Finding Truth: 5 Principles for Unmasking Atheism, Secularism, and Other God Substitutes (36 page)

PRINCIPLE #2

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Principle #2:
Identify the Idol’s Reductionism

1. The text argues that an idol-centered worldview is always dehumanizing. Explain why. In your answer, include an explanation of this sentence: “Every concept of humanity is created in the image of
some
god.”

Dehumanize Thy Neighbor

2. Reductionism is not just a philosophical concept. Think of ways your own tendency to live for idols has led you to use others for your own needs and goals. Discuss, if you feel comfortable doing so.

The Science of Cheating

3. Read
endnote 4
to learn about another study that was similar to the one reported in
Scientific American
. How did these findings support Romans 1? Read
endnote 5
. How do these studies implicitly affirm the reality of free will?

The Psychology of Suppression

4. Explain how reductionism functions as a strategy for suppression. Why do people suppress whatever does not fit into their worldview box?

5. Why does an idol-centered worldview always produce a dualism or dichotomy in people’s thinking?

6. The text says we will identify the dehumanizing impact of two worldviews (materialism and postmodernism), in two religions, and in two political theories. As you read the chapter, make a diagram like the one presented here. On the top horizontal line, write the name of the worldview or religion being discussed. Under the line, answer two questions: What is its idol? What is its form of reductionism?

Crick: “Nothing but a Pack of Neurons”

7. Define eliminative materialism. What reasoning does it use to reach its conclusions? How does it refute itself?

“Deepest Irrationality”

8. Galen Strawson writes that eliminative materialism shows “that the capacity of human minds to be gripped by theory, by faith, is truly unbounded.” It reveals “the deepest irrationality of the human mind.” Unpack what he means. Describe Thomas Reid’s response. What do you think of Reid’s view?

Revenge of the Romantics

9. Dialogue: What did Schopenhauer mean when he said, “Materialism is the philosophy of the subject who forgets to take account of himself”? Some Christian apologists have adapted this argument to support a biblical worldview. Try your hand at using the argument in an imagined dialogue with a materialist.

Emerson’s Over-Soul

10. Define neo-Platonism. Why does it qualify as an idol-belief? Read
endnote 26
and explain what Paul means when he writes about the “fullness” of divinity. How is he taking the term from the early Gnostics and claiming it for Christianity?

The Great Chain of Being in Shakespeare’s day: Note that it has been Christianized so that the One is identified with the biblical God, and the spiritual entities are identified as angels. Christian neo-Platonism was widely held in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

Hegel’s Evolutionary Deity

11. Explain how Hegel altered the Great Chain of Being. Why did Nietzsche say that “without Hegel, there would have been no Darwin”?

12. Define historicism. How does historicism undercut itself? In what way did Hegel make a tacit exception for himself? How did that create a new problem?

Triumvirate of Race, Class, Gender

13. Explain the logical link leading from Hegel to postmodernism. What is the idol in postmodernism?

Roots of Political Correctness

14. Dialogue: Engage with a postmodernist to show where you agree and where you disagree. Make a case that postmodernism is reductionistic, that it reduces individuals to products of society, race, class, gender, etc.

The Fall of Postmodernism

15. Dialogue: Based on the text, explain to a postmodern Christian the reasons for not accepting a postmodern interpretation of Christianity.

Pantheism versus You

16. Dialogue: Many people who embrace pantheism claim that it gives greater meaning to life by causing us to see ourselves as part of an interconnected whole. In a conversation with a New Age friend, explain why pantheism is reductionistic and dehumanizing, and why it does not give people the dignity and meaning that your friend is looking for.

Islam versus Human Dignity

17. Dialogue: Practice explaining to a Muslim where Christianity and Islam agree and where they differ, and why the difference is crucial.

From Secular Idols to Death Camps
/
From Liberators to Despots

18. Describe the secular idols that led to Nazism and Communism, and their political consequences. In your view, what are today’s political idols?

More Than Is Dreamed of in Your Philosophy

19. What biblical meaning is most often associated with the phrase “put to shame”? How does that change our understanding of Romans 1:16?

20. Turn back to this diagram on
page 113
.

Western philosophy divides into two philosophical “families”

ROMANTICISM

The Box of Mind

ENLIGHTENMENT

The Box of Things

(A) Review Principles #1 and #2. Make a diagram like the one presented here. Under ENLIGHTENMENT fill in all the isms we have discussed that belong to the Enlightenment category (the analytic tradition). Under ROMANTICISM fill in all the isms we have discussed that belong in the Romantic category (the continental tradition). As you read through the rest of the book, for every ism you encounter, decide which tradition it belongs to and write it in.

ROMANTICISM (continental tradition)

ENLIGHTENMENT (analytic tradition)

By mastering these two basic categories, you will find it much easier to make sense of the diversity of modern Western worldviews. Worldviews are not a scattershot of disconnected ideas to memorize, master, and slot into a grid. They form ongoing traditions that move along the same path, in the same basic direction, following the same map—either the Enlightenment map or the Romantic map. Or you can think of them as two genealogical lines connected by family resemblances. To make sense of any particular worldview, the first step is to identify the family lineage it belongs to and the common themes it shares.

(B) What are those common themes? To get you started, here is a segment from the text: “The analytic tradition traces its roots to the Enlightenment and tends to highlight science, reason, and facts. The continental tradition traces its roots to the Romantic movement and seeks to defend mind, meaning, and morality.”

