PART TWO
Review:
· Deconstruction and Deconversion as…
o Repudiation and Reconfiguration
· Why people repudiate and reconfigure the faith…
o Scripture
o Science
o Christians
o Hell
o God of the Bible
o LGBTQ issues
· Introduction for tonight: 2 Corinthians 10.3-5
o 3For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh 4for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. 5We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.
o Resources at Ratiochristi.org: ratiochristi.org/resources/publications/
§ 29 booklets (30 pages long)
1. KEY Book! In Search of a Confident Faith: Overcoming Barriers to Trusting in God by J. P. Moreland and Klaus Issler (Intervarsity Press, 2008).
a. Distractions of the Head and Distractions of the Heart (chapters 2 & 3)
b. Distractions of the Head: Two kinds
i. Vague doubts
ii. Specific doubts
2. Vague Doubts and cultural plausibility structure
a. Plausibility structure
i. “Every culture has a set of background assumptions—we call it a plausibility structure—that sets a tone or a framework for what people think, how they feel and how they act. It directs what they will entertain as plausible, what they will habitually notice or disregard without thinking about what they are doing, and how they form and retain their beliefs. This plausibility structure is so widespread and subtle that people usually don’t even know it is there even though it hugely impacts their perspective on the world. The plausibility structure is composed of thoughts (e.g., scientists are smart; religious people are gullible and dumb), symbols (a flag being burned, a picture of Paris Hilton, tattoos), music and so forth. It is so deeply internalized and widely adopted that it is taken for granted. It is so subconscious that it is seldom noticed.” (Moreland and Issler, 45-46)
ii. “Here’s the problem this raises for trust in God. Without even knowing it, we all carry with us this cultural map, this background set of assumptions, and our self-talk—the things that form our default beliefs (ones we naturally accept without argument), the things we are embarrassed to believe (if they run contrary to the authorities in our cultural map), and related matters—create a natural set of doubts about Christianity. Most of these factors are things people are not even aware of. In fact, if this cultural map is brought to people’s attention, they would most likely disown it even though, in fact, it constitutes the internalized ideas that actually shape what people do and don’t believe.” (Moreland and Issler, 46)
iii. Naturalism as the aura and aroma of our plausibility structure
b. Vague doubts due to the background plausibility structure
i. “In contrast, other doubts are unknowingly fed by ideas absorbed from the plausibility structure of the surrounding culture. People with these kinds of doubts are unaware of how they have been influenced by the assumptions made by the surrounding culture (and, as we said above, they may not even recognize those assumptions even when made explicit). Even though such assumptions are usually easy to answer, finding such answers does not, by itself, resolve the doubts. This can only be done by making those cultural assumptions explicit, by exposing them for the intellectual frauds they actually are, and by being vigilant in keeping them before one’s mind and spotting their presence in the ordinary reception of input each day from newspapers, magazines, office conversation, television, movies and so on. Said differently, it is not enough to find good answers to these doubts as it is for more specific intellectual problems. The real solution here is the conscious formation of alternative, countercultural ways of seeing, thinking and being present in the world. If this is not done, these background assumptions will bully us Christians to live secular lives, and they will squeeze the spiritual life out of us.” (Moreland and Issler, 47-48)
ii. Seven main doubt-inducing background assumptions (Moreland and Issler, 48)
1. It is smarter to doubt things than to believe them. Smart people are skeptical. People who find faith easy are simplistic, gullible and poorly educated. The more educated you become, the more you will become a skeptic.
2. University professors are usually unbelievers because they know things unrecognized by average folk that make belief in the Bible a silly thing to have.
3. Religion is a matter of private, personal feelings and should be kept out of debates—political and/or moral—in the public square.
4. Science is the only way to know reality with confidence, or least it is a vastly superior way of knowing reality than other approaches, e.g., religious ones. And science has made belief in God unnecessary.
5. We can know things only through our five senses. If I can see, touch, taste, hear or smell something, then it’s real and I can know it. But if I can’t sense it in one of these ways, I can’t know it’s real and I must settle for a blind, arbitrary choice to believe in it.
6. If we can’t get the experts to agree on something like the existence and nature of God, abortion, or life after death, then we just know anything about it.
