Ideas Have Consequences

          Ideas have consequences. There are two views of humanity in the world today. And both were on display at the Colorado vs. Arizona basketball game on January 15. A college basketball game seems like an odd place for a clash of world views, but such is the condition or our society. Bill Walsh, who was calling the game, took the opportunity to present his fellow broadcasters with gifts. He gave Dave Pasch a copy of the Origin of Species, because Pasch doesn’t believe in evolution. Pasch countered by offering to give Walsh a "book that counters the Origin of Species" at their next game.

Unfortunately, most of America's cultural leaders today side with Bill Walsh, and ideas always have consequences. If evolution is understood as the evolutionist intends it to be understood, then human life has no inherent sanctity, no dignity, and no special status at all. The late Stephen J. Gould, who was Professor of Paleontology at Harvard University, openly denied the idea that human beings have any special status or any special origin at all by suggesting that we are simply an accidental “twig” on the “amazingly arborescent tree of life.” We are a pure, biological accident. The wonder is not that some creator called us into being, or some plan produced us. Rather, said Gould, in all the randomness of natural process, look what resulted—isn’t that amazing? But, it is not meaningful in any moral sense. Richard Dawkins of Oxford University says that all of evolution is about the contest of “memes”—the basic units of genetic data. It is a rather bizarre idea, but what he is saying is that the survival of the fittest works its way down to the tiniest elements, such that human beings are simply machines produced by biological evolution in order that germs can replicate themselves. We are basically germ factories and germ hosts until we die, and then they will move to another body in which to take up their form and shape and sustenance. Your sole reason to exist is to be a germ factory.

Such is the nonsense our schools are teaching today. This is what is taught at Oxford and Harvard Universities. This is what is established in the curriculum, and this is the worldview that shapes the minds of those who make our laws and judge our cases and teach our children and report the news.

 
           Ideas have consequences, and the idea of evolutionary naturalism tells us that human beings are simply an accident. There is no special status, no special quality, no special sanctity or dignity of life. And if human beings really are just a biological accident, then why not abort in the womb or put them into Hitler’s ovens?

I suggest to you that this is the very reason The 20th century saw assaults on human life and human dignity on an unprecedented scale. Historians now believe that perhaps as many as a billion human beings were murdered by atheistic ideologies in the twentieth century. It may be that a half a billion died in Communist China alone. Over 200 million died in Stalin’s death camps and by his execution squads.

Christendom has been criticized for its occasional crusades and  inquisitions. But Christianity has nothing to compare to the millions slaughtered by atheists in the killing fields of Cambodia, and Rwanda. Indeed the one by product that always accompanies Atheism is mass murder. It is the chief characteristic of that philosophy.

Another product of this secular view is that human beings are no longer considered superior to animals. The animal rights movement has now built an entire argument against human dignity apart from other animals. This kind of argument, they insist, is a form of “speciesism.” Humans, these animal rights activists argue, are not superior to other animals—just more powerful in manipulating the environment. The logical end of this argument is that to wear animal skins and eat animal meat is the equivalent of murder. What right do we have to deprive the animal of its life or of its skin?

In contrast to this deadly worldview, we offer a Biblical concept. The Bible clearly teaches that we alone are created in the image of God:

            Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” (Genesis 1:26 NKJV).

 The Bible teaches that we alone are spiritual beings. The image of God is a spiritual image. It has to do with the fact that there is a unique spiritual capacity within us. There are three kinds of life that a creature may possess. The first is Biological life. This refers to the capacity to eat, grow, reproduce and carry on the biological processes necessary for survival. Plants, animals, and human beings all possess biological life. The second kind of life is psychological or emotional life. This is the capacity to remember, and to process events both intellectually and emotionally. Animals and humans both possess this capacity. Clearly both humans and animals learn, and experience emotion. However, the final category of life is unique to human beings. I refer of course to spiritual life. This is a dignity about which the Scripture is very clear. Alone of all creation, human beings may consciously know and worship God. Indeed the Bible teaches that we did not arise by accident, but that God created each of us personally.

 

Psalms 139:13 - 16 (NKJV):

For You formed my inward parts;

    You covered me in my mother’s womb.

I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;

    Marvelous are Your works,

    And that my soul knows very well.

My frame was not hidden from You,

    When I was made in secret,

    And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.

Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.

    And in Your book they all were written,

    The days fashioned for me,

    When as yet there were none of them.

 From the moment of conception (defined as the exchange of genetic information) to the end of natural death we are made in the image of God. This clearly rules out Abortion, Euthanasia, and the use of embryo's for experimentation, or to harvest stem cells, or to destroy embryos that are unwanted as a part of fertility treatments. There is no biblical ground or cause to take the pre-born life. It is murder and has been recognized as such from the very beginning of biblical time. We are the image bearers of God, and we are fully deserving of the dignity that should be accorded to every human being. Human life must be defended. Ideas have consequences.