The rampant misinformation and deception that dominate the culture – resulting in advice, guidance and national leadership no more helpful than a wet roll of toilet paper – can be attributed to seven things, which have catapulted us into the abys of stupidity.
- The war on truth. There is no better coverage of this issue than Pastor John MacArthur’s book “The Truth War,” but here are some snippets.
- It is impossible to make sense of truth without acknowledging God as the necessary starting point through Scripture. Truth is what God decrees and is not any individual’s opinion or imagination. It is not clay you can shape any way you want.
- The compromising church. The church has become more influenced by the world, than the world more influenced by the church.
- Compromise has become a virtue while devotion to truth has become offensive.
- In the guise of tolerance and compromise, personal behavior has no boundaries. The goal is to make everyone feel all right. Discernment and discrimination are ruled out and have been vilified.
- The Bible provides clarity and discernment, not man.
- Declining religious affiliation. For the past several years, Pew Research has underscored the declining religious affiliation of millennials, as well as others. The further the culture moves away from Scripture, the further it moves away from the reality.
- Hummingbird attention spans. We have a growing population that has an attention span of a hummingbird, which leads to a reliance on snippets of unfiltered, mind-numbing tripe from TV talk shows, celebrities and most media outlets, as well as many “science” publications.
- Declining lack of critical thinking and reasoning skills and the growth of illiteracy. This is directly related to the significant erosion of public education, poor parenting and churches that have compromised their role. Many pastors have become more interested in being popular to the world than critical of it, and many parents have abdicated their role as parent to the culture.
- One’s worldview. Your worldview, or set of beliefs and presuppositions, affect how you view and interpret everything. It triggers your decisions and governs your expectations. An evolutionary worldview leaves one far more prone to junk science, dead-end lifestyle habits and unrealistic expectations, because it begins with a set of assumptions that are false, and biologically impossible. Ken Ham of Answers In Genesis, makes the following valid points during his “A Culture & Church in Crisis” conference.
- Since public education completely opposes a biblical worldview, and less than 6% of purported Christian schools in America teach a biblical worldview, one should only expect the disastrous results we see in America and around the world today. All the issues we see before us, such as gay marriage, abortion, pedophilia, racism, gender issues, euthanasia, etc. are not the main problem, but symptoms of the main problem, which is a secular worldview – man’s word over Scripture, God’s Word, which clearly defines these issues, or symptoms. So, if the foundation of your thinking is wrong, then any actions undertaken, our cultural symptoms, are going to be wrong as well.
- Genesis 1-11, which is so attacked by the world, and much of the church, or ignored, is the foundation for the rest of the Bible. More people, and churches, are focused on end-times or eschatology, but the book of Revelation is not foundational to the rest of the Bible or it’s doctrines. This is where we have lost it in the church and the culture at large.
- An extensive misunderstanding of what science is, as well as its limitations. As pointed out by John West, Ph.D., in “Science and Scientism,” scientists aren’t as objective or neutral as people think. The benefits from modern science are extensive, but he points out that it is a myth that scientists are always impartial and objective in everything. Why? Because “ones underlying worldview cannot help but impact the rest of one’s views,” and the worldview of most scientists is inherently liberal. He also points out that science is a lot more fallible that its boosters claim, and science failure is a normal part of science. This is very understandable because science is a fallible human enterprise, based upon very fallible human reasoning as well as a finite understanding. Science is not Scripture and does not define truth, but may only discover it, which is why a “consensus” in science, should never be accepted without question. Science is there to be challenged. If it were not, then it’s not science; its politics and ideology. Nonsense remains nonsense even when talked about by famous scientists. Don’t just accept the claims, examine the evidence. Yesterday’s heresies may become tomorrow’s orthodoxy. If you want to shut down the progress of science then shut down the voice of the dissenter. Do what the social media giants are doing: censor the arguments you don’t like. This will stop scientific progress, not advance it, then we all become victims of the Illusory Truth Effect.
- Narcissism. The Oxford dictionary describes narcissism as an “excessive interest in or admiration of oneself, and one’s physical appearance.” With the advent of social media, the fixation on one’s public image, or social status, has escalated, and the truth for the narcissists is whatever serves their particular interest at the time. They are much less likely to embrace a truth.
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