Naturalism as Cultural Doctrine
We humans are a religious people. The word religion is related to the Latin root “religare,” meaning “to tie up,” or “to bind together.” Even the so-called irreligious have a religion or worldview, the belief system on which a person bases his or her life and actions. Sincere people seek a worldview that answers their questions rationally and coherently, in a way that matches observable reality. Others choose a worldview that affirms their lifestyle preferences. In either case, every culture throughout recorded history has sought to explain the explainable and interpret the inexplicable.
The dominant culture of the United States had from its founding been based on a Christian, Biblically-based worldview. No longer. In his book* The Battle for the Beginning, Dr. John MacArthur contends that “Naturalism has replaced Christianity as the main religion of the Western world, and evolution has become naturalism’s principal dogma.” It has been a slow and slippery slope. What began in earnest in a 1925 can only be described as an unrelenting attack on God and His Word that continues to this day. The re-definition of marriage, the absence of fathers in American homes, abortion on demand, the precipitous rise in the percentage of “nones” (those with no religious affiliation), and the near-elimination of God from the public sphere are evidence of the hostile takeover of the culture that Naturalism has realized in our lifetimes.
Conflicting Worldviews
“Unrelenting attack” and “hostile takeover” may seem harsh terms, but we must recognize that we are in a battle for the culture. The Biblical worldview states that God in Trinity – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – created the universe in six literal days, that humans were created in the image of their Divine Creator, and that we were made to worship Him and serve each other. Their explanation for the origin of the universe is “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” The Naturalistic worldview by contrast contends that everything within the universe has a natural (i.e., a physical or material) explanation. It rejects anything moral, spiritual, or supernatural. Where did self-awareness come from? What about rationality and intelligence? Naturalism cannot cogently answer any of these questions. Their explanation for creation is nobody + nothing = everything, and that human beings sit atop the evolutionary pyramid by sheer accident. That may seem a condescendingly simplistic comparison, but if you ask an anti-theistic evolutionist how we came to exist, he or she will invariably invoke their religion’s answer to the Blessed Trinity: Time + Matter + Chance.
Time + Matter + Chance
Think about that for a minute. It is a meaningless equation. None of the three are creative forces. Time is nothing, in and of itself. It is merely a measurement. Chance is equally meaningless as a force. It is also a measurement, one of mathematical probability. Time and Chance, therefore, can have no effect whatsoever on anything, much less everything! In his book First Principles, evolutionary biologist Herbert Spencer (1820-1903), best known for coining the term “survival of the fittest,” posited that everything that can be known or observed fits into one of five categories: Time, Force, Action, Space, and Matter. As he was a Naturalist, note the absence of categories dealing with the moral, spiritual, or supernatural. Nevertheless, with Spencer’s observations in mind, let us then look at Creationist equation: In the beginning (that’s Time) God (that’s Force) created (that’s Action) the heavens (that’s Space) and the earth (that’s Matter). “In the very first verse of the Bible,” John MacArthur writes, “God laid out plainly what no scientist or philosopher cataloged until the nineteenth century. Moreover, what evolution still cannot possibly explain – the actual origin of everything that science can observe – the Bible explains in a few succinct words in the very first verse of Genesis.” Compare this with Naturalism’s nobody + nothing = everything.
Evolution is a theory, albeit one that is being taught as fact even in many Christian schools. Despite the public shaming of Creationist scientists, evolution will never become established scientific fact for the simple reason that the origin of life cannot be observed or reproduced in any laboratory. Catholic Answers contends that “many scholars are abandoning [evolution] as at odds with scientific findings. To learn about problems with the theory of evolution, you might read Darwin on Trial by Philip E. Johnson and Evolution: A Theory in Crisis by Michael Denton.”
Adam, the First Scientist
If Naturalism is a religion, and naturalistic evolution its key doctrine, (along with Global Warming, or “Global Climate Change” as it is now popularly termed, since global temperatures have actually cooled over the past 15-20 years), then – to continue the analogy – naturalistic scientists are its high priests. They thus pit “Science” against “Religion,” and claim a consensus of scientists reject the Biblical view of creation. Well, consensus is not science, and scientific theory is not up for a vote. It is either provable fact or unproven hypothesis. God is the God of science, as He is of all creation. God encourages scientific exploration! Genesis 1:19 tells us that “God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name.” This has been the pattern ever since, as we make new discoveries in nature, we name them accordingly. Sadly, Adam (and we, his ancestors) took this responsibility beyond the natural realm to the moral, doubting God’s provision and deciding for ourselves what is good and what is evil (see Genesis 3:1-6).
Choose Life, That You May Live
And so we must choose. Are you an eternal being, made in the image of your Creator and destined to live with Him in Glory or, may it not be, without Him in torment? Or are you merely the product of time and chance, here today and forever extinguished into oblivion tomorrow? That is the battle we are facing, a battle not just for the culture but for eternal souls. If as God claims there were indeed specific moments of creation, His Word also promises a time of UNcreation. As 2 Peter 3:10 tells us, “The heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt away with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.” And from Deuteronomy 30:15, 19, “I have set before you today life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live.”
*Many of the arguments of this post are covered in greater depth in The Battle for the Beginning by John MacArthur © 2001 Thomas Nelson Publishers
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