Burn the Rosebush, Keep the Roses?
Can "modern" ethics survive without a biblical foundation?
September, 2021
In an increasingly diverse, secular world, it's becoming common for people to question the value of Christianity. The simplest—and most polite—version of that challenge is to ask "is Christianity good for society?"
First, we should note that "true" is more important than "good." That's not meant to distract. Rather, it's important to point out that rational discussion starts with objectivity. Whether something is "good" is secondary to whether it is "true." Closely related to that principle is the way positive outcomes are far more likely when we accurately understand a subject.
Historically, Christian principles have been good for societies; rejecting them has been bad. That, itself, is powerful support for both the truth and practical value of Christianity. A system which accurately diagnoses human strengths and weaknesses, correctly sets boundaries, and appropriately directs our efforts should result in good outcomes. That's precisely what we see when we look at the influence of Christianity on the world.
Virtually everything modern people consider necessary in a healthy society is rooted in Judeo-Christian ideals. That is not an exaggeration, at all. Prior to the dominance of biblical ethics, concepts like mercy, justice, equality, tolerance, reason, charity, mercy, and so forth were either unusual or overtly condemned. Judeo-Christian ethics has influenced the entire world, pulling even non-Christian cultures in those directions—that is, many such cultures adopted these positive ideals only after being influenced from the outside.
The reason for this is the concept of "worldview." This goes deeper than religion, to look at the fundamental views a person has about reality. Questions like "where do we come from," "why are we here," "what is our purpose," and "how do we determine what is right," are what form a worldview. Despite what some people say, not all worldviews are equal. Atheists, Hindus, Muslims, and Christians have extremely different answers to those questions.
What the modern world considers moral is almost entirely rooted in concepts which come only from biblical Christian assumptions. This point is important, because those conclusions—the "good" we want to see in society—cannot survive when cut off from their source. It's not enough to note that "the conclusions we get from Christianity are good." We need to realize that "the conclusions we consider good only make sense when society has a Christian worldview." When you cut flowers from a stem, they eventually fade and die. In the same way, and for the same reason, as culture moves away from Christianity, "good" things rot away.
To give some brief examples:
•Pre-Christian cultures took it for granted that each person was defined—in a hard sense—by their race and class. Today, we call "racism" and "class-ism" immoral errors. In the ancient world, they were considered obvious truths.
•The same is true of ideals like charity and mercy. Ancient cultures dealt with sick and disabled people mostly by abandonment. Or, killing them for convenience. This was especially true of infants and those with diseases. Christianity drove the creation of groups entirely devoted to charitable acts, such as hospitals and orphanages.
•Legal concepts such as human equality only make sense in the Christian worldview. Those ideals grew into worldwide assumptions only as biblical ideas worked deeper and deeper into world governments. The bible indicates that God, not man, is the ultimate authority. It teaches that each person is equally valuable to God. Combined, they imply that a moral government must offer a level of autonomy and freedom. It suggests that government does not have absolute power.
•Christianity is the basis of the modern virtue of "tolerance." Ancient cultures believed, in broad strokes, that might made right. Even law-and-philosophy minded cultures like Greece and Rome set limits on expression and freedom that modern people would find oppressive. The idea that one ought to persuade their neighbor, loving them even when they hate you, is a uniquely Christian idea.
•Finally, the scientific method itself is entirely grounded in a biblical worldview. Rome, Greece, Egypt, China, and many other civilizations were intelligent, wealthy, and powerful. They maintained relative stability for centuries at a time. And yet, they were steeped in worldviews that were inherently "unscientific." Only the biblical worldview assumes that the universe is uniform, orderly, understandable, and subject to human control. Non-Christians can borrow those assumptions, but they're foreign to atheistic, polytheistic, and pagan worldviews. Until culture adopted a biblical view of nature, what we call "science" today was impossible.
Obviously, the above examples are greatly simplified. They're also abbreviated. It would be an understatement to say there's more nuance to all those issues than can be explained in a few sentences. But, in broad strokes, those are among the proofs we have that Christianity is "good" for society. Deeper than that, even, is the fact that what we define as good comes from a Judeo-Christian ethical basis.
To those who would attempt to cut the flowers from the stems, keep in mind these benefits come only from a biblical Christian view. Other approaches can only temporarily borrow those benefits before seeing them dissolve. Even non-Christians, in particular atheists, have noted that much of what they wish to believe about morality can only be sustained in a Judeo-Christian framework. Saying a society can retain these attributes while jettisoning Christianity is like saying "we can burn the rosebush and keep the roses."
That leads to the last point showing Christianity is "good" for society. It's manifestly true that not all societies labelled "Christian" have been perfectly moral. Nor have all people or groups using the title "Christian" acted according to Christ-like principles. In every instance, however, we can point to an aspect of biblical teaching being violated. In other words, everything "bad" for society falls short of a biblical command or ideal. That means the reverse of the above principles is also true: that which we find to be "evil" is, also, contrary to biblical faith.
If the spread of a worldview leads to extremely "good" outcomes, and every "evil" we see is contrary to the principles of that worldview, it's logical to conclude that worldview is an accurate understanding. And, in this case, that it is indeed "good," itself. At the very least, a rational person ought to treat biblical faith as an extremely viable option. Rejecting Christian influence, or driving it from society in the name of "the greater good" is self-defeating.
-- Editor
