Ideologies & Belief Systems

In 2021, several psychologists made an in-depth study into what drives people to political and social extremes. This can result in beliefs in a wide range of unsubstantiated and sometimes harmful conspiracy theories. The research paper was titled “Some People Just Want to Watch the World Burn.”

According to the study, bout 5% of Americans are considered "chaos-seekers." They feel marginalized and have "an intense need for social dominance; they’re angry that they’re not on top." There is a growing sense of anxiety that in a time of rapid change, ideological conflicts, and social unrest, they "feel their prospects in life have tanked. People who believe the system isn't working for them." They gravitate toward extremist views and include those on the political Right and Left.

The researchers named the model for extremism a “significance quest.” Many Americans "need to feel they matter and that their lives have purpose. These needs intensify when they feel powerless, as in times of stress and uncertainty or after a serious loss or humiliation. People will do nearly anything to restore meaning in their lives. All too often, meaning comes in extremist packaging."

Many of the people studied reported being simply bored with their lives. "People who are adrift are likelier to seek exciting, risky pursuits that give them a sense of purpose and meaning. Diehard ideologies fit the bill." The search for meaning led some to be "more sensation-seeking and more willing to support ideological violence."

A video from content creators Aperture gives a brief overview of the basic questions people ask about personal morality: "If I steal from the rich and use it to feed the poor, is that good or is that bad? If I drive over the speed limit to get my sick child to the hospital, is that good or is that bad? What is good? And what is bad? What is morality, and do you, as a person, have morals?"

Morality is what society treats as right and acceptable. They’re the standards of thoughts and actions that everyone in a group agrees to follow so they can all live peacefully. Stealing is against the law. However, a lot of people would consider stealing a piece of bread to save a homeless person from dying of hunger, moral. Driving over the speed limit is a crime, but when it could help save the life of the child in the backseat of your car, it becomes the most noble of actions.

The authors of the video say,

As humans evolve and learn new things, our morals change. This is why morality isn’t stagnant. It evolves with time. Think about issues like pre-marital sex, same-sex relationships, abortion, marijuana use. These are all things that were considered immoral long ago. But today, society is beginning to accept all of these as moral. We’ve learned to be tolerant of people regardless of their personal beliefs or preferences. And while not everyone might agree to all of these things or practice it themselves, things seem to have flipped. ...

You can watch the video here.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Society is changing, but in the wrong direction. What was once immoral, is now considered moral as long “as no one is hurt.” But God’s law never changes because it is based on his holy nature. Society can attempt to redefine right and wrong, but that doesn’t change God’s law.

Robert Coles, a former professor at Harvard published an article titled “The Disparity Between Intellect and Character.” The piece was about “the task of connecting intellect to character.” He adds, “This task is daunting.”

His essay was occasioned by an encounter with one of his students over the moral insensitivity—is it hard for him to say “immoral behavior of other students, some of the best and brightest at Harvard.” This student was a young woman of “a Midwestern, working class background” where, as is well known, things like “right answers” and “ideology” remain strong. She cleaned student rooms to help pay her way through the university.

Again and again, she reported to Coles, people who were in classes with her treated her ungraciously because of her lower economic position, without simple courtesy and respect, and often were rude and sometimes crude to her. She was repeatedly propositioned for sex by one young student in particular as she went about her work. He was a man with whom she had had two “moral reasoning” courses, in which he excelled and received the highest of grades.

This pattern of treatment led her to quit her job and leave school—and to have something like an exit interview with Coles. She reviewed not only the behavior of her fellow students, but also the long list of highly educated people who have perpetrated the atrocities for which the twentieth century is famous. She concluded by saying to him, “I’ve been taking all these philosophy courses, and we talk about what’s true, what’s important, what’s good. Well, how do you teach people to be good? What’s the point of knowing good if you don’t keep trying to become a good person?”

Florence Foster Jenkins, a soprano, loved to sing—especially the great operatic classics. She inherited money when she was in her 50s, which funded her musical career. It wasn't long before her popularity skyrocketed, holding annual recitals at the Ritz-Carlton in New York throughout the 1930s and 40s. But as one writer puts it, "History agrees, with hands held over its ears, that she couldn't sing for sour apples. Jenkins' nickname, behind her back, was 'the Tone-Deaf Diva,' or 'The Terror of the High C's.'" The writer adds that if you ever hear one of her old recordings, all that you'll hear will be "squeaks, squawks, and barks."

But get this: she didn't ever grasp that she was bad! When people laughed and hooted as she sang, she took it to be delirious enthusiasm for great music. She thought they loved her and her music.

In 1944, when she was 76-years-old, she did a benefit concert for the armed forces at Carnegie Hall in New York. Thousands lined the streets to get tickets, and the performance sold out in minutes. The recording of that concert is still the third most requested album from Carnegie Hall recordings, punctuated by a painful rendition of "Ave Maria."

