Musings on being secular

Musings on being secular

By

Dr. Norman Wise

I think that most people, even those who say they believe in God or even Christianity are very secular in their “Monday Morning” approach to life.   I know that it is easy for me to fall into a “secular” frame of mind.  

What do I mean by secular?  relating to the cultural or temporal concerns without any reference to big ideas, metaphysical thoughts, religion, or faith.  

The core idea is that it is focused on the here and now.  It is looking at life “under the sun” and not connecting it to the eternal.   All things spiritual are irrelevant, impractical, and lacking significance.   A person who thinks in a secular way can believe there is a God but that the existence of God is not needed to daily life.   When I am in a secular mind frame, I act like God does not exist, regardless of what I say on Sunday morning.  

When we are in a secular frame of mind we don’t pray because we doubt God cares to answer.

When we are in a secular outlook we don’t believe that we need God to live an effective life or happy life.

When we see things through secular eyes we don’t read the bible because we don’t think we need it to know about life.

When our focus is on the secular we fear that getting involved with God would hinder what they need to do to succeed and enjoy life. 

People who live mainly in a secular world view, can go to church for a little encouragement and motivation but we see going to church as leaving the “real world” for a temporary pick me up by visiting the “sacred space”.  We can be “Sunday only Christians” and but we keep our “religion” to ourselves. 

When we are in this mind frame we may have made a promise to ourselves that just before death we will “get right with God” just to cover the potential of a life after death.  But we try to not think about death much. 

Now some secular people are simply atheists or agnostics.   They are consistent and sincere in their outlook on life.  Even such people may find some “faith” in “foxholes” or crisis moments, but for the most part they strive to live only considering the “real world” that they can see and experience.  

But many people who believe in God are secular in their lifestyles.  Most “Cultural Christians” are secular people.   They have a “little faith” but it does not transform or guide their lives.   Many more people are practical atheists who would ever agree with atheism itself.   All of us can have “atheist moments” when we forget God and live as though HE did not exist.  

So, in the last week; how often did you and I live as “secular” people?

How often was God’s existence not important, relevant, or significant to us?

One of the ideas in the bible that deals with the concept of “secular” is how the Messiah Jesus sometimes uses the word “world”. 

[Jhn 12:46 NASB] 46 "I have come as Light into the world, so that everyone who believes in Me will not remain in darkness.

The idea of “world” in this context refers to society, human community, and civil structure focused not on the “Kingdom of God’ but just life here and now without any need of the spiritual or eternity.   

Jesus believes that such a view of the world is dark.  He has come to take away that darkness.

Is Jesus right or wrong?

Some would feel that secularism is “light” and that faith in God being important to life is the “darkness”.    They would see the “dark ages” existed when people took the idea of God seriously in their daily lives and now we live in the age of “enlightenment” which knows that God is not to be part of everyday life (excluding an hour on Sunday occasionally if you happen to be into that sort of thing).   

So, they would feel strongly that Jesus is wrong. 

Is Jesus right or is John Lennon right when he sings

“Imagine there's no heaven

It's easy if you try

No hell below us

Above us only sky

Imagine all the people living for today”

The real question is how should life be lived?  Should we be secular or sacred in living “for today”?   Should I live as a “secular” person with no concern for heaven or hell, or as a “sacred” person who has God in his heart and all his actions?

Now, which God we serve and what is the will of that God is critical since the wrong “God” can be a demon.  Thus, the danger of getting God involved at all in everyday concerns since much evil has been done and is being done in “God’s name”. 

So, what is a healthy view of God?  How can we bring the sacred into all of life and not become religiously abusive to others?  This ancient creed may help us.

[Psa 103:8, 13 NASB] 8 The LORD is compassionate and gracious, Slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness. ... 13 Just as a father has compassion on his children, So the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him.

People who incarnated this vision of God consistently in their hearts and actions would bring good to the world.  This was the vision of God made perfectly incarnate in the Messiah Jesus.  

