It's Okay to Believe in God

Belief in God is basic to religions, and to a spiritually oriented life. Especially in the monotheistic traditions, a strong belief in God underlies our basic understanding of the cosmos, of history, and of human nature.

In recent centuries, materialists and ideological leftists have sought to undermine, and supplant, belief in God; thus to replace it with a mechanistic and violent view of nature, and of human interactions.

Thanks to this leftist undermining, several trends emerged in the past two centuries, which reinforced each other. Each claimed the mantle of science, and of cool reason. Each was hostile to the Bible, and to a religious understanding.

Charles Darwin

1) Charles Darwin asserted that the development of life is random, and without purpose. That progress to higher and more successful species was based upon victory in a hostile environment, usually through violent and deadly competition. “It’s just natural” became a watchword, and Social Darwinism soon justified discrimination and atrocities in the name of evolution.

2) Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels taught “dialectical materialism,” claiming that God and religion were illusions, and that conflict is not only inherent but necessary to personal and social progress. With conflict paramount, bloody revolutions were launched, and over 100 million innocent victims were slaughtered. “When the revolution comes,” remains a common phrase among left-wing activists.

Sigmund Freud

3) Sigmund Freud dispensed with traditional morality, in his personal life and with his psychological theories. He emphasized permanent inner tensions, and repressed sexual urges, in explaining human motivations, and paths to our partial healing. “You’re so uptight” has become an enticement for sexual promiscuity.

The Frankfurt School of neo-Marxists sought to integrate those teachings and to spread them widely. Herbert Marcuse, Theodor Adorno, and others were very successful in bringing that radical philosophy to universities, helping launch the so-called sexual revolution. Rudi Dutschke, the prominent spokesperson of the German student movement, spoke of a “long march through the institutions,” which explains how leftist intellectuals could gain cultural and governmental dominance.

Those activists were, in fact, highly successful. Today, most universities are bastions of materialism, highly critical of religion, and openly disdainful of traditional ideas about morality and marriage. Moreover, professors who practice literary analysis known as “Deconstructionism” will deliberately set about destroying people’s cherished beliefs.

College students from religious backgrounds are often shocked when exposed to these ideas, as derived from Marx, Darwin, and Freud. This radical ideology is said to be rooted in the very latest scientific discoveries, upheld by solid evidence and rigorous logic; as contrasted with (supposedly) archaic ideas and blind faith. Students are told that religion has opposed science, and will lead to another period of l dark ages, but now it’s time to embrace a politically correct and tolerant future.

Sometimes those faithful student’s beliefs are deeply undermined, and they become secular, even choose instead to embrace a licentious (temporarily fun) college-dorm lifestyle.

Many young Unificationists are facing all this!

Scientist and philosopher Francisco Ayala, from the University of California, Irvine, writes movingly of the extreme distress felt by many university students he’s mentored; young folks who are faithful yet naive, perhaps coming from a sheltered background. Too often, they get slammed very hard by modern science at once, including those twisted leftist interpretations.

However, those leftist scholars were wrong. They did offer some insights and made new discoveries, but then drew incorrect conclusions. In reality, traditional religions advanced human knowledge and built civilizations, and helped humanity to become free and enlightened.

Marx kick-started the most bloody episode in all history, and his modern disciples offer very little that’s positive. John Locke and others had a much better idea. Darwin was mistaken about the situation of the ecosystem, and the advancement of species, and the flourishing of individuals. Slowly, many dissenting (and some faithful) scholars are putting things right. Freud’s understanding of human nature was severely warped, and his contemporary, Alfred Adler, knew better.

The real story is astonishing, and hopeful.

A) Rather than basing everything upon the Bible, way back in 400 AD, Augustine explained that “the Bible is to make us better Christians,” while we should “go to school to learn about the moon

and the stars.”

B) Concepts such as “critical thinking,” much beloved by the Left, were first practiced by theologians such as Peter Abelard, a thousand years ago.

C) Galileo was not condemned for saying the Earth moves, but rather, he was caught up in a complicated squabble --even as Jesuit astronomers confirmed his discoveries, and many church leaders agreed.

D) Numerous medieval scholars, both Islamic and Roman Catholic, helped develop the principle of ‘secondary causation,’ which scholars believe contributed to the scientific revolution.

E) Scientists John Barrow and Frank Tipler developed the Strong Anthropic Principle, which shows how the universe is friendly to stars, chemistry, and intelligent life. Its physical constants are finely tuned for existence and complexity. Our actual reality is so very improbable, it’s like winning the Powerball lottery millions of times in a row, and without losing even once!

F) Paul Davies writes about how science has utterly failed to explain life’s original emergence, and 50 years after the famous Miller-Urey experiment, science has made little progress. Unificationists such as Jonathan Wells have continued this school of thought, looking for God’s direct input.

G) Famed biologists, such as Lynn Margulis and Martin Nowak, are upending Darwinism from within. They are showing how long-term cooperation, harmony between organisms, and altruism within human communities, are the real keys to the advancement of species, plus environmental and social success.

Rev. Sun Myung Moon, and today’s Unificationist teachers, are showing how sexual passion, flourishing within a healthy and principled relationship, brings joy to God and to humans.

In sum: science is opening up room for a Creator God, and is coming much closer to agreeing with basic religious precepts.

More can be found in my essay, “Proofs of God.” At www.cuebon.com/proofs.html

Paul Carlson a truck driver by day, a science fiction author by night, a gardener on weekends, and Unificationist all the time