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What philosophers teach in class today, sway cultural values tomorrow and bless or curse the nation the next day! Atheist Voltaire's ideas fueled the cruelty of the French Revolution. His low view of humanity influenced a generation. Consider his words: "The book of fate is closed to us. Man is a stranger to his own research. He knows not whence he comes nor whither he goes: tormented atoms in a bed of mud, devoured by death, a mockery of fate." Is that all you are: just atoms in a bed of mud? Voltaire boasted that Europe would see the end of Christianity in his lifetime. The Bible society uses his home in their work of European Bible distribution. Historian Paul Johnson said of Philosopher Jean Paul Sartre: "What he did not foresee was that most of the violence to which he gave philosophical encouragement would be inflicted by people on their peers. By helping Fanon to inflame Africa, Sartre contributed to the civil wars and genocide that engulfed most of the continent" Intellectuals without moral restraint must be watched. When their ideas reject the concept of ultimate accountability to right and wrong we are threatened with being adrift in a storm of relativism. Charles Darwin wrote to W Graham in 1881: "Looking at the world at no distant date what an endless number of lower races will have been eliminated by the higher civilized races throughout the world!" Is it hard for you to see how those words are the natural conclusion of his ideas on survival of the fittest? Europe built on these concepts and many students gave Nietzche rapt attention. Ideas produce results when groups embrace them. Among these were the founders of the German Nazi party. In Auschwitz museum there's a quotation from Adolph Hitler: "I freed Germany from the stupid and degrading fallacies of conscience and morality." And again: "I want young people capable of violence imperious, relentless and cruel." For Nietzche, God was "dead" for his disciples. God's laws were dead too. What you believe about morals has both ultimate and immediate consequences for your life. Those around you will be impacted accordingly. Joseph Stalin turned from his studies to join the clergy to become the greatest mass murderer Russia has yet known. His moral value of human life is in the words "If you want an omelet you must be willing to break a few eggs." This was how he justified the killings. No morality just pragmatism. Many of the philosophers struggle to find meaning in life. The Bible book of Ecclesiastes reflects that struggle. King Solomon concluded that much in which we take pride turns out to be vanity. At the end of the book he focuses all life's meaning into these words: "Here is the conclusion of the matter; fear (as in deeply respect) God and keep His commandments for this is the whole duty of man." So morality originated in God's heart. It's not relative. Morality is divinely ordered. Solomon continues: "God will bring every deed into judgement (even the hidden things)." Your duty is to live as one who is answerable. Charles Wesley wrote "Arm me with jealous care as in Thy sight to live, and O Thy servant, Lord, prepare a strict account to give." If your life code rejects the idea of responsibility to God, or even going further to say there is no God and no life beyond the grave, what remains is a vacuum. Into this emptiness you might pour pleasure, power, wealth or fame. None of those imposters deliver on the promise of giving life abiding meaning. Some embrace community service or philanthropy. Others are blessed because they lived, but as a pastor I have seen them struggle with the "vacuum". It's God-shaped, only He can fill it. He wants to do that. Invite Him in. Read and obey His commandments. |