Now some question, if there is any escape for any person to be without “religion” or “faith”.   Is it possible to be truly “secular”?

“To be human is to be scientific, yes, and practical, and rational, and moral, and social, and artistic, but to be human further is to be religious also. And this religious in man is not just another facet of himself, just another side to his nature, just another part of the whole. It is the condition of all the rest and the justification of all the rest. This is inevitably and inescapably so for all men. No man is religiously neutral in his knowledge of and his appropriation of reality.”

The conclusion of this idea would be:

“The world is not composed of religious and nonreligious people. It is composed rather of religious people who have differing ultimate concerns and different gods and who respond to the living God in different ways.  Each human life manifests different ways of expressing a person’s allegiances and answers to the ultimate questions of life. All humans are incurably religious; we manifest different religious allegiances.”

So, the “secular person” is just exercising faith that “all that matters, is matter” while the “sacred person” is exercising faith that “God, is all that matters”. 

The idea of the incarnation, sacrificial death, and resurrection of Messiah Jesus as God the Son who has come to us as the Son of God in the flesh, bridges the gap in these perspectives with the firm reality that for the God who is Jesus, matter does matter.   What happens “under the sun” is important to God and is always in relationship to heaven.  

Considering all of this, how ought we then to live?

Can faith in God matter in a positive way for our daily lives?

Do we need Jesus to be a light to our lives? 

Why am I a Christian?: Why I believe in God

Why am I a Christian?

Chapter Four:  Why I believe in God?

To be a Christian one should have a rational conviction based on logic that the universe was not formed out of nothing, or mindless energy governed by chance alone.   I have what I trust to be a justified view that the universe was brought into existence by a power that has intelligence, will and emotion.  This power is a necessary being and not contingent in anyway upon anything else. 

Why do I have this conviction? 

There are four primary explanations of the universe from my point of view.

1.      The Universe came out of existence from nothing.   Nothing was the origin for everything. This was recently argued for in the book A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather than Nothing by Lawrence M. Krauss with a after word by ‎ Richard Dawkins. 

However, there is debate on if “Nothing” is really “Nothing” since Dr. Krauss seems to believe that the that basic principles of quantum mechanics are in existence either because they are eternal or from another unknown source.  Some would argue that his “nothing” is “something”.  [1]

2.     The Universe came about from eternally existing “something” that existed outside of time that was the cause for the “Big Bang” and the universe today is governed by impersonal, mindless, and naturalistic dynamics.  This happened about 14 billion years ago.  That is when time and space began. 

There are several “naturalistic” explanations of the universe with the most popular today being this “big bang” theory.   The key here is that we only have “physics” and no “metaphysics”.  This is just natural stuff happening but with no design, designer, will, or plan.  [2]   All that exist is an accident of natural forces.

3.     All that exists is God and the universe is but an expression of God for the evolution and pleasure of God.  The physical is an illusion and the spiritual is the ultimate reality.[3]

4.     An eternal energy with intelligence, purpose, and will who exists outside of time and space created the universe.  There is a Creator/creation distinction.  The Creator is the necessary being upon which the contingent limited universe depends.   This view is defended by Dr. Mortimer Adler, former head of philosophy at the University of Chicago in his book How to Think About God. God has created the universe. [4]

I believe in God because it seems to be that the fourth option is the best explanation of the universe we live in. 

The first theory regardless of how clever we make it asks us that out of absolute nothing everything exists.  But the truth that from nothing comes nothing seems a much more likely reality to me. 

The second theory struggles with the following weaknesses from my point of view.

1.     We must believe that from the impersonal and mindless came personality and mind.   This seems very unlikely to me.

2.     We must believe that all the apparent design in the universe is just an illusion and appearance of intelligent intention.   

It   It was the “language” of DNA that caused the intellectual champion of atheism Dr. Anthony Flew to change his mind and feel compelled by the evidence that where there is a “language” there must be an intelligence.  [5]  The idea of where there is design you have a designer seems to be a logical belief to me. 