What can we learn from Ms. Jenkins? People will say, "It doesn't matter what you believe, so long as you're sincere." But it does matter. Belief must match reality, or it is laughable, a delusion.

In the 1997 film, Contact, Dr. Ellie Arroway, played by Jodie Foster, is a radio astronomer trying to fulfill a lifelong quest to discover life on other worlds. The death of her parents, especially her father when she was young, contributed to her rejection of God and her staunch athiesm. Her love interest in the film is religious scholar Palmer Joss, played by Matthew McConaughey.

Ellie challenges Palmer, "Is there an all-powerful, mysterious God that created the universe, but left us no proof of his existence? Or, is there simply no God, and we created him so we wouldn't feel so alone?"

Palmer responds, "Did you love your father?"

Ellie answers, "Yes. Very Much."

"Prove it." Before Ellie can respond, they are suddenly interrupted.

Later in the film, radio telescopes pick up a message from space, a plan to build a machine to "transport" one person to make contact with the alien beings. After a long series of events the machine is built, and Ellie is the one chosen to go. She is transported through a wormhole—a tunnel through space and time. She finds herself on a beach where an alien being appears, having taken the form of her late father so she could feel more comfortable. The alien being tells her that they also are searching for the meaning of life, and that while man is not ready to join the other alien civilizations, this is a first small step.

She is then transported back to the machine and to earth, but in real time—mission control had not observed her to be gone at all. With no proof of her fantastic experience, she must convince the world and an international review panel that she experienced something real. One of the panel members asks her, "Should we take this all on faith?"

The tables have been turned. Now she must explain the need for faith: "I had an experience I can't prove," she says. "I can't even explain it, but everything that I know as a human being, everything that I am tells me that it was real. I was part of something wonderful, something that changed me forever, a vision of the universe that tells us undeniably how tiny and insignificant, and how rare and precious we all are. A vision that tells us we belong to something that is greater than ourselves. That we are not—that none of us are alone. I wish I could share that. I wish that everyone, if even for one moment, could feel that awe, and humility, and hope."

Elapsed time: The first scene, measured from the Warner Brothers logo, runs from 1:13-1:15 (with some irrelevant lines omitted), and the second scene runs from 2:09-2:18.

Content: The film is based on the novel by the late scientist and athiest Carl Sagan. In this film he gives equal treatment to the need for faith and the search for truth by both science and religion. The movie is rated PG. There is some mild offensive language and one scene of sensuality.

Author Stephen Dunn reported the reaction of two agnostic parents struggling with whether to send their little girl to the local vacation Bible school. They said:

Soon it became clear to us: you can't teach disbelief to a child, only wonderful stories, and we didn't have a story nearly as good. Evolution is devoid of heroes. You can't say to your child, "Evolution loves you." The story stinks of extinction, and nothing exciting happens for centuries. I didn't have a wonderful story for my child.

Scientist and skeptic Richard Dawkins, in his book River Out of Eden, explains: "The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil and no good, nothing but blind, pitiless indifference."

Skeptic Magazine interviewed Dawkins and asked if his world view was the same as Shakespeare's Macbeth, that life is "a tale told by an idiot, filled with sound and fury, signifying nothing."

"Yes," Dawkins replied, "at a sort of cosmic level, it is. But what I want to guard against is people therefore getting nihilistic in their personal lives. I don't see any reason for that at all. You can have a very happy and fulfilled personal life even if you think that the universe at large is a tale told by an idiot."

In the classic Broadway production Raisin in the Sun, an African-American mother struggles to keep two adult children on track. In one memorable scene, the mother is confronted by her daughter's angry skepticism.

The daughter states in defiance, "Mama, you don't understand. It's all a matter of ideas, and God is one idea I just don't accept.… There is simply no blasted God."

With dignity and strength, the mother says, "I want you to repeat this after me: In my mother's house there is still God."

After a long pause, the daughter honors her mother's affirmation of faith. Slowly, quietly, she says, "In my mother's house there is still God."

The passing on of cherished devotion to God begins in each household.

Two researchers with the National Study of Youth and Religion at the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill) interviewed over 3,000 teenagers about their religious beliefs and have written up their findings in a new book. The social scientists summed up the teens' beliefs:

(1) A god exists who created and ordered the world and watches over human life on Earth.

(2) God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions.

(3) The central goal of life is to be happy and feel good about oneself.

(4) God does not need to be particularly involved in one's life except when God is needed to resolve a problem.

(5) Good people go to heaven when they die.

Commenting on the study, Gene Edward Veith writes, "Even these secular researchers recognized that this creed is a far cry from Christianity, with no place for sin, judgment, salvation, or Christ. Instead, most teenagers believe in a combination of works righteousness, religion as psychological well-being, and a distant, non-interfering god. Or, to use a technical term, "Moralistic Therapeutic Deism."

In his book The New Absolutes, William Watkins identifies 10 core convictions that govern today's secularists:

(1) Religion interferes with freedom and must be banished from the public square.

(2) Human life is valuable only as long as it is wanted.

