I feel like I could easily outline and write a book about this subject. Perhaps someday. However, I was able to write about something that has always puzzled my intellect in regards to evolution. If man evolved, then why do the first civilizations focus primarily on religion rather than natural selection? After all, if man evolved then why would we subject ourselves to religious practices and demanding gods, severely exposing ourselves to quite the opposite of an enjoyable carnal life? This was the norm for ancient civilizations, and the theory of natural selection and evolution did not grow until modern times. Scientists can skew biology and chemistry to their advantage to "prove" evolution, but the social sciences seem to greatly hinder their ideas. According to them, history tells us that cave men made tools, learned about agriculture, and then developed a supernatural concept of God and religion. It's quite a pickle if you ask me.
Finally, many of my thoughts stem more from my recent studies of American culture and "the church" rather than my studies in ancient civilizations. The third question in the prompt was substantial to me, but I do not feel I remotely answered the question about how the course and the Bible help me understand and cope with the changes taking place in America. I understand the changes taking place in America, but I haven't begun to cope with them, per-say. America seems to being traveling upon a downward spiral in regards to Christianity and spirituality in general. As evolution continues to progress in our educational institutions and within our culture, spirituality and the supernatural seem to be superstitions and "woo woo" anymore. Everything is natural. No wonder the slogan "You only live one life, so live it well" is so popular today. This is it, as far as American culture is concerned. Don't waste your life being upset with other people's morals, don't hate, don't live a life governed by a bunch of rules. Peace, love and prosperity baby! That's what it's all about (besides the hokey pokey, of course). But seriously, this secularism is creeping into the church. I have been reading a book by Kenda Creasy Dean titled Almost Christian: What the faith of our teenagers is telling the American church. The book is startling and scary. Following that book I desire to delve into Timothy Keller's Counterfeit Gods and G.K. Beale's We Become What We Worship. I have this sneaking suspicion that America has fallen prey to an all encompassing form of idolatry unlike any other culture before us: individualism. We are our own gods. We worship ourselves, we only seek to appease ourselves, and we love ourselves more than anybody or anything else in the world! It is an alarming "development" that only seems to get worse and worse by generation. Today's teens are the most narcissistic generation yet, and just imagine what the next generation will be like unless we seek to nip the bud before the flower blooms.
Anyways...
The prompt for the paper was the three following questions:
- What have you learned about human nature and human society as you have explored ancient civilizations in this course?
- How does your response to the first question contribute to your understanding of biblical teaching on the nature of God and on human nature?
- How does what you've learned from this course and from the Bible help you to understand and cope with the changes that are taking place in Western Civilization--and specifically in the USA--in our time?
History is more than a timeless collection of dates, names, places, and stories. History is more than just a hodgepodge of unique civilizations, cultures, customs, and characters. History is all of those things, but it is chiefly a story of redemption. History is a story of a creation fallen in sin by man's disobedience to God, and God's act of redemption to renew man's cursed, fallen, and sinful nature into a holy, righteous, and glorified state. Although history contains a potpourri of influential events, times, peoples, and religions, all in all, each action and person is another facet in the larger picture of man's redemption through the atoning work of Christ Jesus. Ancient civilizations seemed to have sensed their spiritual fall and need for salvation as evidenced by their cultural emphasis of religion and deity worship, but modern America seems to lack any regard for man's spiritual constitution of life. Although America seems to be progressing scientifically and technologically, we are heading the wrong direction when it comes to attending to the real issues and necessities of our spiritual lives.
A study in ancient civilizations and cultures clearly articulates that man, cursed by sin and death, is in a constant state of decay. Although many historians and scientists would argue that man is progressively improving and evolving into a much more sophisticated form of the species, Biblical truth dwarfs this view, shedding a tremendous and profound light upon just "how far" the human race has come over the years. As human society has progressed technologically, we have certainly digressed spiritually.
While exploring ancient civilizations, one should not be surprised to find a striking correlation between a civilization's intellectual and technological advancement and its sudden decline and eventual fall. As man learns and fosters new ways to depend less and less on God and his spiritual constitution to worship Him, he grows farther and farther from truth and life itself. World civilization after world civilization has experienced the firsthand effects of turning their backs to their creator, and seeking civilized and meaningful lives outside of the cross of Christ. Such blatant and pitiful suppressions of life-giving truth are always means to the same end: death and destruction. Despite man's acclaimed evolution and advancement, humanity has yet to sustain a progressive civilization for a substantial period of time. That is not to say that there are not civilizations that have progressed or that there are not civilizations that have survived over a substantial epoch, but that is only to say that civilizations, cursed like the world they exist in and cursed like the humanity that develops them, are in a constant state of decay not progression. Modern America is no exception to the rule.
