The Foolishness of Belief

My friend Josh Brisby at The Reformed Oasis recently made a post titled The Foolishness of Unbelief. In the post, Josh quotes Dr. Greg Bahnsen:

Dr. Greg Bahnsen made an excellent statement which I think sums up the foolishness of unbelieving thought. He said the following:

“It is not a mark of rationality for a person to assert one thing, but then to live contrary to it.”

He added,

“The life of the unbeliever is riddled with such inconsistency. He will presuppose human dignity and attend a funeral to honor a dead friend or relative, even though he previously argued that man is, in principle, no different from any other product of evolution like a horse or dog. The unbeliever will insist that man is nothing more than a complex of bio-chemical factors controlled by the laws of physics—and then kiss his wife and children when he goes home, as though they share love with each other. He will argue that in sexual relations ‘anything goes’ (there are no moral absolutes)—but then indignantly condemn child molesters or morally repudiate necrophilia. He will suggest that the things which happen in the universe happen randomly—by ‘chance’—but then turn around and look for regularities, law-like explanations of events, and uniformity or predictability in the things studied by natural science. The non-Christian does not have a workable worldview, and he exposes its weakness at every turn in his life.”

Josh then finished his post with a thanks to God and a prayer.

First, a few comments on Dr. Bahnsen's straw man of the unbeliever:

1) Unbelief does not contain a moral system within it, but that does not mean that unbelievers do not have a moral system. Unbelievers have a much wider variety of moral systems to choose (or not choose) than any man of faith has. And it shows, for there are many kinds of moral systems championed by many types of unbelievers. This blanket statement by Bahnsen is just as ignorant as saying something like, "All Mexicans are Mary-worshipping Catholic border jumpers".

2) Unbelievers do not all insist that man is nothing more than a complex of bio-chemical factors controlled by the laws of physics. Many unbelievers believe in free will for example. Calvinists cannot even make that claim.

3) Unbelievers do not believe in sexual relations that anything goes. In fact, I have never even met an atheist who feels this way, and I've met quite a few atheists. Again, this is as ignorant as claiming that all Mexicans are Catholic border jumpers.

4) Dr. Bahnsen has absolutely no understanding of the concept of chance and its relation to natural predictable behavior of material entities and their respective properties. Yet he relies on these things every time he places a Bible on a table assuming that gravity will keep it there (unless Dr. Bahnsen believes in Intelligent Falling).

I definitely agree with the first statement that Josh quoted, "It is not a mark of rationality for a person to assert one thing, but then to live contrary to it." But I most definitely disagree with the rest of the quote.

Allow me to toss in my own analysis of belief in the Biblical God, based on Dr. Bahnsen's statement that "It is not a mark of rationality for a person to assert one thing, but then to live contrary to it."

The life of the man of faith is riddled with such inconsistency. He will presuppose the sorrow of death and mourn at a funeral to honor a dead friend or relative, even though he previously argued that man's ultimate destination, Heaven, is so incredibly blissful that it makes Earthly life seem like Hell by comparison. The man of faith will insist that man is nothing more than a slave to God, wholly owned by God and owing all of his being, love, and consideration to God, and then the man of faith will commit daily actions that serve no other interest but his own: buying his favorite sports car, watching his favorite TV show, pursuing the woman that he is most attracted to, securing the most profitable business deal. All of these actions are committed solely for the man of faith's own personal values. The man of faith will argue that in sexual relations 'only married sex is moral sex' but will almost certainly have premarital sex and even cheat on his spouse. The Catholic Priests are the worst of the bunch, championing marriage-only sex in the Cathedrals while putting their hands down the pants of prepubescent boys. The profession of the Catholic Priest has the highest child molestation rate in the Western world, closely followed by the Protestant preacher profession. The man of faith will state that the things that happen in the universe happen because of God, but will then turn around and take direct action to serve his own needs, clearly implying that he subconsciously knows that he must take matters into his own hands if his values are to be fulfilled, rather than -in practice- 'giving it up to God'. The Bible never said, "God helps those who help themselves." The man of faith does not have a workable worldview, and he rarely attempts to conduct his life within that worldview anyway. The man of faith exposes the weakness of his worldview every time he commits an action other than prayer or Bible study.