapy. The Audit of Eternity will never be forgotten.

3. Francis A. Schaeffer, True Spirituality. This short book gives the foundations of spiritual life, all but forgotten by pop/schlock, pseudo-mystical, syncretistic "evangelicals"(emergent or otherwise) who want to be post-modern, post-foundational, post-reformational," and (therefore) post-reality. This is the devotional theology that sustained Schaeffer's remarkable life and ministry.

Screwtape Writes Again: Education, for Hell's Sake

My Dear Wormwood:

Let me continue my theme of making the little creatures ignorant of the manifold errors of their supposed Creator. The One Above, inasmuch as we can discern what he says at this point, desires knowledge of himself and the world. Yes, he calls for faith, but a knowing, understanding faith. We need to confuse all of this in the mind of the Christian. To do so, we must target their philosophy of learning. I say this to instruct you on dealing with your charge, that loathsome seminary student. (By the way, make him sound sanctimonious every time he tells anyone is he "a seminary student.")

Ah yes, we have come a long way and have done much good work, Wormwood. The result—hordes of people are well-informed ignoramuses!

1. Pound them with data from all sides through technology.

2. Remove the context in which the data may become knowledge and be truly transformative in their lives. (One of our meanest foes, D. James Kennedy (now out of our reach), hosted a radio program called “Truths That Transform.” That is exactly what we cannot abide: truths that lodge in the souls of these vermin.)

How may we accomplish this method? Let me count the ways!

1. We love efficiency and so do they. It is the unacknowledged, taken-for-granted value since The Industrial Age (which, I may add, also gave us much material for that precious metaphor “man as a machine,” and so on). So, make education efficient. That means getting degrees quickly and easily, increasing class size, detaching learning from environments littered with real people in all their messiness, etc. Learning usually suffers! What a great irony.

2. They love everything Internet. In fact, it has become lust, our old friend. So, put “education” on-line and don't let them realize what they lose in the process. Sure they gain some things and we experience some losses. These learners will pick up a few facts, get a grade, and be on their way to degrees, but will never have to be in a room with those flesh-bearers and will never get to know their teachers; nor will their teachers now them. (As I remember hearing, the Son of the One Above required his followers to spend a ridiculous amount of time with him and really meddled in their daily lives in the name of "love." We don’t want anything like that to happen now. Think of the damage it did to our cause then. These “little Christs” actually learned to cast us out of people, which is their rightful location. I am told this really hurt. It hurt more with the Boss Below found out. Well, let’s move on. They don't do much of that anymore--at least in America.)

The Internet dematerializes everything, so to speak. Matter is over-rated, as you know. We are the spiritual ones. We have no bodies at all, and it affords us so many advantages: all that bulky stuff with its secretions and malfunctions—we know nothing of it. So, the more we can dematerialize their earthly life—put them out of touch with each other as creatures in space and time—the better. (Some of them think of the afterlife as entirely immaterial, with no resurrection in sight. And these people own--and sometimes even read--Bibles. There is this insufferable and prolific Anglican bishop who has been writing against this for some years. We have a new campaign aimed at his disinformation.) Encourage that Gnostic impulse that came in after the Rebellion. Whenever I am sad, I think of the Gnostics--past, present, and future. It is one of "my favorite things," as their miserable song puts it.

3. You know full well, Wormwood, that we cannot be too careful about what they read. That enemy propagandist, C. S. Lewis, was lost to The Cause Below when he started reading material from the other side. What plans we had for him. In fact, he wrote, “A young atheist cannot be too careful about what he reads.” We tried everything on him, but lost. And now many earthlings read his ludicrous arguments for Christianity—or at least they say they have to appear pious. We must not let that kind of thing happen again. Real logical argument always ends up serving the other side. Yes, Lewis had a larger than normal intellect (to put it mildly), but event the more modest creatures become far more hazardous and odious to us when they read certain books seriously. How I yelped with delight upon reading those recent reports from The National Endowment for the Arts. Most Americans don’t read a single book in a year! And consider the kinds of books they do read when they do. Think: Oprah.

How to do it? It is deliciously simple: Distract them with other things. The television leaves no room for reading. Put a TV in every room. Make them huge and magical. Keep them on all the time. Have people spend more on TV and accessories than on books and thoughtful magazines. And no church libraries, for hell’s sake! We are nearly victorious in that campaign, I’m proud to say. In fact, I know of a church that began small, but prized the intellect (even apologetics). I was worried. I bid off a lot of my claws over it. They were proud of their little church library. Then, the church grew like a weed--and was just about as pretty in so doing. Hundreds flocked in and the library was first neglected, then sacked. Oh, what a bunch of well-informed ignoramuses we have there now—along with music so loud that it makes thinking impossible.

There is so much more, but get to work on your man now. The place where he is has a huge library, after all, and some very knowledgeable teachers. It is dangerous to us. Inform him, by all means; make him proud, proud that he is “well-informed.” He is busy getting facts, but keep him empty of knowledge. Remember, I am watching you, as is our Father Below.

Your Affectionate Uncle,
Screwtape