Dangerous Faith

#74: Dangerous Faith– You Want to Replace Christianity? Great! With What?

• Nathan

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Nate Williams talks about the benefits of having a society founded on Judeo-Christian values, along with possible worldview replacements for Christianity and why they don't work.

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Speaker 1:

As our society celebrates the downfall, the removal of Judeo-Christian values, our Judeo-Christian heritage and the foundation given to us by our forefathers okay, fine, well good. My question to these same people is what worldview will replace it, and are you ready for what that means? This is Nate Williams with the Dangerous Faith podcast, and I am looking in front of me at this, the preamble to the Declaration of Independence, and just some quality quality lines here. Let me read we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness Incredible words that many of us know and love. And the unfortunate thing that a lot of people don't realize is that if you remove Judaism, slash Christianity a belief in a Creator, at least broadly and if you remove the fact that we are made in the image of God, certain things will follow. For example, we will lose our rights.

Speaker 1:

And why does this matter? Well, you see, there's always going to be a struggle between an individual and government. Government's going to say hey, do this, do that. One, two, three, abc. Individuals are going to say we're going to do things this way and that way and don't tell me how to live my life. Blah, blah, blah. And there's always going to be some sort of struggle. And what cuts through a part of that is the fact that we're made by God, and God is the only being that can really say no to government or governments and no to the individual. So, without God, you're left with two parties individuals and governments, and individuals can overthrow governments. So you look at anarchy, you look at revolutions and rebellions. That's one tool that the individual has. Government can be a tyrant. A government can control individuals and do terrible, unspeakable things to individuals. That's what a government can do. But what the existence of God does is ultimately can cut through that and give individuals rights that the government can't take away. And these rights, you think about the right to speak, that we have, the freedom to speak Government can't ultimately control what you say. The freedom of association, that you can spend time with people you want to spend time with, so on and so forth. The right to bear arms and all those things. And Well, other than that last one, the right to bear arms most people across the board we like these freedoms, we love to be able to speak freely, we love liberty, et cetera.

Speaker 1:

And I was talking to a close friend and we were getting into a debate and he said well, you know, maybe Judeo-Christian values, maybe that's not the best worldview, maybe that wasn't the best thing. And people were co-worse, they were forced to believe certain things. So I said, ok, well, let's just take the conversation this way If you remove Judeo-Christian foundation from the West, what worldview would you replace it with? For all of its flaws and I know the church has many, and church has been far from perfect I know me as an individual, I've been far from perfect there are certain incredible aspects to Christianity that people won't appreciate until it's gone so, for example, that we are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights, that you can say no to the government in certain ways. But also, on the flip side, christianity says to respect authority, to obey authority and respect your leaders and pray for them. It's so interesting to have both of those. On one hand, because people are made in the image of God, christianity tells government you cannot abuse the individual. They have rights, they are made in the image of God. But then, at the same time, on the flip side, christianity tells the individual respect authority, obey the government, pay your taxes, give to Caesar that which is Caesar's. It's very balanced and unique. Okay, let's remove it.

Speaker 1:

And as my friend says, well, maybe Christianity at Judeo-Christian values are not the best thing, okay, fine, what other world view can do what Christianity has done? Let's look at nihilism. Nihilism is belief that everything ultimately is hopeless, purposeless. And there's positive nihilism which basically says this everything's hopeless, so party and have a good time. Then there's negative nihilism, which is everything's hopeless, so let's be depressed. And what's the point of life? Why are we even living? Why are we living?

Speaker 1:

I don't think that worldview is going to inspire people to gather together and create a great civilization, because what's the point? You have existentialism. That's another worldview. Does that do what Judeo-Christian values and our Judeo-Christian heritage can do? Will it lead to a great civilization? I don't think so, because existentialism says to create your own values and create your own purpose to life, you decide why you're alive.

Speaker 1:

Humans really aren't good at doing that. That's not one of the things we're able to do well. Hence the depression and the anxiety, because we're not able to give ourselves meaning. We need roles, we need society, we need boundaries, we need markers for success. We're not great at telling ourselves how to live and creating meaning. Hence why our Western culture more and more celebrates death, because there's no point to any of this. It's difficult to create meaning I would say it's kind of impossible really, on our own.

Speaker 1:

I don't think existentialism is the answer. It's not going to bring people together, it's not going to unite people. If everyone is trying to create meaning for themselves, you got 50 people with 50 different reasons to live. Well, they're not going to be very united, are they? What else is there? There's paganism. Under paganism, you worship trees, the gods, the rivers, the spirits, whatever version of paganism you like. Again, that leads to. We see how that is in history. You look all across history, different civilizations. There is a lot of death and bloodshed and a lot of evil because, again, paganism leads to eventually just doing what you want to do and living in pleasure. You have anything from orgies to child sacrifice to, again, just not anything that would contribute to democracy, freedom, liberty. It's kind of a nature.

