Church & Culture

1. The One Thing Church & Culture The One Thing

2. Ideas have consequences . - Richard M. Weaver The One Thing

3. Introduction • Review of last session “Divided Minds” • What is “the one thing” • Reason is not a repository of infallible truths • Reason is a human capacity, an ability to reason from premises • The key question is what does a person accept as their ultimate premises? • The one thing – the starting point from which everything else flows The One Thing

4. The One Thing • Something has to be taken as self-existent • We might call it the “ultimate reality” “The source” of everything else • There is no reason for it to exist-it just is • It has been reduced to its simplest terms and cannot be reduced any further • Examples • Materialist – the one thing, the ultimate reality is matter – everything is reduced to material constituents • Pantheist – the one thing is a spiritual force or substratum – goal of meditation is to reconnect with that spiritual oneness • Darwinist – the one thing is biology and everything, even religion and morality is reduced to a product of Darwinian processes • Empiricist – all knowledge is traceable to sense data, and anything not know by sensation is unreal The One Thing

5. The Starting Point • Every system of thought must begin with an ultimate starting point • If not God then some dimension of creation • The material, the spiritual, the biological, the empirical • Some aspect of created reality will be absolutized as the starting point, the ultimate reality, the one thing, the source of everything else • The uncaused cause, the self-existent The One Thing

6. The Divine • The one thing functions as the divine to use a religious term • Defined to mean the one thing upon which all else depends for existence • This starting point has to be accepted by faith • You cannot get there from here by prior reasoning • Otherwise it cannot be the ultimate starting point for all reasoning • Something else must be the ultimate starting point and we have to digger deeper to find it and start there instead The One Thing

7. Every Alternative to Christianity Is A Religon • An alternative might not involve ritual or a worship service but it identifies some principle or force in creation as the one thing, the self-existent cause of everything else • This functions then as an idol or a false god • This is why the Bible addresses the reader as though they already believe in God or some God surrogate • Faith is a universal function • “Faith is a universal function, and if it is not directed towards God it will be directed toward something else.” - Philosopher Roy Clouser • It is not the case that Christians have their faith and secularists base their convictions purely on facts and reason • Secularism is based on ultimate beliefs, the one thing, just as much as Christianity is • Some part of creation – usually matter or nature – functions in the role of the divine • The question then is not which view is religious and which is purely rational, the question is which is true and which is false The One Thing

8. The Goal • Since the Fall, man has divided into two distinct groups • Those who follow God and submit to their minds to His truths or: • Those who set up an idol of some kind and organize their thinking to rationalize their worship of that idol • This is what Augustine meant by his image of the two cities • Peoples’ ultimate commitments shape the choices they make • Peoples’ perspectives are molded to support those choices • False gods lead to the formation of false worldviews • Christian must identify the dominant intellectual idols of our culture and then construct biblically based alternatives The One Thing

9. Common Ground • Christians and non-Christians often are in agreement on a wide range of subjects • Non-Christians are often more capable than Christians in a variety of tasks and occupations • The reason for this is found in the doctrine of creation: • We are “all” made in God’s image • In order to live in God’s world, our faculties were designed to give us real knowledge of the world • This creates a significant range of agreement between believers and non-believers The One Thing

10. Common Grace • The Bible teaches us the doctrine of common grace • Special grace refers to salvation, common grace means God’s providential care • Providential care is the way God upholds His creation (Mt 5.45) • The Bible teaches that non-believers are capable of effective functioning in the world, including cognitive functioning • Mt 7.11- know how to give gifts, be good parents • Mt 16.1-4 Since they were able to interpret the signs of the weather Jesus expects them to also be able to discern the meanings of history The One Thing

11. The Problem • The Problem Comes with Explaining What We Know • Using Mathematics as and example • Most would agree that 5 + 7 = 12 • But the problem comes with how to justify that answer • Ancient Greeks while inventing Euclidean Geometry did not believe that the material world exhibited a precise mathematical order • They believed that matter existed independently and thus would never “obey” mathematic rules completely • “The possibility of an applied mathematics is an expression, in terms of natural science, of the Christian belief that nature is the creation of an omnipotent God.” – Historian R.G. Collingwood • Said another way: The existence of mathematics is a product of a Christian worldview The One Thing

12. Postmodern View of Math • Math is no longer regard as a body of truths • Today math is understood as a social construct – like a game of baseball • Three strikes and your out is an arbitrary rule • It is not true or false: it is just the way we decide to play the game • Math rules are regarded as just the way we play the game • “Mathematics is man-made, that it is arbitrary, and solutions are arrived at by consensus among those considered expert.” • If math is arbitrary then there are no wrong answers-just different perspectives • Children are taught to be tolerant of multiple math worldviews • Not as important to find the right answer as it is to work together to achieve consensus • Just one example of the impact worldview has on knowledge • It will grow larger as we move up the ladder to more complex issues of biology, economics, law, ethics, etc The One Thing

13. The Tools That Shape Us • The danger for Christians is that if we don’t develop a biblical approach to a subject then we might unconsciously or consciously absorb a secular philosophical approach to the subject • If Christians don’t develop their own tools of analysis then they might borrow someone else’s tools – that are generally accepted in their field or in the culture at large • “They are borrowing not an isolated tool but a whole philosophical toolbox laden with tools that which have their own particular bias to every problem.” - Os Guinness • Using tools that are non-Christian is like trying to walk in someone else’s shoes – the results are blisters and pain • The tools shape the user • “In other words, not only do we fail to be salt and light to a lost culture, but we ourselves may ended up being shaped by that culture The One Thing