Lesson on Philosophy & Ethics

I attended the long awaited session two of the Truth Project last night titled "Philosophy & Ethics: Says Who?" I was very excited as the degree I am pursuing has a partial concentration in philosophy.

The program started out referencing 2 Tim 2:24-26, "And the Lord's servant must not quarrel; instead, he must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. Those who oppose him he must gently instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will." The instructor asked the question, "Have you been taken captive?"

He went on to speak about the warning given in Colossians 2:8, "See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ."

The example he used for hollow & deceptive philosophy was from Carl Sagan and his "The Cosmos is all there is, or ever was, or ever will be" and how "we are made of start-stuff" (who believes this crap??? Oh, the lengths that man will go to in order to escape the God of the Bible!). He went on to talk about assumptive language- a powerful and dangerous form of knowledge.

He described the Cosmic Cube which is a naturalistic worldview that says there is nothing outside the cosmos; reality is a closed box and all truth must be materially perceived. He compared this to a Biblical worldview which presupposes that God is and that He has revealed himself to us (general revelation through our world and specific revelation through his word). This God is transcendent and immanent- meaning He is above and works within the box. The instructor pointed out that when man feels a spiritual void in his life he adds a god. It is interesting to note that this god is almost always a god who is inside the box.

The instructor started to talk about what philosophy is. Noah Webster in 1828 said, "The objects of philosophy are to ascertain facts or truth, and the causes of things or their phenomena; to enlarge our view of God and his works..." Strangely enough Mr. Webster today says philosophy is, "a search for the underlying causes and principles of reality" with no reference to God. Hmmm, I wonder what changed his mind...

One of my favorite parts of this presentation was when the instructor talked about the Universals and the Particulars. The Universals are the big questions of life. Philosophers thought if they could put all the particulars together they would know the universal truths. They in fact had it backwards because they refuse to acknowledge that God has given us the universals so we could make sense of all the particulars around us. As an example of this the instructor talked about the life of Da Vinci who believed he could find the universals in math, then science, then art. He ended up empty and died a despondent and depressed man with no hope.

The instructor went on to talk about the ethical implications of postmodernism. What is right? What is wrong? Who makes the rules? There is no basis for ethical standards in a naturalistic worldview. This will lead to "might is right" and people will become oppressed. In this section Sproul talked about statistical ethics where a culture, who has denied God and now has no basis to determine ethical standards, determines ethics through normalcy and survey data (sound like where the US is heading?). With the condition of the human heart we know where this will lead society!

The instructor showed a clip of a debate between Phillip Johnson and William Provine where Provine, the antitheist, openly admitted the implications of a naturalistic worldview are:

• No gods or purposive forces
• No ultimate foundation for ethics
• No free will
• No life after death
• No ultimate meaning in life

Who can actually live consistent with this??? Who would want to?

A worldview is the set of individual truth claims that you have embraced so deeply that you believe they reflect what is really real, and therefore they drive what you think, how you act and what you feel.

What is your worldview?

• False religions
• Secular humanism
• Marxism
• Postmodernism
• Pagan Mysticism
• New Age
• Naturalism
• Christianity

Have you been taken captive by hollow and deceptive philosophy?

• Materialism- matter is the only reality
• ldealism- ideas are the only reality
• Empiricism-knowledge comes from experience
• Rationalism- knowledge is gained by reason without experience
• Naturalism- true knowledge only comes from scientific study
• Determinism- there really is no knowledge, you only react to stimuli
• Relativism- there are no absolutes
• Mentalism- mind is the true reality and objects exist only as an aspect of the mind's awareness
• Mechanism- everything can be explained in terms of physical or biological causes
• Solipsism- self is all you need to know
• Subjectivism- knowledge is dependant on and limited by your own subjective experiences
• Intuitionism- knowledge comes primarily from some kind of inner sense
• Hedonism- pleasure is good, pain is evil; if it feels good, it is

The lists could go on. Charles Colson was quoted "The church's singular failure in recent decades has been the failure to see Christianity as a life system or worldview, that governs every area of existence." The consequence of a non-Christian worldview as Christians is that we buy the lies and conform to the world.
The solution to this is found in Rom. 12:2, "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." The word "transformed" in the Greek is "Metamorphoo" which is where we get our English word "metamorphosis." What comes to mind when you hear the word metamorphosis? A BUTTERFLY- because it means to change into a different physical form. As Christians, God changes us as we renew our minds by saturating ourselves in his word daily. But just as it is a difficult and gruelling process for an ugly cocoon to be transformed into a beautiful butterfly so it is with us. The instructor also pointed out how "metamorphoo" is used in only two other passages in Scripture.
"After 6 days Jesus took Peter, James and John with him and led them up to a high mountain where they were all alone. There he was transfigured before them." -Mark 9:2
"And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit." -2 Corinthians 3:18
Seeing it in these other passages really put it into perspective for me. How amazing!
As Christians we must fill our minds with the truth of God's word so we are able to recognize the hollow and deceptive philosophies and not be taken captive by them. As we are faithful to renew our minds God will transform us!