False Narrative: Faith (Superstition)
Or Scientific Knowledge (Education)
On of the ignored false dilemmas of the 19th century was the deliberate pitting of faith, characterized as superstition, against scientific knowledge that was being developed and taught in public schools as fact. This false dilemma continues today under many flags but its major characteristic is its reliance on the ignorance of its adherents.
The Enlightenment claimed to have broken the chokehold of religion on knowledge freeing man to pursue true knowledge apart from religious superstition. This segued into the 19th century with the supposed development of knowledge via observation; i.e., science {word coined in 1833 by William Whewell}. This false dilemma continues today as illustrated in this article, Strange enthusiasms: a brief history of American pseudoscience (MacDougall, R.), who equated creationism with flat earthers {believers that the earth is flat}. The author states that the pivotal events were the development of, “…geological time {and} Darwin’s Origin of Species…”
Evolution is the only philosophy
Allowed in Public Education
A brief explanation should suffice to put these issues in perspective. Facts are observable, measurable, phenomenon that cannot be disputed; i.e., fossils are facts. However, facts by themselves do not form an explanation of their occurrence; think of it as data collection. For data to be meaningful it must be analyzed producing information that gives facts their context. Thus, it is the context that is disputed, not the facts! Science as direct observation is not disputed. What is disputed is the explanation for the why’s that explains the facts. Faith should not and cannot rule out natural phenomenon since we do live in a material, physical universe and God must necessarily work through material processes. The early natural philosophers {forerunners of today’s scientists} believed that natural processes were orderly and predictable specifically because there was a creator since man reasoned from such a premise {being made in God’s image}. However, by the 19th century this premise was being challenged without thought as to its consequences.
Geological time was developed by Charles Lyell who was inspired by James Hutton and in turn inspired Charles Darwin. The presupposition of all three men was the conscience decision to develop an explanation for their observations apart from the Bible. This was their prerogative and they were honest in their writings. However, those who came after them used the assumptions of these men to reject any explanation that might include God by making the false claim for absolute knowledge; i.e., that modern geology and evolution are absolutely true and any questioning of these truths must be akin to superstition, anti-knowledge. In fact, adherents today claim that only empirical knowledge is true knowledge; a statement that cannot be proved empirically thus violating the Law of Non-Contradiction and destroying their own argument.
At least two unintended consequences flowed from these claims. The assumed predictability of natural processes could no longer be sustained without a creator. There is no “first cause” to explain how natural processes began or can even continue. In fact, there was a failure to even define something as common as heat. We can define the effects of heat but as this article overlooks, there is no direct observation of the energy we call heat {What is Heat?}. Thus, not only does modern knowledge reject predictability but it also denies reliance upon the unseen though it absolutely relies on the unseen! How can this contradictory knowledge stand up to scrutiny?
Since, this knowledge is clearly self-contradictory the only mechanism that could protect it was government sponsored education via free public schools. What was taught as fact was clearly not fact at all but a flimsy “house of cards” context that stood behind the power of the state. The growth of the strong central state required a body of supporting knowledge that would legitimize its endeavors. Since the state is clearly Luciferian it must reject any reliance on God (Mt 4:8-10; 1Co 2:6-10). Thus, the state, through its schools, decides what is knowledge and what is not knowledge by forbidding the teaching of that which disagrees with its acceptable explanations or contexts of facts. This anti-knowledge is labeled as superstition and equated with faith or God which means God is a superstition also. Therefore, Christians who reject the state’s “scientific” knowledge must be ignorant at best or anti-intellectual at worst. The indoctrination of their children in this ignorance is seen as a form of child abuse and will soon be made illegal when the state has the power to force this upon its citizens, with their consent.
Rejection of God as Superstition
Results in Acceptance of Ignorance
As I eluded earlier, strict empiricism is contradictory at best and self-delusional at worst. Concepts such as good and evil, beauty, or even morality cannot be empirically explained much like heat as an energy cannot be explained. The old adage, “the more things change the more they become the same” holds true here. Modern societies increasingly revert to ancient paganisms to explain their “modern” evolutionary viewpoints such as “Mother Nature”. They also substitute appeals to false authorities such as, “science says” or “all scientists agree” when in fact scientists are not gods nor even the protectors of the knowledge of the gods. Global warming {climate change} is the latest endeavor to justify the increase in state power over its citizens reaching even to a global control over individual nations, if possible.
Thus, the state, composed of its aggregate citizens who have been trained in this contradictory methodology, becomes more unstable. The rejection of absolute biblically based concepts that are inherent in each person results in the adoption of hodgepodge values that expose themselves as unstable in every aspect of life (Ro 1:18-32). Sin is inherently violent (Ga 5:19-21). As the citizenry becomes increasingly uncontrollable the state must use force or self-destruct. The institution of a global union is nothing more than the same contradictory forces at work on an international scale.
The use of this false dilemma of superstition versus education is a smoke screen to hide the real issues: substitution of man-centered theories while rejecting God’s truths. I can make this bold statement simply by pointing out the current LGBT issues sweeping Western societies highlighting the truth Paul wrote in Romans (1:18-32). Government public schools teach transgenderism as truth contradicting simple biology {observable science} and punishing those who disagree! Citizens take sides based on beliefs, contradicting their own claims of empiricism. This reification is a logical fallacy to justify that which otherwise contradicts that which is nonsensical.
Christians trained in the Bible should be immune to these influences. The Bible teaches that we are to teach the Gospel which is the only means to refute the delusion I have described. It is only when one receives the New Nature {New Covenant} that one is given the mind via the Holy Spirit to see beyond these fallacies (1Co 2:14). I applaud the efforts of Creationists in providing credible contexts for the observable facts; however, this will not change the lost because they do not have the mind to see the truth (Ep 2:1-10). Changing the laws, forcing the lost to live the “right way” is only using the power of the state {force} rather than the Power of God to save to the utter most. The education system was used for this purpose in the 19th century before being coopted by the lost in the 20th century {who says the lost cannot learn from the misguided saved}! There are those among us who promise freedom but are themselves slaves of sin and seek to make us return to our former state making our lives worse than they were before we were saved (2Pe 2:18-22). Reject their pleas less we find ourselves arrayed against the very God who saved us because of our willful ignorance of His truths. We cannot stop the world from believing its own superstitions but we can stop ourselves from succumbing again to the superstitions of the world that blind us to God’s truth.