Damon Albarn, Kano and Scratch Africa Express

This is some of the coolest music I've ever heard.

The Assimilation of Positivism & Scientism into Christianity

"It is customary to blame secular science and anti-religious philosophy for the eclipse of religion in modern society. It would be more honest to blame religion for its own defeats. Religion declined not because it was refuted, but because it became irrelevant, dull, oppressive, insipid. When faith is completely replaced by creed, worship by discipline love by habit; when the crisis of today is ignored because of the splendor of the past; when faith becomes an heirloom rather than a living fountain; when religion speaks only in the name of authority rather than with the voice of compassion, its message becomes meaningless."

--Abraham J. Heschel

 

We have succumbed to the modern cultural need for 'factual' or 'scientific/empirical' evidence in order to believe something is true. Because the world rejects mystery, we have begun to reject mystery. Positivism has contaminated the minds of the church. We have seemingly accepted old adage, "If you can't beat'em, join'em." What are we thinking?

Debates are held. Great meetings of great minds. They are on TV, radio, and on the internet in a multitude of forms. Debates seem to me pointless unless someone is going to be convinced that they are wrong. In this day and age that doesn't really happen albeit extremely rarely. Intellectual ejaculation. That is what these debates and arguments are. We see a person on TV arguing for what we believe is true, and when we see this person make a great point we are thrilled and very pleased…not with them, but with ourselves. And when we see the opponent make a point then we feel defeated and are saddened. Why?? If what we believe is true and we believe it, not based on measureable quantities or well-reasoned conjectures, but based on the living Spirit of God…then why are we swayed emotionally to and fro by arguments and debates?

It is because we have begun to be assimilated into the culture of positivism. A place where what we know and how we know it and what we can use this knowledge to get is all that matters. What we believe is meaningless. Mystery is worthless.

"The Greeks learned in order to comprehend. The Hebrews learned in order to revere. The modern man learns in order to use. To Bacon we owe the formulation, "Knowledge is power." This is how people are urged to study: knowledge means success. We do not know any more how to justify any value except in terms of expediency. Man is willing to define himself as "a seeker after the maximum degree of comfort for the minimal expenditure of energy." He equates value with that which avails. He feels, acts, and thinks as if the sole purpose of the universe were to satisfy his needs. To the modern man everything seems calculable; everything reducible to a figure. He has supreme faith in statistics and abhors the idea of a mystery. Obstinately he ignores the fact that we are all surrounded by things which we apprehend but cannot comprehend; that even reason is a mystery to itself. He is sure of his ability to explain all mystery away. Only a generation ago he was convinced that science was on the way to solve all the enigmas of the world…The awareness of grandeur and the sublime is all but gone from the world."

-- Abraham J. Heschel

We need to stop trying to convince everyone that we can think like they think and that it is reasonable to believe what we believe. We need to stop reacting to this world's distorted priorities and instead respond and act upon God's priorities for us as His created masterpiece.

Don't ask me how to even begin to do this…I am one of those who has, in the past, exchanged the grandeur and mystery for a good article on creationism or a debate DVD. It's a good thing God exists to whip my @$$ back in shape. ;)