7. Enlightened people are tolerant, nonjudgmental and compassionate. They are unwilling to impose their views on others. Defensive, unenlightened people are dogmatic, ugly polar opposites of enlightened folk.
c. Challenging these vague doubts and the background assumptions generating them—a four-step procedure (Moreland and Issler, 49)
i. Step One: Spot the activating source (e.g., the evening news, TV show, movie, conversation at work) and be alert while being exposed to it.
ii. Step Two: Explicitly state to yourself exactly the doubt-inducing cultural assumption that lies beneath the surface of the activating source (start with the list of seven above).
iii. Step Three: Challenge and question the truth of the cultural assumption. Is that really true? Doubt the doubt!
iv. Step Four: Replace the cultural assumption with a biblical truth—the correct alternative way of seeing reality—and make it your goal to grow in God-confidence about the alternative.
· “We should read the Bible for various reasons. It should be read for facts, and it should be read devotionally. But reading the Bible every day of one's life does something else--it gives one a different mentality. In the modern world we are surrounded by the mentality of the uniformity of natural causes in a closed system, but as we read the Bible it gives us a different mentality. Do not minimize the fact that in reading the Bible we are living in a mentality which is the right one, opposed to the great wall of this other mentality which is forced upon us on every side--in education, in literature, in the arts, and in the mass media.” He Is There and He Is Not Silent in Francis A. Schaeffer Trilogy (Crossway, 1990), p. 334.
d. Strategies of defense and offense
i. Defense:
1. Do not be a passive consumer of entertainment and media input into your lives
2. Think and challenge the background assumptions
ii. Offense:
“A helpful strategy of offense is to develop a counterculture in which believers are regularly exposed to Christian scholars, sophisticated Christian alternatives to secular ideas, and thoughtful Christian books, magazines and journals. Note, such exposure is not important merely so Christians can come to develop Christian alternatives to secular ideas. It is not just secular ideas that must be countered. It is the process of secularization itself that must be confronted, including the process of socializing Christians into thinking of themselves as marginalized, weak, gullible, uneducated people. Thus, even if you are not yourself particularly well-educated, and even if you cannot understand the line of reasoning of articulate Christian scholars and carefully thought-out Christian books, exposure to the very existence of such things can provide you with confidence and remove doubt rooted in cultural background assumptions.” (Moreland and Issler, 54-55)
· “Over the last forty years a revolution has been occurring in Anglo-American philosophy. Since the late 1960s Christian philosophers have been coming and defending the truth of the Christian worldview with philosophically sophisticated arguments in the finest scholarly journals and professional societies. And the face of Anglo-American philosophy has been transformed.” J. P. Moreland and William Craig, Philosophical Foundations of a Christian Worldview—2nd ed. (Intervarsity Press, 2017), p. 5
3. Dealing with specific intellectual doubts
a. “Such a doubt has two characteristics: the doubting person is clearly aware of it, and he or she can write it down on paper. The doubt is quite precise and specific.” (Moreland and Issler, 55)
b. Eight steps for removing these doubts and strengthening God-confidence (Moreland and Issler, 55-59)
i. Approach the issue with the hope that you will find an intellectually satisfying answer.
ii. Be sure the doubt is really intellectual.
· “Here’s how to tell if your doubt is not largely intellectual: If you have received an intellectual answer to the doubt that satisfies most other believers, especially those more knowledgeable than you, and it doesn’t help you, it’s likely that the problem isn’t intellectual.” (Moreland and Issler, 56)
iii. If the doubt is sourced in the challenges presented by another person, don’t assume he or she has considered fairly the available answers to the issue.
· See my story: “Keeping Faith While Growing Up Evangelical: Reflections on My Journey” https://whiterosereview.blogspot.com/2020/03/keeping-faith-while-growing-up.html
iv. Write your doubt down on paper.
v. Doggedly find an answer.
vi. Doubt you doubts.
vii. Remember there is a communal dimension to knowledge.
1. We can’t know everything
2. Who are the evangelical scholars in the field who have answers?
viii. Remember that atheists and skeptics have as many doubts as we do or more.
1. Atheist philosopher, Thomas Nagel: “I want atheism to be true and am made uneasy by the fact that some of the most intelligent and well-informed people I know are religious believers. It isn’t just that I don’t believe in God and, naturally, I hope that I’m right in my belief. It’s that I hope there is no God! I don’t want there to be a God; I don’t want the universe to be like that.” (Quoted in Moreland and Issler, 59)
2. Atheist, Douglas Coupland: “Now—here is my secret: I tell it to you with an openness of heart that I doubt I shall ever achieve again, so I pray that you are in a quiet room as you hear these words. My secret is that I need God—that I am sick and can no longer make it alone. I need God to help me give, because I no longer seem capable of giving; to help me be kind, as I no longer seem capable of kindness; to help me love, as I seem beyond being able to love.” (Quoted in Moreland and Issler, 59)
