In His book, Why Religion Matters, Huston Smith contrasted the worldview that believes God is the ultimate reality with the view of secular materialism that believes there is no reality (no God) beyond the physical universe – the physical laws of nature and the chemical properties of matter.
Truly serious minded people – those concerned about evidence – will recognize the importance of thinking about the implications of these two major worldviews. The opening chapter of The Epistle of Paul to the Romans not only answers the question concerning what is at stake regarding the implications of these two worldviews, but this chapter (Romans 1:18-32) is as great a statement about this issue that is available to humans.
The late Dr. Thomas B. Warren summarized the content of these powerful verses (Romans 1:18ff) in his 1978 debate on the existence of God with philosophy professor Wallace Matson of the University of California (Berkeley). Warren said, “In Romans 1:18 and following, after Paul made clear that the evidence of God is right before the eyes of everyone… [he] then showed, in regard to those who turned away from God, three times in that chapter… God gave them up” in giving a list of the terrible and heinous crimes that were committed (Warren-Matson Debate 310, 312). In the loss of God from the mind of man, “…they refused to have God in their knowledge…” (Romans 1:28), which results in “the loss of God in the life of man” (Robertson, Word Pictures of the New Testament, Vol. 4, 331).
Paul wrote, “…their foolish heart was darkened” (Romans 1:21). “Foolish” is the Greek word asunetos – an adjective derived from the verb, suniemi. The noun sunesis refers to “putting together the facts and information and drawing conclusions and seeing relationships” (Rogers and Rogers, The New Linguistic and Exegetical Key to the Greek New Testament 460). Robertson says they were “not able to put together the manifest evidence about God” (329). Lard states that they either argued from false premises or “conducted the process amiss” (i.e., invalid argumentation), and either or both results in “unwarrantable conclusions. …[T]hey became foolish. This could not have happened had their reasonings been sound” (Romans 54).
Some today claim that the belief that God is the ultimate Creator of all things is detrimental to human society and the advance of science. Former NASA scientist, Dr. Nobie Stone, disagrees. Stone, who serves as deacon and Bible class teacher with Mayfair Church of Christ, Huntsville, AL, argues in a recent book that this is really not about science. It is about this battle between faith in science (scientism) and faith in God (theism). He says, “The difference is critical. It is the difference between a Christian society and a godless society. It is the difference between a life of purpose and hope, and a life of emptiness and despair.”
Stone, whose experimental research with certain aspects of orbiting space crafts is internationally recognized, writes:
Those who embrace a materialistic worldview claim… this understanding somehow liberates us and enriches our lives. Yet, ironically, the very claims they make undermine any purpose or value of life. …[I]f man was not created on purpose, then he has no purpose. If we are here as the result of a grand and complex accident then, by definition, we are not here on purpose and life has no inherent value or meaning. This is the ultimate conclusion if materialism is true, and this distorted view is having a tragic effect on society. It is ironic, but telling, that in such an affluent and free society that offers almost unlimited opportunity, one of the highest causes of death among its young people is suicide. (Genesis 1 and Lessons from Space: Faith, Reason, and Nature xiii-xiv emphasis added)
Yes, the stakes are very high. Romans 1:18-32 makes this obvious. The present effect that materialism is having on society just makes it more obvious. Moral collapse follows spiritual collapse.