According to the authors of The Earth and Its Peoples (Bulliet et al., 2011), several indicators that scholars use to determine what constitutes a civilization are: cities as administrative centers, a political system, specialized workers, status distinctions, monumental building, a system for record keeping, long-distance trade, and major advances in sciences and arts. However, the book seems to recognize that modern scholars ignore one very influential characteristic of many of the earth's most renowned civilizations: religion. Despite the book's constant description of several important religious ideas and how greatly they influenced many aspects of civilizations' cultures and social orders, the authors skip over religion as a crucial indicator of civilizations.
From a Biblical standpoint, human nature defaults with a desire to worship something. As A.A. Hodge expresses, "It is...indubitably certain that all men under all known, and therefore under all truly natural conditions, do spontaneously recognize the divine existence as more or less clearly revealed to them in the constitution and conscious experience of their own souls, and in external nature" (Hodge, 1999, p. 30). Man recognizes the need for a moral and physical creator, and those that would articulate that they truly believe that our existence is a result of completely natural causes cannot adequately explain man's origin without relying on veiled supernatural means (such as the big bang theory). Either men recognize the existence of a god and seek to worship it through religion, or they suppress the natural knowledge of God in their hearts and call themselves atheists and "freethinkers". Either way, Paul clearly expresses man's recognition of God when he writes, "For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse" (Romans 1:20, ESV).
Throughout history, civilizations have relied heavily on religion and some have even been defined by their religious beliefs. As we look through ancient civilizations, although most did not recognize the true triune God, they did recognize a supreme deity (or deities) that governed and sustained their existence. The ancient Egyptians worshiped the sun and many other deities, the ancient Chinese worshiped the sky-god Di, the Greeks worshiped an expansive collection of mythical beings, the Persians worshiped their emperor as a representative of the supreme Ahuramazda, and the Israelites worshiped God almighty as His chosen people (Bulliet et al., 2011). In fact, the worship of a supreme deity was so embedded into ancient cultures that it is almost impossible to find an ancient civilization that did not recognize and worship a god of some sort or fashion.
Furthermore, some ancient civilizations were completely defined by their religion. Although many civilizations used organized religion as a means of determining social classes, governing the people, and instituting a code of morality, some civilizations are characterized by religions that completely consumed and saturated their culture. For instance, the more modern Aztec civilization was marked by a culture where "religious rituals dominated public life" (Bulliet et al., 2011, p. 317). The Aztec's chief deity, Huitzilopochtli, required human flesh, mainly hearts, in order to allow him to sustain earth by bringing the Sun's warmth. Although the Aztec civilization today is mainly remembered for their brutal and violent practices of human sacrifice, there is a telling attribute about this form of religion that typically is glossed over. According to Michel Graulich (2007), human sacrifice was a means of expiation (or atonement) for the Aztec sacrificer. Graulich explains that, "The end was obviously not only to feed the god...[but] was to participate through the victim's death, to die through him, to offer himself, that is, to do as the gods in Teotihuacan who destroyed their material body to expiate and return to heaven" (p. 27). This view on atonement through human sacrifice bears a peculiar resemblance to Christian views on atonement through Christ's death on the cross on our behalf, and further evidences that man innately knows he is fallen and in need of atonement through human sacrifice (the sacrifice of the incarnate Son of God, Christ Jesus on the cross).
Although ancient civilizations and their belief systems are often downplayed as archaic, unsophisticated, and superstitious, there seems to be something very telling about the way religion and a belief in a supreme god completely permeated every civilization in some fashion or another. Given evolution as the source for human origins, it seems difficult to explain how ancient humanity desired to devise religion unanimously and subject themselves under a supreme deity. If man is truly a result of completely natural means, lives a completely natural life, and has nothing beyond his natural existence in this world to attend to, then why would practically every ancient civilization devise a supernatural deity and subject themselves to it (lowering the carnal enjoyment of natural life substantially)? Perhaps ancient civilizations recognized a significant part of life that secular modern civilizations desire to keep a secret and sweep under the rug.
Ancient peoples were not superstitious, but rather, they found themselves in a world with powers far greater than themselves. It is no wonder they experienced a need and recognition of a supreme being while they existed in an unknown world, governed by unknown natural laws, and enslaved by the law of sin in their hearts (Rom. 7:22-23). However, as time progressed, knowledge in technology, science, arts, and mathematics progressed as well. The unknown world began to shrink as the known world began to grow. The magnificence of the natural world began to be dwarfed by the destructive powers of sinful man. Technology in the last millennium surpassed all ancient religions' ability to emphasize man's dependence on faith in a deity. As technology grows exponentially, the massive world we live in begins to look like a small pea in the realm of an immense vastness of solar systems and universes. Gods used to be viewed as celestial beings living above the clouds, but now, they do not even appear to dwelling within our very own solar system.