3.     The 14 billion years for the universe and 4 billion years of the existence of our planet is not sufficient time to produce by chance alone with no guidance from an intelligence the complex life we have on our planet today.  

Sir Fredrick Hoyle first pointed out this problem in his book The Intelligent Universe in which the odds of one protein molecule was estimated by him to have the same chance of the parts of a jet liner which we all disassembled being struck by a tornado and emerging afterwards as a fully constructed and functional plane (1 chance in 10 to the 40,000 power).

While Hoyle’s math has been questioned the fact of the matter is that he has simply stated what is clear and that a totally random process in a limited amount of time would make the formation of the complex type of life we see on the earth very unlikely if not impossible.  

Others believe that because we are dealing with chemical and biological interactions these are not random but ruled by natural laws and so this greatly increases the odds of the random formation of life on earth.  However, at best the odds are not good.  But they believe that we won the "life lottery". 

The basic soundness of this problem is one of the reasons why there is strong belief that elements of life coming from other sources in the universe is the source of life.  This theory is to overcome the lack of enough time to get life started here on earth.  [6] So, this is an area of great controversy among scientists. [7]  I

It seems to me that the truth is that the complexity of life developing purely by chance especially at the complex levels of DNA and the functioning of the cells does not seem very likely without an intelligence and purpose guiding it. 

4.     The entire universe is limited, finite, and contingent.  Therefore, the universe cannot be a sufficient explanation of its own existence.  All contingent things are dependent on something else.  Ultimately, the only way contingent things can exist is fi there is a necessary thing/being that sustains all that is contingent.  This is Dr. Mortimer Adler’s argument for the logical foundation for the conviction that God has to exist in his book How to Think About God.

The third theory that everything is God and that the universe is just a manifestation of God in physical form which is allowing God to evolve, grow in self-knowledge, and manifest the divine glory has the problem of God being both morally good and evil, not yet being perfect in any real way, and not all knowing.  So one the one hand since God is the universe and the universe is God this seems like a view of God that has made God everything and therefore is a high perspective on God, yet on the other hand this view is actually pointing out that God is limited, flawed, and far from perfect.    It would be hard to worship such a God since in many ways all worship is self-worship.   

This also means that since human technology can control and manipulate the physical universe then humanity can through science and technology change and control God and this seems to follow the idea that the universe is God.  Modern science developed not in the Eastern societies that held to this view that God was the maker of the physical universe (view four) and then was advanced by a naturalistic view of the world (view two) both of which provide a better framework for scientific study than this perspective. [8]

The fourth position that there is a necessary being who has intelligence, purpose, and will seems to me the most likely answer for the following reasons.

1.     This means that intelligence, emotions, and personality that we see in human beings came from a being with all these attributes.  Life came from life.  This makes more sense than the effect being greater than the cause.   

Rene Descartes in his Meditations on First Philosophy makes the case that because I experience feelings and thoughts that I can know that I exist but then extends this to knowing that I am a limited being and not adequate explanation of myself so that my feelings and thoughts must be the product of an ultimate source of reason which would be God.  It appears to me that his meditation on these matters is valid and supports the idea of the existence of God logically.

2.     A Creator God makes sense of how such complex life could develop in such a short period of time such as 4 billion years.    The signs of design in the universe such as the DNA code makes sense because if an intelligence is the inventor of the universe and life, one would expect to see such a structure in the fabric of the material world.   [9] 

Books such as The Privileged Planet: How Our Place in the Cosmos Is Designed for Discovery by Guillermo Gonzalez and Jay Wesley Richards and Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design by Dr. Stephen Meyer present a paradigm shift on how to look at existing scientific discoveries which would support the idea of a personal necessary Creator of the universe as a rational option. 

3.     This option also makes more sense the experiences of God that people have had throughout history in which they have encountered a realm outside of what we normally can experience with the five senses. 

