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Real Answers™
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Copyright: © 2010 Gary Hardaway
670 words

ATHEIST NEEDS MIND-CHANGING CHRISTMAS

By:  Gary Hardaway

In recent years Cornell biologist William Provine has made a name for himself by lecturing on the atheistic implications of Darwin’s evolutionary thought. He delights in bluntly contradicting Christianity and all other religions. Nature is all there is; get used to it.

Starting with stark materialism, Dr. Provine hammers home five necessary logical conclusions: 

• No gods or purposive forces
• No life after death
• No ultimate foundation for ethics
• No ultimate meaning in life
• No free will

Sometimes, to a smattering of applause, he announces that “if I live after I’m dead, I’m going to be really, really surprised. But at least I’m going to hell where I won’t have all those grinning preachers . . . with me.” 

At times he adopts a benign posture: “Christian humanism has a great deal going for it: it’s warm, it’s kindly . . . .” We are expected to bask in the glow of this slightly condescending compliment. But not for long. “The bad part is you have to suspend your rational mind, and that part is really nasty.”

Wait a minute. Remember, there is no ultimate foundation for ethics. Provine said so. Now he says there is a “bad part,” something “nasty” about a certain belief system. But how can that be? No foundation for ethics means that bad and good don’t’ actually exist. Maybe in his mind something is “bad” or “nasty,” but there is no basis for this language, no foundation for particular ideas about what’s bad and what isn’t. No foundation means no certainty, no authority, and no ethics whatsoever; get used to it.

But Provine can’t quite get used to it. We all profoundly need some kind of ethic to guide us. So he backtracks. “Finally, there’s no reason whatsoever that ethics can’t be robust with no ultimate foundation.  .  .  . “ But, how can ethics be “robust,” without authenticity or authority? It can only sputter and stutter. It has no content to persuade our mind or convince our conscience. In fact, utter materialism means that no such thing as “mind” or “conscience” exists. What we call mind or conscience is just a complex set of biochemical reactions taking place in our brains.

Provine performs the same verbal stunt more than once. “Though life may have no ultimate meaning, I sure think it can have lots of proximate meaning.” Proximate means “near.” It derives its meaning from the goal, destination, or object to which it refers. A proximate meaning would come close to being an actual meaning, the true goal of existence. But Provine doesn’t believe such meaning actually exists.  There is nothing to draw near to, to closely approximate. There’s simply an infinite void there.  

The Darwinian guru eventually assures us, “Free will is not hard to give up because it’s a horribly destructive idea to our society.” But Provine teaches us all our thoughts and feelings are determined by natural forces. Nobody can “give up” anything in his thoughts. Such choice is impossible.

Determinism obliterates the concept of “rationality.” There can be no rationality. In fact there can be no “mind” – just an organic cauldron, the brain, firing synapses, deceiving us into believing we are thinking or reasoning. So who is the one who has “suspended his rational mind?”

I admire Jesus for many reasons, including how rational he was. How deftly he confounded his hostile, irrational critics. His logic was flawless. He never lost a debate. He was never stumped. He never stooped to sophistry or deceit.  The apostle John concluded that he was “The Word,” the ultimate source of truth and rationality. Paul, an exceedingly astute intellectual, confessed, “In Him [Christ] are hidden all the treasures of all wisdom and knowledge.”

I’m soon going to send Dr. Provine a Christmas card with the hope that the wisdom of Christ will no longer remain hidden to him. This season may the professor – and you – find ultimate purpose and meaning in the One who brought grace AND Truth.

Gary Hardaway, a regular contributor to the Amy Internet Syndicate, directs Summit School of Ministry in Bellingham, WA.

"Real Answers™" furnished courtesy of The Amy Foundation Internet Syndicate. To contact the author or The Amy Foundation, write or E-mail to: P. O. Box 16091, Lansing, MI 48901-6091; amyfoundtn@aol.com

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