For a Society supposedly based on Science
Science is routinely rejected for Scientisms
I was struck by the awful truth of this statement coupled with my personal experience of trying to convince my contemporaries that they should obtain their Coronary Artery Calcium Score (CAC) rather than wait until they have that premature heart attack that permanently injures the heart. Nearly everyone I talked with scoffed at this even though I explained that I obtained my CAC and discovered I had significant Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) though I never had a single chest pain! People would rather die than exchange their truth, their worldview for a fact based truth. This holds true in every facet of this life. Plato understood this over two millennium ago.
Plato’s metaphor explained his view of people
The Cave illustrates observed behavior and Truth
If names like Fouchault, Hegel, Heidegger, Popper and Soros are vague or unknown then today’s postmodern world is a surprise to you. I am not surprised for they were strange to me also until I began to discover that the history, science and other truths I was taught were not truths at all. I was living in a world of shadows of Plato’s Cave, lost in the trivialities being projected on the back wall to keep me enthralled with the unreality of those behind the scenes. This was as equally true when I was lost as when I was saved.
Satan’s and the sinner’s ungodly mind work in concert to keep one away from the Truth (of God) (Ro 1:18-25). There is no truth apart from God. There are knowable facts but facts are not truth until they are put into a context. The sinner’s mind is ungodly, against God and will brook no acceptance of God or His truths for the sinner is of his, or her, father the Devil, Satan (Jo 8:44). Everyone is born chained to sin and willingly fighting against release from those chains. Each person is force-fed via the shadows on the wall the worldview Satan desires. These shadows consist of trivialities such as the various forms of visual entertainment, music, books and even scientisms that form the context into which such facts as are found are forced. Evolution is such a context. It began as a means to explain why white folk were better than all other folk based on a lie; the lie of different races! When it became inconvenient the eugenics portion was stripped away but its foundational philosophy was retained to explain nature apart from God. Nearly every scientism today has some basis in this lie: shadows on the wall.
The educational system was designed to build this erroneous worldview on children with the force of government requiring that every child be trained in this error. John Dewey, father of modern education, built the modern public education system around this error and used the scientism of psychology to train children like Pavlov’s dogs to accept such errors as truths. Those who began to question life, their position as the back of the cave, were promoted nearer to the light which projected the images on the back cave wall. These became perceived as societies movers and shakers or leaders. In fact, they were also living the illusion that they were choosing what the others should accept as truth; yet, they also remained in the unseen chains of the sinful mind. They believe(d) they were choosing what people should know but they were also devoid of God’s truth and thus remained in chains bound to Satan.
Each level was further indoctrinated by the cultural saturation of these falsehoods. Entertainment was simply another tool to embed and reinforce these shadows into the minds. Whether entertainment took the form of sports, movies, television, music, theater or books; the message conveyed the truths each level believed. Moving up toward the entrance of the Cave was not a move toward enlightenment but a greater deception. Those who were moved along believe they were gaining power when in fact they had less power for they had to maintain their illusion in order to not be moved back where they been.
As the Lost Understand Reality
They simply Build a different Worldview
What we are witnessing today, have history shows each succeeding generation has undergone this process, though not as accelerated as today, is the convergence of different worldviews. These are not collisions of truths or a battle of truth over lie; these are collisions of lies as to which lie shall prevail! While science can reveal facts, research is frequently a tool to build one’s power behind scientism: another shadow on the wall! Current nutritional pyramids, the lipid model of heart disease, old age evolutionary theories are such scientisms based on shadows and even though these so-called truths are being challenged, change often occurs because the old adherents die off leaving the new adherents to their truths at the projection flame {Max Planck’s Law of Change (my label)}. Is there no hope?
Only Christ frees us from the Cave, However,
We do not go willingly into His Light
Christ’s death on the stauros can free a person to head into the Light; however, we do not go willingly. The Light, God’s truth, is foreign to us, to our worldview. Though we have a new nature, we retain the body of flesh with its proclivity to sin (2Co 5:17; Ro 7:21-24). God uses testings and tribulations brought on both by our fleshly sins and by Satan to chasten and educate us, moving us closer to more fully understanding His truth (Lk 22:31-32; He 12:3-8). But, we can never fully leave the Cave and come into the Light while we dwell in this body of flesh just as Moses could not directly look on Christ in His glory lest he be consumed by the holiness of God while he remained unholy in the flesh (Ex 33:18-23; 34:5-8; 1Co 13:12). But, when we see Christ then we shall look upon His glory and know Him as He already knows us as we will have left these fleshly bodies behind; these bodies that seek to pridefully compete against the Father (1Co 1:29).
The current clash of differing sinful worldviews should not deceive the Christian into supporting one over another for neither looks to God for truth regardless of their supporters. Let us go outside the camp bearing the reproach of Christ which He did when He willingly offered Himself on the stauros for us (He 13:10-14). Let us look forward to the heavenly city of New Jerusalem which our spiritual forefathers also longed to see and thus gained acceptance from God (He 11:13-16; Re 21:1-4). Let us look forward to leaving the Cave rather than help to rebuild the Cave in their image which is anathema to Christ and doomed to destruction (2Pe 3:10-13).