An interesting book that gives reasons to believe in God and experiences of God in the modern times is found in Miracles: What They Are, Why They Happen, and How They Can Change Your Life by Eric Metaxas.  

Part of my reasons for believing in God is because I have events in my own personal life that are best explained by allowing there to be a “spiritual” aspect of reality that normally cannot be measured by the five senses.   The idea that such experiences can be part of a rational argument for God can be found in the book Existential Reasons for Belief in God: A Defense of Desires and Emotions for Faith by Dr. Clifford Williams. 

The impact of such experiences even by people who are raised and practiced atheism all their lives is found in the musings of by Barbara Ehrenreich in her book Living with Wild God: A nonbeliever’s search for the Truth about Everything.   She clearly was not raised in an environment that would have encouraged such encounters with the divine and due to this she avoided thinking about it till later in life.

While such experiences are not adequate by themselves as evidence for God existing, especially for those who have never encountered them, it would be impossible to deny that the occurrences of such events or lack of such events, do impact our process of deciding with how rational faith in God seems to each of us.   

Dr. David Crump deals with the existential aspect of Christian faith

“So, when I personally experience what I understand to be the presence of the risen Jesus, I may take that moment to mean that “Jesus is raised from the dead” and that “he has forgiven my sins.” Even though my experience may never be acceptable to anyone else as valid evidence for the resurrection or for my claim that Jesus forgives sin, it does provide a legitimate grounding for my basic belief that I live in a personal relationship with a resurrected, forgiving Savior. I have been changed in such a way that I am enabled to make sense of the evidence Christ has made available to me, both experiential and scriptural.” (Encountering Jesus, Encountering Scripture: Reading the Bible Critically in Faith)

This is the reality that poet Sally Platt reflected on in her poem “Mystic” [10]

“Once one has seen God, what is the remedy?”

So why do I believe in God?  The big issue is that there is something instead of nothing.   While there are many questions that can be raised about what is here now, it seems to me that the “God hypothesis” is the best explanation of what is here now. 

Some would say that the problem of evil and pain weighs against this option.  But that would seem not so much to argue against an ultimate and necessary designer of the universe as much as question his character and/ or competence.  This question focuses on God’s attributes more than the existence of a Creator outside of the creation. 

I will address the problem of pain and evil in another chapter.  I do find this an important issue since it was what most tempted me to become an atheist and agnostic when I was nineteen years old. 

But for now, I am a Christian, because I have a rational paradigm that supports the idea that God does exist.  [11]

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[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/25/books/review/a-universe-from-nothing-by-lawrence-m-krauss.html

[2] For an overview of some of the ideas see:  The Universe: Leading Scientists Explore the Origin, Mysteries, and Future of the Cosmos (Best of Edge Series) by Mr. John Brockman

[3] http://www.gestaltreality.com/articles/the-universe-as-god/

[4] Adler’s argument for God summarized.  http://www.asa3.org/ASA/PSCF/1995/PSCF3-95Cramer.html

[5] There Is a God: How the World's Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind  by Antony Flew  (Author) and Roy Varghese (Author)

[6] https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/the-building-blocks-of-life-may-have-come-from-outer-space-3884354/

[7] https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/new-equation-tallies-odds-of-life-beginning1/

[8] http://qideas.org/articles/christianity-and-science-in-historical-perspective/

[9] https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=5255&v=QmIc42oRjm8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehpRVEA17nw

[10] http://www.sylviaplathforum.com/mystic.html

[11] A book that does a great job of comparing the various world views of reality can be found in The Universe Next Door: A Basic Worldview Catalog by James W. Sire

Why am I a Christian? What is a Christian (Part three)

Why am I a Christian?

First Question:  What is a Christian? (Part Three)

A Christian as I am defining the word is a person who accepts and lives by two theologies and has experienced an event in their lives.   In the last two chapters I defined theology 101 and theology 102 which forms the intellectual content of the Christian faith. 

