In the Evangelical subculture, "piety" is not a word we hear all too often. We are familiar with other terms such as "holiness" and "devotion," but what about the concept of piety? What is it?
It is no secret within Evangelical culture that the idea of righteousness through works is anathema. Holiness and devotion aren't things that save us, but they are something that we should pursue if we are indeed regenerate believers. Is the concept of piety all that different?
Piety can be defined as, "the quality of being religious or reverent." It is no wonder the word never gets dropped in Evangelical sermons with a word like "religious" being associated with piety! Whenever I have heard the term used, it is almost always in a negative, "pharisaic" context. Piety is just something that the ultra-legalists pursue for their own self-righteous affirmation, right?
Let us not fool ourselves into thinking that as Christians our works do not matter in the grand scheme of our faith. Confer passages such as James 2:14-26, John 14:15, 1 John 2:3-6, 1 Corinthians 3:12-15, and Revelation 20:11-13.
As an aside, what about this term "religion?" There's another "pharisaic" word that gets thrown loosely around. Certainly you have all heard the mantra, "It's not a religion, it's a relationship." In Evangelical culture I have heard religion defined as something like, "Religion is when men try to bridge the gap between God and man, but Christianity is not a religion because God bridged the gap for us." While there may be some functional truth to that, it is a historically ignorant claim, and in a sense devalues our high-church siblings in Christ such as Catholics and Orthodox denominations who appear to have such "religious" practices.
Christianity is a religion, and Jesus did give us rules to follow and sacramental rituals to practice, such as the Eucharist and prayer (that's right, prayer is a sacramental ritual). Because we are a part of this religion, care for the sacraments, holiness, loving our neighbors, keeping the commandments, doing good works, all of these things sum up what we call piety.
"Piety implies aspects of reverence, external action, and religiosity, any of which may be well-intended or
used in a showy, inappropriate manner. Jesus warns against ostentatious
shows of piety in Matthew 6:1–18. Proper piety is characterized by
godly behavior, and the end result is that God is glorified: “Let your
light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify
your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16)." [1]
Salvation is binary and cannot be quantified. You can not be "more saved" than someone else; you are either saved, or you are not. Piety on the other hand is quantifiable, and will be rewarded accordingly both presently and at the Resurrection (see Rev. 20:11-13 above).
We all have Christian siblings in our lives that we look up to as paragons of genuine Christ-likeness, and that characteristic is exactly what we mean by piety. Sometimes they might even seem so Christ-like (so pious) that merely being in their presence makes you feel inadequate, questioning how dead your "old man" really is. Such shame can be a good or bad thing depending on your mindset, but what is important to point out is that Christ-likeness is attained through piety. That is, through allowing yourself to be conformed to the image of Christ, adopting His characteristics and keeping His commandments.
During this crisis in the Middle East, there was a Christian family who had two sons kidnapped by ISIS militants. In a video interview (which will change your life), the brother was asked, "Would you get upset, or someone from your family get upset if we ask for forgiveness to those who killed your brothers?" And he replied, "Today I was having a chat with my mother asking her what she would do if she saw one of the ISIS members on the street... She said she would invite him home because he helped us enter the kingdom of heaven."
It is Christians like that which make me realize, "I could stand to strive for genuine piety with the hope of becoming more like Christ." I feel shame that I would have behaved differently when other Christians, through pious submission to Christ, have become more like Him than myself. This shame is not to be regretted, but to be embraced as from God.
Let us not demonize sacraments, religiosity, and good works that help us to become more like our King.
Tuesday, May 19, 2015
Monday, May 11, 2015
If I Were an Atheist
As a Christian apologist, I often wonder what my life would look like if I found the evidence for God and the resurrection of Christ to be insufficient. Not only in the practical sense of "Now that I'm not studying apologetics all day, what should I do with my time?" but moreover, "How should I live my life, if there is any way I should live at all?"
For some reason, this is a scenario that I think about a lot. As someone who aspires to be a rational person, I have to consider that this could be within the realm of plausibility. So with what I know now about objective morality, the nature of knowledge and all those sorts of things... what would my atheism look like? This is in no way a satire against atheism or some type of caricature of atheists. These are all my honest thoughts.
Some of what I am about to say may be very uncomfortable to read, regardless of what your worldview may be. But please bear with me to the end.
