A modern fable

The man Who Would be King: A Modern Fable

"Life was so much different back when I was right all the time." ~ Barry Parham author/satirist

"Atheism is a disease of the soul before it becomes an error of understanding.” ~ Plato

This week school children across America marked the 107^th birthday of Theodor Geisel who is better know by his nom de plume Dr. Seuss. My mother bought a set of Dr. Seuss books for my siblings and I, and they were a treasured possession that I spent hours reading and re-reading. My wife and I loved the books so much that we bought them for our children and we probably loved reading them to our kids as much as they loved listening. Geisel was and still is beloved by children everywhere and his imaginative characters as well as his creative and mesmerizing artwork are as appealing as his clever rhymes.

Wikipedia states; "Though Geisel made a point of not beginning the writing of his stories with a moral in mind, stating that kids can see a moral coming a mile off, he was not against writing about issues; he said that there's an inherent moral in any story." I have penned my own story this week and I will tip you off that there is a moral at the end. It is a difficult story to write without stepping on toes but the premise seems as whimsical and silly as a Dr. Seuss storyline.

Once upon a time there was a Kingdom ruled and watched over by the wisest and most benevolent King. The King created His Kingdom to perfectly sustain and maintain the lives of His subjects. This King set up a system of laws that He wrote on the heart of Everyman. The Kingdom was fine-tuned and magnificent and reflected the King and all of His glory and splendor. All the King asked of His subjects was to return His love and acknowledge His rightful rule. He asked nothing more but to be respected, honored and loved and in return He would give His subjects joy, peace and blessedness.

In the not too distant past and in a region not so far away there was a village called Gnosis. In this village there was a consortium of deep thinkers who grew tired of honoring the King. They had never personally met the King and started to question His very existence. They chafed at His “rules” and longed to rule themselves. They deeply desired to rise above the commonly held belief that the King was the righteous ruler so they began to question His authority to rule them. They started to question if there was something out there, something bigger than themselves, something that defined our existence and gave meaning and purpose to our lives. Something other than the King.

You see they could not accept the Truth that had been passed down through the ages and written on Everyman’s hearts by the King of the land. They could not possibly accept that Everyman inherently knows the difference between wrong and right or good and bad. The very idea of being responsible for one’s actions was preposterous, let alone being answerable for the act of free will was just too logical or rational to bear. They would not accept the King of the world or the very knowledge that He was the right and sovereign ruler.

One of their philosophers named Hume did not wish to follow the reason the King had blessed Everyman with. He wished to help the towns people rally against the King. Hume told the residents of Gnosis; “Reason is, and only ought to be slave of the passions.” They realized that if they could convince Everyman that there was no King, Gnosis would have no foundation for truth of any kind, moral truth included. In doing so they could indulge in any desire or activity they wanted and not have to answer to anyone but themselves for the consequences of their choices. They could do whatever they wanted! They needed to give their people something to believe in, a “faith” to adhere to, and a “deity” to follow. If they could come up with their own over arching story to rival the King’s then they could take over, then they would be the ones in power.

So they came up with a plan; we must find our own book and our own deity. We will create a god in our own image and follow it. They came up with an idea that they thought would appeal to people. They chose a select group of the most learned men of their society from the clan of science and set them up as their High Priests. The High Priests decided they needed to find something to support their bias against the King and help them accumulate power. So they latched onto a new god named Darwin and refused to let go. They said to themselves; “We must make the King’s Truth appear to be oppressive so the world will not accept or embrace it. We will substitute it with our truth. This will allow us to live life as we see fit and not worry about the consequences. We shall be king!”

So they crowned Darwin their king and his book of theories became their bible. They created a class of high priest from the clan of scientists who proclaimed themselves the wisest in the land and the final arbiters of “truth”. As time went on their disciples grew in number and some rose to great prominence. Darwin was “the father”, Nietzche his devoted son and the spirit lived on in Dawkins. They had their trinity and anyone that questioned their theories or found inconsistencies or problems with their great faith were ridiculed and shouted down in the public square. They continued their assault on the rightful King and strived to make people think that His moral and ethical claims were presumptuous and dangerous, all the while drowning out claims that their lawless rule would wreck people’s lives and bring them low.

