“According
to naturalism, God
does not exist; therefore,
you must form your own
essence to give your existence
meaning and value.”
can examine just one aspect of the naturalist’s position and
see why it’s something we can’t embrace.
According to naturalism, God does not exist; therefore,
you must form your own essence to give your existence
meaning and value. But remember, this means you are a
“cell in an everlasting body,” molecules in motion, chemistry
and physics dictating how you act, feel, and respond to this
world. You are not a soul or a self; you are a machine, a slave
to the physical processes that determine what you think, say,
and do. For this reason, you have no free will. This is a huge
18
problem for the naturalist. Freedom, the very thing needed
to have a meaningful existence, is the very thing that cannot
exist if naturalism is true.
How anyone can hold to naturalism and a belief in free
will is beyond me. And for that reason, I cannot imagine
how anyone can be a Naturalist. The most important thing
they need to live a meaningful life is impossible according
to their worldview. And isn’t this the greatest form of irony?
Naturalists go to great lengths to manufacture freedom so
that they can give meaning to their existence, rejecting the
Christian worldview that naturally contains both freedom
and meaning.
So it is naturalism that has brought us this battle. From
it follows the fight we are currently in. A meaningful life is
what hangs in the balance here. This is why the battle rages.
So what does this mean for us who believe in God and
are trying to hold on to a more sane society? Foremost, it
means we must engage the root issue. We cannot merely
address symptoms. We easily get sucked into arguments
over bathroom policies and what not, which that is fine; we
should engage in those conversations. But our efforts will be
fruitless if we fail to address the issue at its heart. Genderless
bathrooms flow from the naturalistic worldview.
Unfortunately, most people haven’t really thought about
gender issues and such in a meaningful way. They haven’t
recognized how naturalism is the worldview behind the
fighting. They haven’t connected the dots. They’ve merely
connected with soundbites.
You can help, though. You can help people think mean-
ingfully about this important issue as you engage them in
respectful conversation. As I’ve written in my book Rela-
tional Apologetics, I believe the best approach in most cases
is to ask questions, listen, learn how to stay on topic, practice
humility, and point people at the right time toward a true
understanding. Be gentle and respectful in your conversa-
tions, and many will come to see that Christianity still
speaks reason in an age of naturalistic nonsense.
Originally published at MichaelCSherrard.com. Used by permission.
Michael C. Sherrard is a pastor, the director of Ratio Christi
College Prep, the author of Relational Apologetics, and a musi-
cian having released several albums and contributed to many
others. Mike has a B.A. in Religion and a Masters of Divinity
with a concentration in Apologetics from Luther Rice Seminary
and University and is currently doing post-grad work in the area
of New Testament ethics.