Living Logically

The greatest challenge for Christians since the birth of the Church is to live according to the logical conclusions of our faith. I believe that our failure to do so is tragic, and this has resulted in many unbelievers turning their backs on the Lord of salvation. My prayer for my life and all other Christians is that we live according to what we believe. On the contrary, I praise the Lord that most atheists do not live according to the logical conclusions of their beliefs. If they did, we would live in an even more violent, unmerciful, and unloving world than we live in today.

How can I say such a thing about atheists? I know (and love) many people who do not believe in God, and I can attest to the fact that they are wonderful people. Yet they are so in spite of what they believe, not because of it. Atheism, founded on evolutionary theory, claims that we are all here by virtue of a cosmic accident, which then led to further accidents that produced living things. These living things, by struggling against each other, have managed to evolve into the enormous diversity of life that we see today. At the pinnacle of this struggle for life (using death as the primary means of advancement) emerges the human being.

In the interests of their own survival and reproduction, humans learned to work together and have consequently developed complex societies. Our values – the invisible substance of our lives – come from a desire to be accepted by our society. This acceptance increases our chances for personal success, which ultimately aids each individual in his or her struggle for existence.

The logical conclusion of this theory is ‘an every man for himself’ ideology, whereby we only cooperate with others to our advantage. Family members help each other because they are closely related; ‘kind’ acts within a family are thus a mere biological consequence of sharing genes. In broader terms, individuals may benefit by cooperating with their larger societal groups (e.g. a tribe or race) in order to destroy other such groups of people. By doing so, individuals in the winning group are able to secure more resources for their survival by ousting or subjugating individuals in the losing group. This is the biological description of war.

Within each societal group, there will be a hierarchy that is determined by each individual’s fitness. The young and strong will be favoured over the old and infirm. The strong individuals compete ruthlessly with each other for resources and reproductive opportunities. In the process, they trample underfoot or ignore those who are weaker than them, or who cannot contribute to their own success. In such a society, even your own parents would be treated with contempt once they had raised you and then become too old to reproduce. The elderly and infirm would be kicked out of the societal group and left to die.

It does not take much thought to give this ‘evolved human society’ a name, because the world has seen this belief system in action before. This is Nazism. Yet the horror of what is possible following this belief system is not nearly as horrific as the next logical conclusion: there would be nothing morally wrong about it. If human morals were the product of individuals cooperating for their own ends, then all out war between one nation, race, or tribe and another would be natural. No one would protest against it and call for peace, it would not move us to action or invoke any feeling.

If you doubt that this is really the logical conclusion of atheism and the evolutionary process, then all you need to do is study animal societies. Human morality does not come into play in animal societies. After God made animals, He did not give them any moral instruction, but rather set only natural laws over them (Gen. 1:20-25). After sin and death entered the world, the harmonious nature that God created became the brutal nature we see today. Natural selection therefore has full sway over living things, which means that only the fittest may survive. Nature documentaries abound that show groups of animals within the same species attacking each other and fighting over resources. They also show what happens to animals that are too old to hunt/forage for themselves, or those that are too weak to stay with their group. Yet, unlike our horror at these events in human society, this is not considered to be evil in animal society.

My plea to atheists, then, is do not live logically according to your beliefs. It would destroy the moral fibre of your being, which (though you deny it) was given to you by God. It would lower your sense of morality down to that of animals. However, consider why it is that your life and your beliefs do not match up. If you desire to live logically, then it is the belief side that must change.

In contrast, the failure of Christians to live logically is a tragedy. We have been saved by the grace of God, who has bought us with the precious blood of Jesus Christ. Through His Spirit, we are able to draw near to Him and have a real relationship with the Creator of heaven and earth. We have the awesome privilege of being called children of God. The very heart of our faith is the love of God, and His greatest commandments are for us to love Him and to love our neighbour (i.e. everyone we know). Yet, all too often, we do not live according to the core tenets of our faith.  

In his epistle, James throws down this challenge to all Christians: Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. (James 2:18). All that we do and say in our everyday lives (not just on Sundays) should declare our faith in Jesus. Our actions should show the world that He has loved us and saved us by His grace. His Word should change our lives so that we become more like Jesus every day, as James encourages us: Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. (James 1:21-22).

Perhaps one of the reasons that we fail to live out our beliefs is that we do not fully realise that Jesus is the solution to every issue in our lives. I speak to Christians – Are we downcast or depressed? If we draw near to Him, we will see that: In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore. (Ps. 16:11). Do we fret and worry about our future? We must remember this promise: You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You, Because he trusts in You. (Is. 26:3). Do we have financial or other difficulties in our lives? Paul, who suffered many needs, proclaims: I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound… I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. (Phil. 4:12,14). Have we been hurt by someone, and hold a grudge against him or her? The Lord warns us: But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. (Matt 6:15).

These are just some of the things that we would be able to do, if Jesus was enthroned in our hearts as the King of our lives. Everyone experiences these issues in life, yet only Christians possess the answer to them all. The answer is not a 10-step guide to helping yourself, or some psychological theory, or an altered state of consciousness, it is a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Christians are still human, and we may not always live up to expectations, yet we have a Friend we can run to who will help us to live this way. Our task is therefore not to fix society, or even to fix the lives of unbelievers; our task is to introduce them to our Friend, and let Him do the rest.

My plea to Christians, myself included, is to live logically according to our beliefs. We believe that Jesus is Lord – let Him be enthroned in our lives. We believe that we have been set free from the law of sin and death – let us no longer be bound by sin. We believe that, out of His love for humanity, Jesus Christ died for the sins of the world on the cross – let us love others and proclaim this good news to everyone we know. Finally, may we become more like Jesus in all that we say and do; that the world may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. (Matt. 5:15).