Speaker 1:

Religion, again, just not a great track record, in my opinion, not comparable to the West and Judeo-Christian values. You have Islam. Islam is an alternative. Well, the problem with Islam is that you are going to follow a religion that is very harsh and will always have harsh elements to it. So, for example, even though Muslims, there are peaceful Muslims, there will also always be violent Muslims and there will always be radical Islam, because, built into the religion itself you can't say that about Christianity, where we follow Jesus built into the religion itself is the example of Muhammad. That Muhammad was a warrior. He killed lots of people and, yes, some of it was defensive. Some people attacked him, but at other times it was offensive. He went and he attacked others and killed other people. And if he is your great exemplar of your religion and he fought wars and he won battles by the sword, well, if he's the guy you're supposed to follow, if he's the guy you're supposed to be like, there will always be room in Islam for radical, the radical version of their religion. Yes, yes, some of it is moderate and there are peaceful Muslims. But built into the pie, built into the cake itself, is violence because of the example Muhammad said. So if you look at that, you have a very different. It's very different than Christianity, where our example is Jesus.

Speaker 1:

You look at Eastern religions and their basis for society. Again, to kind of summarize, we're looking at alternatives to Judeo-Christian values. You look at the Eastern religions, buddhism and Hinduism. You don't get that same system of rights and freedom and democracy. You don't really get that built in that in Christianity you don't abuse citizens because they're made in the image of God and you do respect and obey authority because that's what the Bible commands. The government institution itself is a good thing. You don't see that in Eastern religions. You don't get that democracy, freedom, republic rights conversation that doesn't really come up. It's try harder, do good and hopefully in the next life you are reincarnated into a higher form of life. Eventually you reach enlightenment and then you're released.

Speaker 1:

Interesting, I enjoy studying the Eastern religions, but again, that's not going to be the basis for freedom and rights that we enjoy in the West. So do what you will with that, but it doesn't lead to freedom. In fact, the religion of Hinduism with the caste system, I would say it's the opposite. The caste system is very oppressive and repressive. It's very tyrannical how the lower tiers in the caste system are treated. So again, that doesn't lead into democracy and rights for the individual, along with maybe it will have respect for governing authorities, but definitely not rights. So, going back with my friend.

Speaker 1:

We are talking about what worldviews would be good to build a civilization around, and I don't think any worldview can touch the legacy and built in advantages of Christianity For atheists and agnostics. If you look at the animal kingdom and ethics there, it's all about might makes right. If you're the biggest animal in the jungle, you're the lion. If you're the tiger, if you are the killer whale in the water, what you say goes. No one can touch you. There's no such thing as protecting the little guy rights. No, all that matters is who has the power, and so things would swing wildly over to the government. The government has the power. They can do what they want, and we saw that in the 1900s with Communist China, atheistic Soviet, the Soviet Union, russia. We saw that in just different areas where, without a theistic worldview, you're left with a power struggle.

Speaker 1:

Again, if I was talking with my friend, if I look at all these alternatives nihilism, existentialism, atheism, eastern religions and Islam no other worldview has what Christianity has rights that come from the fact that God made us in his image, so you cannot oppress individuals morally and then also balances that with respect for government. Very interesting, very unique. I'll read again the Declaration of Independence, and people don't realize how special America is and how not other not all worldviews will give us these freedoms that we have. We hold these truths to be self-evident. That gets into natural law, but that's a side conversation.

Speaker 1:

That all men are created equal. That they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, rights that can't be taken away from them, rights that the government can't take from you. Why they're given to us by God. That among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That order is so crucial.

Speaker 1:

You need life first, you have to let people really be born and to live free, and then, once people are born, you have liberty, freedom to choose. I want to live this way, I want to live that way, and then that leads to the last one, which is the pursuit of happiness. You have to have life and you have to have freedom before you can pursue happiness. What choices lead to human flourishing? The flourishing of the individual, the flourishing of society, the flourishing ultimately, the hope would be again. This is impossible for the Christian until Jesus returns, but eventually you want the world to flourish as well and everyone to be living as they should, incredibly unique, all because of the Christian worldview, and what people are going to realize? That, as the church fades, as Christians become more and more of a minority depending on where you live, that's already the case that all of a sudden, the rights will start to fade too, and it's going to become a naked struggle for power. It's going to be who is in power to enforce at gunpoint the things that they want. It's this balance that's only possible in my mind, because of the heritage we have in our Judeo-Christian worldview.

Speaker 1:

Anyways, just my thoughts. You might disagree with me, I don't mind. Let me know, though. We are on Facebook, instagram, twitter. We have a YouTube channel and a Rumble channel, so, for example, this podcast episode will be on YouTube too. You might be listening it from there right now. Actually, let me know what you think. Leave a comment. I'm okay if you disagree with me. Gives me more to think about. Check out our website, dangerousfaithnet. You can learn about me and my team, the Dangerous Life team, along with some of the other things we have going on, and I'll talk with you later.