No Virtue or Vice
If God does not exist, then objective, transcendent morals do not exist. Even if they did exist apart from God, if there is no eternal justice for good and evil, then those objective morals would have no value, thus granting no reason to adhere to them.
That being said, I can tell you straight out that I would not believe in objective good and evil. I would believe that good and evil are socially contrived ideas that aid in human survival. That is, they help us to not drive ourselves into extinction. This falls in line with a teaching called Social Contract Theory, and is consistent with evolutionary biology
This doesn't mean that I would start killing indiscriminately or being an overall "evil" person; on the contrary, I don't think my moral compass would change all that much, though more so out of emotional dissonance than cognitive dissonance. But I would also be unhindered by my moral compass, knowing there would be no eternal consequence for anything that I did.
Keep this principle in mind, as we will be touching on it later.
Time Management
If God does not exist, then the ultimate destiny of the universe and all life therein is heat-death. The heat-death of the universe is when all matter and energy in the universe will disperse evenly, turning the universe into cold soup. Unless God intervenes, we are all assured this fate.
In light of this, I can tell you that the things I did with my time or how I treat my fellow humans would not matter in the slightest. If the end game is heat-death, then who cares? Who will be around to care who cared?
Get the point?
So how would I spend my time? Most likely I would simply do things that made me feel nice, because all would I have is the present, experiential moment. This might even include traditionally noble things like helping others, marveling at the natural world, or being a faithful husband. But I can tell you for certain that there would be a lot more video games going on.
Existential Dread
But surely in time, I can surmise that I would become victim to existential dread and depression. With no objective meaning to anything in life and no promise of enduring consciousness, philosophies such as Secular Humanism or the Übermensch would all be smoke and mirrors; cute inventions by a hopeless worldview (regardless of its truth) that grasps tearfully at straws in the wind.
The hope of a life well lived and going to my death bed with grace and dignity would offer no comfort. After all, who will ultimately be around to care? Who will care that I thought someone should care? Nobody. Darkness. Where would that leave me?
Self-Deception
If good and evil, virtue and vice did not exist, then that means things like self-deception are not wrong in any sense of the term. As mentioned previously, the only thing I would be concerned with at this point was prolonging my sense of present experience for as long as I could. I wouldn't know why this should be a concern, but it is. I wouldn't know why, but I had to survive (whatever "I" means). Perhaps it was just my genetic programming.
Either way, in order to escape existential dread that logically follows from the scientific data we have about heat-death, I would have to create some type of self-deception that actually promised eternal consciousness. I would already have recognized that Secular Humanism and the Übermensch are self-deception, but they do not provide everlasting experience, and therefore no true comfort. So what would that leave me with?
Theism
There are many routes I could take in this self-deception, but the most coherent would be a well rounded theism. Out of pride I would hope that one day I might again find logically justifiable grounds for belief. But at the present, I would simply deceive myself into believing in a God who promised eternal life to the faithful.
Some of you might view this as cowardly. But if God is not real, then that is okay because courage is not a virtue, and neither is logical consistency.
But if this God were real, wouldn't he prolong my conscious present experience by granting me eternal life? If not, I would fall victim to death (and ultimately heat-death) and be none-the-wiser. I would have comfort. Either way, I would win.
Conclusion
Atheism necessarily entails the rejection of objective moral values and virtues. Atheism necessarily entails a lack of objective meaning to life and the way you live. Atheism necessarily entails permanent death and an end to conscious experience.
Theism -and I would argue especially Christianity- offers the answer to all of these issues. And if there is no reason to shun any practice as wrong, there is no reason to shun deceiving oneself into a theistic worldview. Furthermore, there is no grounds for shunning those who choose to deceive themselves. In fact, evolution favors those who survive, not those who are logical, and there is no reward for being a logically consistent person. Only reward for survival.
Now I must say that as a Christian, and especially a Christian apologist, I DO NOT endorse blind faith when there is such an overwhelming wealth of evidence concerning the existence of God, and more importantly, the resurrection of Jesus Christ. I can make this claim because my worldview necessarily entails the virtue of logic.
If you are an atheist reading this, I would encourage you to investigate the evidence for these things. You have nothing to lose, and everything to gain.
If not, there's always self-deception.
For some reason, this is a scenario that I think about a lot. As someone who aspires to be a rational person, I have to consider that this could be within the realm of plausibility. So with what I know now about objective morality, the nature of knowledge and all those sorts of things... what would my atheism look like? This is in no way a satire against atheism or some type of caricature of atheists. These are all my honest thoughts.