But to be a Christian as I define it requires more than a mere intellectual understanding but also an existential experience of the living Messiah Jesus in addition to the acceptance of this core theology.   So, beyond theology we must have a personal spiritual encounter with the resurrected person of the Lord Jesus of Nazareth. 

The verse most used to open people to this experience is found in the book of Revelation where the resurrected Jesus says:

" 'Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me. “(Revelation 3:20)

The idea being that we can have a spiritual encounter with the resurrected Jesus through the Holy Spirit in which the presence of Messiah Jesus will come into us and we will have a present day personal relationship and experience HIM inwardly today. 

The converted rabbi and Christian theologian Paul describes it this way to a first century community of disciples of Jesus.

"Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my body, I do my share on behalf of His body, which is the community of believers, in filling up what is lacking in Messiah's afflictions. Of this community, I was made a minister according to the stewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit, so that I might fully carry out the preaching of the word of God, that is, the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but has now been manifested to His saints, to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Messiah Jesus in you, the hope of glory."  (Colossians 1:24-27)

So the final step in becoming a Christian is not just to come to the conclusion that one is a moral failure deserving just punishment by God at death and having a conviction that Jesus of Nazareth, was God the Son who became the Son of God to be a pay the penalty through HIS suffering for that immoral life as a substitute by the crucifixion and provide life through HIS historical resurrection, but also to now ask the ascended Messiah Jesus to personally enter our lives to save and transform us from the inside out.   To personally trust in “Jesus, only Jesus” to be the one that will bring us forgiveness, purpose for life, and inner healing. 

The first century Christian theologian Saul of Tarsus explained this way.

 "But what does it say? "THE WORD IS NEAR YOU, IN YOUR MOUTH AND IN YOUR HEART"—that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. For the Scripture says, "WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED." For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him; for "WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED.""  (Romans 10:8-13)

To “call on the name of the Lord Jesus” is to pray a desperate prayer asking HIM to save us and to come into our lives.  It is to open ourselves to HIS spiritual presence, power, and peace.   It is a desire to begin a personal relationship with the Living LORD Jesus as prophet, priest, and king.   

The term “Messiah” means anointed prophet, priest, and king and therefore to accept and follow Jesus is to personally accept him in these three ways.

As prophet to be the ultimate source of truth in our lives and the greatest teacher we have in our lives.  He is for us “The Truth”.

As priest as the one who paid for our sins and provides now an open door to intimacy to God as our high priest.  Because of Messiah Jesus we no longer fear condemnation for our sins but undeserved favor from God at times of need.   He is “The Way” to reconciliation with God.

As King, we ask the LORD Jesus to be involved in every decision we make, guide us with wisdom as we face problems, and strive to submit to HIS will in every action.  We desire out of gratitude to follow HIM and live a life of loving good works.  Jesus is our “Life” from which we gain the energy and impulse to live a life of faith, love, and hope. 

This experience and encounter with the Living Christ in prayer and having a fellowship with HIS presence is a vital part of being a Christian.  One can be a “Cultural Christian” and formally hold to “Theology 101” and “Theology 102” but only when this theology is applied personally and prayerfully is one converted into being a Christian or disciple of Messiah Jesus. 

So, when I use the term Christian I mean a person who has accepted “Theology 101” concluding that they justly deserve punishment for their immoral actions, trust in “Theology 102” in which the Messiah Jesus suffers for them and gives them the free gift of eternal life through HIS resurrection, and personally encounters the living Christ in prayer seeking a spiritual fellowship with the Lord Jesus as their personal prophet, priest and king. 

Journal Guide

1.  Do you think that this "personal encounter" with the Living Jesus is needed to become a Christian?  Why or why not.

2.  What makes this difficult in our defining of the word "Christian"?

3.  What if you tried to "call on the name of the LORD" but it seemed empty and nothing from your point of view happened?

4.  How could one develop a personal relationship with the LORD Jesus?  


See http://examen.me/  

For ideas on how to do this. 

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