Modern Western Civilization and modern America, specifically, have given up on the notion of God and the need for religion. What was once viewed as supernatural miracles are now viewed as natural phenomenon. Technology seems to have surpassed our need for God, as we now live in a world where man can seemingly play god better than ever before. We, as Americans, pride ourselves with the ability to start a new life in vitro, or take it away via abortion. We pride ourselves by healing the body in ways never imagined before. We have computers and surpassing knowledge of the way the world works so that scientists can explain every occurrence as completely natural. According to many evolutionists, modern man is getting close to the pinnacle of biological evolution. We have little left to learn about the world we live in, we are practically harnessing and harvesting every nuclear power the world has to offer, and we are more powerful in our own minds than ancient civilizations ever thought a deity could be.
It is no wonder western civilization and secular America is progressively growing godless in respects to religious practice. We have become our own gods. After all, as Paul outlined in Romans, we all recognize God, but most suppress this knowledge and worship something else. In ancient civilizations, cultures recognized a need for spirituality and religion. They recognized a power greater and far more powerful than themselves. They recognized an innate morality written upon their hearts, and desired to use religion as a means to govern and/or suppress this morality. However, in modern America and western civilization, morality is being replaced with tolerance. Because we are viewed as natural and social creatures, according to atheists, we are not governed by a supreme moral judge but rather by a social evolution of morality. Society determines the moral code of ethics and governs what is right and wrong, not God. We worship a new god through a new means other than religion in modern western civilizations. We worship man through the religious views of socialism.
Religion and spirituality has been deemed superfluous in modern America and Western culture. Knowledge, technology, and tolerance permeate our civilization. Although many religions continue to affect American culture, religious peoples are viewed as bigots, intolerant, and "old fashioned." As scholars no longer characterize civilizations by a religious indicator but rather by political, social, and intellectual indicators, it is no surprise that the notion of a supreme being is being exterminated and extinguished in the realm of modern civilization. Whereas man's sinful decay used to be highlighted by his worship of false gods and idols, man's sinful decay is now emphasized by his suppression of the existence of a god and his worship of himself instead.
From a Biblical standpoint, this is not progression but digression. Only the fool says in his heart, "There is no God" (Psalm 14:1). As Paul traveled through the city of Athens, he observed that the Athenians desired to worship God, but because of their sinful nature and lack or spiritual understanding, they worshiped him as "the unknown god" (Acts 17:23). It is far better for man to seek His creator in spiritual blindness than for man to completely suppress his need for redemption. Ancient religions all focused on appeasing their gods' wrath and malice. Blinded by sin, they still recognized their need for spiritual nourishment, they recognized an afterlife, and they recognized a morality that required human blood to pacify and atone for disobedience. The law was truly written on their hearts, but they sought after false gods in vain. As terrible as their idolatry was, they at least recognized their fall and sinfulness. Modern Americans governed by social morality and tolerance, prided by intellect and technology, and devoid of any spiritual recognition or dependency find themselves living in a world characterized by no need for salvation, no fear of holy justice, and no recognition of the coming wrath of God. Rather than reaching the pinnacle of biological evolution, we have reached the pinnacle of godlessness.
Ancient civilizations were lost in the realm of vast religions and their spiritual compasses were darkened by a deep fog shrouded by a future revelation of God's redeemer to ages to come. Modern civilizations are lost in the realms of complete narcissism, spiritual death, and moral injustice despite the light-giving revelation of the culmination of redemptive history: Christ's death upon the cross to atone for our sins. Christ Himself pronounces his judgment on godless civilizations today when He says, "I tell you that it will be more tolerable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom than for you." (Mat. 11:24, ESV). America prides itself by claiming to be a Christian nation, but the permeation of godless secular thinking is slowly seeping into the Christian church. As more and more churches replace the good news of the Gospel with narcissistic, feel-good, carnal, self-help lessons and teaching, it will not be long until America completely loses grasp of our need for Christ and our spiritual dependency upon our Heavenly Father. We pride ourselves as being the greatest nation in the world, but Alexis de Tocqueville gives this solemn warning: "America is great because she is good. If America will cease to be good, America will cease to be great" (Crabb, 2006). Christ said, "No one is good except God alone" (Mark 10:18), and without the slightest notion of God there is nothing good or great about America.
References:
Bulliet, R. W., Crossley, P. K., Headrick, D. R., Hirsch, S. W., Johnson, L. L., & Northrup, D. (2011). The earth and its peoples: A global history. Boston: Wadsworth.
Crabb, M. (2006, December 24). America: Great, good, or godless? Retrieved December 11, 2010, from RenewAmerica: http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/crabb/061224
Graulich, M. (2007). Aztec human sacrifice as expiation. In J. N. Bremmer, The strange world of human sacrifice (pp. 9-31). Leuven, Belgium: Peeters.
Hodge, A. (1999). Outlines of theology. Carlisle, PA: The Banner of Truth Trust.
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