A New Religion Established

Although not often considered in these terms, a religion may be the same as a worldview--the way in which one thinks about life as a whole and answers the "big questions" about reality. They are the governing principles by which one lives or how a society is shaped. In this manner, everyone has a religion, even those who deny they have a religion.

Phillip Johnson has identified three signal events as critical to understanding the Western worldview as it now exists:

1. The triumph of scientism. Johnson cites as an illustration the Darwin Centennial of 1959 [which makes for very interesting consideration in 2009, both the bicentennial of Charles Darwin's birth and the sesquicentennial of the publication of Origin]. The 1959 event was held at the University of Chicago, also the site of the first self-sustaining atomic chain reaction and the Miller experiment that purported to show how life could have originated from inorganic substances and energy. At the time of the centennial celebration the scientific community could look back on breathtaking achievements that had elevated the prestige of science to stratospheric heights. The virtual establishment of materialistic naturalism as the most successful philosophy led Sir Julian Huxley to wax eloquent in explaining his hopes that science was destined to become mankind's new religion.

2. Art imitates life. Recall our exploration of the phenomenon of Inherit the Wind. This was the Hollywood version of the Darwin Centennial. Remember how the film concludes--Spencer Tracy picks up a Bible in one hand, a copy of Origin in the other, hefts them in his hands as if weighing them, shrugs his shoulders, and puts both in his briefcase. The implication is that reasonable people will find accommodation for both perspectives. This is a more effective cultural anesthetic than the abrasive comments made by people like Richard Dawkins or either of the Huxleys.

3. God expelled: The U.S. Supreme Court's decision on school prayer. The importance of the decision does not lie so much in the actual disallowance of prayer in the public schools but in its symbolism--God has been made irrelevant to a "good" education, for if he were important he would be discussed there. But now God is rarely to be found in the public classroom. And any attempt to re-introduce him is met with a loud and vigorous negative response.