Make a second diagram. As you review Principles #1 and #2, look for common themes or family resemblances within each of the two traditions and write them in:

Connecting themes in the continental tradition

Connecting themes in the analytic tradition

PRINCIPLE #3

•  •  •  •  •

1.
Endnote 2
says the argument from evil fails logically. Explain why.

The Gravity of Fact

2. The text says that when we apply the practical test, “we can be confident that all idol-centered worldviews
will
be falsified.” Explain why. Use the CNN article as an example.

I, Robot—We, Machines

3. Should Christians argue in favor of free will? Some Calvinists are not so sure. Read
endnote 6
. What do you think? Explain the difference between predestination and determinism.

Principle #3:
Test the Idol: Does It Contradict What We Know about the World?

4. Why is free will such an enduring question in philosophy? Which distinctively human abilities depend on free will? Can you think of any additional abilities that depend on free will beyond those mentioned in the text?

Why Secularists Can’t Live with Secularism

5. What are some phrases showing that a worldview has bumped up against a reality it cannot explain? How does that serve to falsify the worldview?

Double-Minded Secularists / Losing Total Truth

6. Why does every idol-centered worldview lead to a mental dichotomy or dualism? How is dualism a signal that evidence from general revelation is being suppressed?

A Leap of Doubt

7. We have come far enough to detect important patterns. As you read through the rest of this chapter, make a diagram like the one presented here. Go back to the sections titled “Why Secularists Can’t Live with Secularism” and “Double-Minded Secularists,” so you can include Strawson and Slingerland in your diagram.

A. List the name of each thinker discussed in the text.

B. List the ism that each thinker embraces.

C. List the phrases he uses that are clues to general revelation—the ideas that bubble up inescapably and irresistibly no matter which worldview he holds. I’ll give you the first one: Galen Strawson says he “can’t really live with” his own philosophy. The key phrase is what humans “can’t live with.” A worldview is supposed to be a guide to living in the world. When people cannot live on the basis of their worldview, that means they have bumped against the hard edge of a reality that does not fit their professed system of thought.

D. List the phrases he uses showing that evidence from general revelation is being suppressed. For example, Marvin Minsky says, “We’re virtually forced to maintain that belief, even though we know it’s false.” He is suppressing a truth that he is “forced to maintain” by reducing it to the status of a necessary falsehood—by putting it in the upper story.

When you have finished filling in your diagram, answer this question: Why do secular thinkers suppress the evidence from general revelation?

Atheism versus Civilization

8. Smilansky acknowledges that his deterministic worldview is socially destructive. Explain why determinism has socially harmful consequences. How does Smilansky propose to get around those negative consequences? What do you think about his proposal?

Dawkins’s “Intolerable” Worldview

9. How does Dawkins show that he has bumped up against the hard edge of a reality that does not fit his worldview? Why would the consequences of his worldview be “intolerable”?

Einstein’s Dilemma

10. What does the phrase “as if” signal? Why did Kant propose the phrase? Read
endnote 23
and explain why even Einstein’s scientific work depends on free will.

Secular Mysticism

11. Why did Francis Schaeffer claim that any worldview that contains an epistemological dualism leads to “mysticism”? Explain how the examples in the text support Schaeffer’s claim.

Darwinian Psychopaths

12. The text says, “We can picture worldviews falling along a continuum: The more consistently people work out the logic of their worldview, the more reductionistic the result will be, the wider the gap, and the further its leap into irrational mysticism.” How does Edward Slingerland exemplify this ever-widening gap?

13. How do the Greek terms for “futile” and “foolish” throw new light on how Romans 1:21 can be applied to today’s secular worldviews? How can Paul’s statement that those who worship idols are “without excuse” be applied to secular worldviews?

MIT Prof: My Children Are Machines

14. Brooks’s worldview contradicts his own lived experience so sharply that he says he “maintains two sets of inconsistent beliefs.” The text calls this “the tragedy of the postmodern age.” Why is it a tragedy?

Chesterton: Christianity “Too Good to Be True”

15. How does a biblical view of humanity lead to a unified, logically consistent worldview? Explain why Chesterton says secularists reject Christianity not because it is a bad theory but because it seems “too good to be true.”

Walking Off the Postmodern Map

16. Dialogue: Imagine talking with a postmodernist. Based on the text, how could you argue against his or her anti-realism?

Don’t Impose Your Facts

17. How do most people apply postmodernism selectively? How does that lead to a dualism or dichotomy in the way people think and act? (If you’ve read
Total Truth
, how does this dichotomy represent the fact/value split?)

A Harvard Professor’s Admission

18. The text quotes two philosophers (Parfit and Harries) who admit outright that they hold inconsistent beliefs. Summarize what they say. Then make the case that Christianity offers a unified view of truth. Keep in mind that, as the introduction says, you should use the study guide answers to practice doing apologetics with real people.

19. Explain the religious motivations that drove Francis Crick and James Watson in their search for reductionist theories.

Secularism Is Too Small for Secularists

20. Dialogue: The text says, “We should begin by expressing solidarity with their deepest longings for meaning and significance—and then show that in a biblical worldview, those longings are not merely illusions or useful fictions.” Write out a conversation modeling what this would look like.