Some of what I am about to say may be very uncomfortable to read, regardless of what your worldview may be. But please bear with me to the end.
No Virtue or Vice
If God does not exist, then objective, transcendent morals do not exist. Even if they did exist apart from God, if there is no eternal justice for good and evil, then those objective morals would have no value, thus granting no reason to adhere to them.
That being said, I can tell you straight out that I would not believe in objective good and evil. I would believe that good and evil are socially contrived ideas that aid in human survival. That is, they help us to not drive ourselves into extinction. This falls in line with a teaching called Social Contract Theory, and is consistent with evolutionary biology
This doesn't mean that I would start killing indiscriminately or being an overall "evil" person; on the contrary, I don't think my moral compass would change all that much, though more so out of emotional dissonance than cognitive dissonance. But I would also be unhindered by my moral compass, knowing there would be no eternal consequence for anything that I did.
Keep this principle in mind, as we will be touching on it later.
Time Management
If God does not exist, then the ultimate destiny of the universe and all life therein is heat-death. The heat-death of the universe is when all matter and energy in the universe will disperse evenly, turning the universe into cold soup. Unless God intervenes, we are all assured this fate.
In light of this, I can tell you that the things I did with my time or how I treat my fellow humans would not matter in the slightest. If the end game is heat-death, then who cares? Who will be around to care who cared?
Get the point?
So how would I spend my time? Most likely I would simply do things that made me feel nice, because all would I have is the present, experiential moment. This might even include traditionally noble things like helping others, marveling at the natural world, or being a faithful husband. But I can tell you for certain that there would be a lot more video games going on.
Existential Dread
But surely in time, I can surmise that I would become victim to existential dread and depression. With no objective meaning to anything in life and no promise of enduring consciousness, philosophies such as Secular Humanism or the Übermensch would all be smoke and mirrors; cute inventions by a hopeless worldview (regardless of its truth) that grasps tearfully at straws in the wind.
The hope of a life well lived and going to my death bed with grace and dignity would offer no comfort. After all, who will ultimately be around to care? Who will care that I thought someone should care? Nobody. Darkness. Where would that leave me?
Self-Deception
If good and evil, virtue and vice did not exist, then that means things like self-deception are not wrong in any sense of the term. As mentioned previously, the only thing I would be concerned with at this point was prolonging my sense of present experience for as long as I could. I wouldn't know why this should be a concern, but it is. I wouldn't know why, but I had to survive (whatever "I" means). Perhaps it was just my genetic programming.
Either way, in order to escape existential dread that logically follows from the scientific data we have about heat-death, I would have to create some type of self-deception that actually promised eternal consciousness. I would already have recognized that Secular Humanism and the Übermensch are self-deception, but they do not provide everlasting experience, and therefore no true comfort. So what would that leave me with?
Theism
There are many routes I could take in this self-deception, but the most coherent would be a well rounded theism. Out of pride I would hope that one day I might again find logically justifiable grounds for belief. But at the present, I would simply deceive myself into believing in a God who promised eternal life to the faithful.
Some of you might view this as cowardly. But if God is not real, then that is okay because courage is not a virtue, and neither is logical consistency.
But if this God were real, wouldn't he prolong my conscious present experience by granting me eternal life? If not, I would fall victim to death (and ultimately heat-death) and be none-the-wiser. I would have comfort. Either way, I would win.
Conclusion
Atheism necessarily entails the rejection of objective moral values and virtues. Atheism necessarily entails a lack of objective meaning to life and the way you live. Atheism necessarily entails permanent death and an end to conscious experience.
Theism -and I would argue especially Christianity- offers the answer to all of these issues. And if there is no reason to shun any practice as wrong, there is no reason to shun deceiving oneself into a theistic worldview. Furthermore, there is no grounds for shunning those who choose to deceive themselves. In fact, evolution favors those who survive, not those who are logical, and there is no reward for being a logically consistent person. Only reward for survival.
Now I must say that as a Christian, and especially a Christian apologist, I DO NOT endorse blind faith when there is such an overwhelming wealth of evidence concerning the existence of God, and more importantly, the resurrection of Jesus Christ. I can make this claim because my worldview necessarily entails the virtue of logic.
If you are an atheist reading this, I would encourage you to investigate the evidence for these things. You have nothing to lose, and everything to gain.
If not, there's always self-deception.
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