(3) Marriage is a human contract made between any two people, and can be terminated for any reason.

(4) Family is any grouping of two or more people.

(5) Sexual intercourse is permissible regardless of marital status.

(6) All forms of sexual activity are moral as long as they occur between consenting adults.

(7) Women are oppressed by men and must liberate themselves.

(8) People of color should receive preferential treatment.

(9) Non-Western societies and other oppressed peoples and their heritage should be studied and valued above Western civilization.

(10) Only viewpoints deemed politically correct should be tolerated and encouraged to prevail.

"When people think about the Holocaust, they think about the crimes against Jews, but here's a different perspective," said Julie Seltzer Mandel, editor of the Nuremberg Project for the Rutgers Journal of Law and Religion. "They wanted to eliminate the Jews altogether, but they were also looking to eliminate Christianity."

Fragile, typewritten documents from the 1940s lay out the Nazi plan in grim detail: Take over the churches from within, using party sympathizers. Discredit, jail, or kill Christian leaders. And re-indoctrinate the congregants. Give them a new faith—in Germany's Third Reich.

Says Mandel, "The best evidence of an anti-church plan is the systematic nature of the persecution itself. Different steps in that persecution, such as the campaign for the suppression of denominational and youth organizations, the campaign against denominational schools, and the defamation campaign against the clergy were supported by the entire regimented press, by Nazi Party meetings, and by traveling party speakers."

"The point of an open mind, like having an open mouth, is to close it on something solid."

A chance of 1 out of 1,000,000,000,000,000 (quadrillion, 10 with 14 zeros) is considered a virtual impossibility. But when DNA co-discoverer Francis Crick calculated the possibility of a simple protein sequence of 200 amino-acids (much simpler than a DNA molecule) originating spontaneously, his figure was 10 with 26 zeroes after it.

Those who remember one fad of the past will appreciate British scientist Fred Hoyle's view of the odds against evolved life. "Anyone acquainted with the Rubik's cube," he wrote, "will concede the impossibility of a solution being obtained by a blind person moving the cube faces at random."

Mr. Hoyle's best-known analogy, however, has a tornado in a junkyard taking all the pieces of metal lying there and turning them into a Boeing 747. It might be possible for two pieces to be naturally welded together, and then two pieces more in a later whirlwind, but production of even a simple organic molecule would require all of the pieces to come together at one time.

Bono, lead singer of the band U2, recently said: "The most powerful idea that's entered the world in the last few thousand years—the idea of grace—is the reason I would like to be a Christian. Though, as I said to [U2 guitarist] The Edge one day, I sometimes feel more like a fan, rather than actually in the band. I can't live up to it. But the reason I would like to is the idea of grace. It's really powerful."

We hear so much criticism from skeptics about what they often brand as "secondhand faith." It is implied that many people believe in God only because of the context of their birth or family or determined conditions.

If the criticism is justified, and undoubtedly it sometimes is, why do we not show the same distrust of secondhand doubt? If it is possible for a person's belief to be merely an echo of someone else's faith, are there not hypocrites in doubt also?

An atheist was walking through the woods, admiring all the "accidents" that evolution had created. "What majestic trees! What powerful rivers! What beautiful animals!" he said to himself.

As he was walking alongside the river, he heard a rustling in the bushes behind him. Turning to look, he saw a 7-foot grizzly bear charge towards him. He ran away as fast as he could up the path.

He looked over his shoulder and saw the grizzly was closing. Somehow he ran even faster, so scared that tears came to his eyes. He looked again, and the bear was even closer. His heart was pounding, and he tried to run faster. He tripped and fell to the ground. He rolled over to pick himself up, but the bear was right over him, reaching for him with its left paw and raising its right paw to strike him.

At that instant the atheist cried, "Oh my God!"

Time stopped. The bear froze. The forest was silent. Even the river stopped moving.

As a bright light shone upon the man, a voice came out of the sky, "You deny my existence for all these years, teach others that I don't exist, and even credit creation to a cosmic accident. Do you expect me to help you out of this predicament? Am I to count you as a believer?"

The atheist looked directly into the light and said, "I would feel like a hypocrite to become a Christian after all these years, but perhaps you could make the bear a Christian?"

"Very well," said the voice.

The light went out. The river ran. The sounds of the forest resumed. Then the bear dropped his right paw, brought both paws together, bowed its head, and spoke: "Lord, for this food which I am about to receive, I am truly thankful."

God has given enough reason in this world to make faith a most reasonable thing. But he has left out enough to make it impossible to live by reason alone.

Blaise Pascal is considered one of history's greatest scientists. But Pascal's conversion was not through his scientific queries.

When his carriage was once suspended on a bridge, hanging between life and death, the only thing Pascal could think of was the Christian conviction of his sister and the witness of Christ she had in his life.

He was the inventor of the barometer. He was tremendously brilliant as a philosophical scientist. But the one thing that kept piercing his heart was not the scientific laws, it was the Christian witness of his sister.