Before long their followers grew even more militant. They blindly parroted their high priests and embraced the cult of consensus science. A scientist that was brave enough to question the demagoguery and dogma of Gnosis was demonized and denounced. Dissenters risked being shunned and losing their ability and resources to pursue true discovery. “The theory is still valid” they shouted! “Give us more time and we will prove it to you! We have not plumbed the depths of the idolatry of our minds! Do not question our faith, our creed, our book or our high priests!” They openly scorned and mocked those that would cling to "foolish ideas" and continued allegiance to the King.

I wish this modern fable was not true but sadly it has taken center stage in the world in which we live. If you don’t believe me just grab a Bible and read Romans chapter 1. People who claim to be rational, logical and educated people refuse to consider that their “faith” and “religion” of Neo-Darwinism is just that. True scientific discovery proves time after time how little we still know and how much we have yet to truly comprehend and understand. People that claim that they seek truth do not want to go where the truth may lead. They have invested emotional capital in their “religion” and cannot bear that their “faith” could be called into question.

Society has bought into the lie that science is impartial, unbiased, cold and rational. Yet science is not neutral and there is not always objectivity, and those that do research approach it with both bias and presuppositions. In his book “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions”, Thomas Kuhns points out that scientific progress is not linear and that scientific researchers accept a normal set of “received beliefs” that guide and bind their investigations into both new and old phenomena. Any idea or paradigm shift that runs contrary to these “received beliefs” such as natural selection, evolutionary theory or the Big Bang must be either ignored or suppressed. They have unwittingly set up a “religion” with the very characteristics and attributes of the one they despise.

Neo-Darwinism’s ugly little secret is that it requires far greater faith and blind allegiance than the Gospel itself. It has exchanged one absolute Truth for another inferior truth. It has substituted and exchanged one perceived bias with a bias of its very own. Rather than just admit sometimes “I don’t know” science gravitates to any and all theories that remove man’s accountability to a Sovereign God. As Kuhn aptly states; “one conceptual worldview is replaced by another.” Science brushes away certain data that is not consistent with their paradigm and simply ignores or refuses to deal with it. This is viewed as an “acceptable level of error”, and falsifying the data to support a theory is not only common place, but an accepted practice. The irony should not be lost on us that Neo-Darwinism is guilty of many of many the baseless accusations it levels at the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Life is not a Dr. Seuss story and we are all faced with the reality of answering life's big question; what will you do with Jesus Christ? If there is one scintilla of evidence or one nagging doubt in your mind that the Origin of Species, the cause of the Big Bang or Evolutionary theory might not be true don’t you owe it to yourself to at a minimum investigate and consider the alternative? The Gospel not only encourages questions and even doubts, but unlike the “religion” of modern science it embraces and welcomes those questions and doubt. If a theist is wrong, what has he or she really lost? They have a faith in the God of the Bible and that faith has brought them peace, joy and a sense of well being. But what if atheism or agnosticism is wrong? What are the ramifications? If there is even a 50/50 chance that you are wrong and there is a Holy and Righteous God that we are all answerable to, what then? Don’t exchange the Truth of God for a lie.

If you are seeking real Truth take this three week challenge, read one chapter a day from the Gospel of John and ask yourself these key questions; who is Jesus Christ and what did He come to do? Or go to your local library and grab a copy of “Mere Christianity” by C.S. Lewis and explore the possibility God is there and He is not silent.

“God is responsible for the FACT of freedom. Man is responsible for his ACTS of freedom.”

"Only in Atheism does the spring rise higher than the source, the effect exist without the cause, life come from a stone, blood from a turnip, a silk purse from a sow’s ear, a Beethoven Symphony or a Bach Fugue from a kitten walking across the keys." ~ James M. Gillis