Slides: Christianity and Rationalistic Statism

Christianity and Rationalistic Statism

By David Feddes

Rationalistic Statism

• Rationalistic:

-Intellectuals and experts know best.

-Society gets salvation through education.

-Ultimate truth is human thinking without divine revelation

• Statism: Government officials, not families or individuals or churches or businesses, should have the final say in everything.

• Rationalistic statism: Government uses ideas of intellectuals to control society.

Philosopher-Kings: Thinkers who shaped rulers

•Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)

•Karl Marx (1818-1883)

•Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)

•Seneca (1 BC – 65 AD)

•Aristotle (384 BC – 322 BC)

•Plato (428 BC – 348 BC)

Friedrich Nietzsche

•  God is dead

•  No eternal truth, just will to power

•  Re-think everything in terms of evolution without morals

•  Envisioned a new level of evolution: the Superman

Adolph Hitler

•  Wanted to apply Nietzsche’s philosophy and Darwin’s biology

•  Envisioned Germans as the new super race

•  Started worst war ever

•  Massacred millions of Jews and others

•  Killed himself

Karl Marx

•  Said God is not real

•  Said economics controls everything

•  Private property and family prevented fair, rational equality.

•  Assumption: man is basically good, except for the bourgeoisie

•  Workers’ paradise?  No, hell on earth

Murderous Marxist Regimes

• Russia: Lenin and Stalin

• Mao Zedong’s China

• Pol Pot's Cambodia

• North Korea: Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong-Il

Jean Jacques Rousseau

•  Said people are born good but corrupted by family and social institutions

•  Children flourish in state-run institutions

•  The people’s will is expressed by the government

•  Blend of selfishness and statism

Maximilien Robespierre

Said: "Rousseau is the one man who, through the loftiness of his soul and the grandeur of his character, showed himself worthy of the role of teacher of mankind."

Robespierre led the French Reign of Terror.

Rousseau’s self esteem

• “Show me a better man than me, a heart more loving, more tender, more sensitive.”

• "My consolation lies in my self-esteem.”

• "If there were a single enlightened government in Europe, it would have erected statues of me."

• "I feel too superior to hate. I love myself too much to hate anybody.”

 
Seneca: tutor and advisor to Nero

• Leading Stoic philosopher in New Testament times.

• Seneca defended Nero killing his own mother.

• Eugenics: “We drown children at birth who are weak and abnormal.”

• Seneca favored suicide when quality of life was lacking (assisted suicide movement).

• Seneca was forced by Nero to kill himself.

• Nero blamed Christians for burning Rome and massacred many.

• Nero provoked civil war and killed himself.

Aristotle

• Often simply called “the Philosopher”

• Considered women inferior to men

• Slavery and baby killing were rational

• Promoted eugenics and population control:

-“There must be a law that no imperfect or maimed child shall be brought up.”

-“To avoid an excess in population, some children must be exposed [to die]. For a limit must be fixed to the population of the state.”

• Aristotle personally tutored Alexander the Great, an aggressive invader of nations who died in a drunken stupor at a young age.

Plato

"Until philosophers are kings, or the kings and princes of this world have the spirit and power of philosophy... cities will never have rest from their evils,--no, nor the human race, as I believe,--and then only will our State have a possibility of life and behold the light of day."

Plato’s Republic

• Salvation of society through social engineering based on a blend of education and government

• Elite classes abolish marriage, family, property

• Children educated not by parents but by state

• Women in combat and politics

• Homosexual relations of men with youth

• Male-female promiscuity is okay, but only babies from planned matings may live. Abort or kill others.

• Main goal: “the purity of the race”

• "Our rulers will find a considerable dose of falsehood and deceit necessary for the good of their subjects.”

Philosopher-Kings

• Plato: The Republic

• Aristotle: Alexander

• Seneca: Nero

• Rousseau: Robespierre

• Marx: Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Kim

• Nietzsche: Hitler

“Never have so many been murdered in the name of a doctrine as in the name of the principle that human beings are naturally good.” (Anatole France)

What is our problem?

• Lack of knowledge is not our main personal problem, so education can’t cure our deepest personal flaws.

• Lack of the right system is not our main social problem, so government can’t solve our social ills.

• Sin/separation from God is the main personal and social problem.

• God’s solution may seem foolish and weak to those who trust rationalistic statism.

Foolishness and weakness?

• Corinth was immersed in a culture that adored Greek rationalism and Roman governance.

To the Corinthians Paul wrote, “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” (1 Cor 1:18)

• Christ has done more to transform individuals and societies than all thinkers and rulers:

“For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength." (1 Cor 1:25).

The gospel nullifies rationalistic statism

• Want to trust human wisdom?

"Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?" (1 Cor 1:20).

• Want to trust human power?

"The rulers of this age ... are coming to nothing" (1 Cor 2:6).

Thief vs. shepherd

Plato: The right education and social engineering among the elite classes "will be their salvation, and they will be the saviors of the State… Our state, if rightly ordered, is perfect."

"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep" (John 10:10).