Just Whatever: How to Help the Spiritually Indifferent Find Beliefs that Really Matter

Just Whatever: How to Help the Spiritually Indifferent Find Beliefs that Really Matter

 

 
Dr. Matt Nelson [i], a Canadian apologist, shares his own story of his journey from atheism to faith to becoming an apologist. In this readable and interesting approach to apologetics, Dr. Nelson argues that the greatest foe of atheism or the ‘nones’ is their own nature. He quotes Thomas Merton

“It is a law of man’s nature, written into his very essence, and just as much a part of him as his desire to build houses and cultivate the land and marry and have children and read books and sing songs, that he should want to stand together with other men in order to acknowledge their common dependence on God, their Father and Creator. In fact this desire is much more fundamental than any other purely physical necessity.” (Thomas Merton, The Seven Storey Mountain (Park Ridge: Word on Fire Publishing), 15-16) As quoted in Nelson, Matt. Just Whatever: How to Help the Spiritually Indifferent Find Beliefs that Really Matter (Kindle Locations 547-552). Catholic Answers Press. Kindle Edition.

 Nelson argues that the great existential questions are:

• Why do I exist?
• Where am I going?
• How do I get there?                       

Indifference and Agnosticism and Atheism
These questions are relevant to your friends and family who are indifferent to God’s presence and the Gospel. He organizes those indifferent to God into three camps:

• The open indifferent acknowledge some sort of spiritual reality. They are the spiritual but not religious indifferent. They have general answers to why they exist, where they are going and how they will get there. The open indifferent have some form of belief, as vague as it is. C.S. Lewis describes what we would think of the New Age believer: 

One reason why many people find Creative Evolution so attractive is that it gives one much of the emotional comfort of believing in God and none of the less pleasant consequences. When you are feeling fit and the sun is shining and you do not want to believe that the whole universe is a mere mechanical dance of atoms, it is nice to be able to think of this great mysterious Force rolling on through the centuries and carrying you on its crest. If, on the other hand, you want to do something rather shabby, the Life Force, being only a blind force, with no morals and no mind, will never interfere with you like that troublesome God we learned about when we were children. The Life Force is a sort of tame God. You can switch it on when you want, but it will not bother you. All the thrills of religion and none of the cost. Is the Life Force the greatest achievement of wishful thinking the world has yet seen?  –  “The Business of Heaven”  Daily Readings from C.S. Lewis excerpted from “ Mere Christianity ”, by C.S. Lewis

 Dr. Nelson concludes, “What do they really want? “They are not wholly opposed to the idea of a spiritual reality; they’re just opposed to a God who makes moral and religious demands. They want spirit without religion, providence without prayer, recreation without responsibility. But at what cost?”  Nelson, Matt. Just Whatever: How to Help the Spiritually Indifferent Find Beliefs that Really Matter (Kindle Locations 649-651). Catholic Answers Press. Kindle Edition.
 

• The closed indifferent are those who believe that science really answers all questions about the nature of reality. If asked why I exist, their response is that we are the product of random forces. Quoting biologist Dr. Anthony Cashmore, Ph.D:

“The reality is, not only do we have no more free will than a fly or a bacterium,(Cashmore argues) in actuality we have no more free will than a bowl of sugar. As living systems we are nothing more than a bag of chemicals.”  Dr. Anthony Cashmore, “The Lucretian Swerve: The Biological Basis of Human Behavior and the Criminal Justice System,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 107, no. 10 (January 12, 2010):4499-4504. Nelson, Matt. Just Whatever: How to Help the Spiritually Indifferent Find Beliefs that Really Matter (Kindle Locations 757-760). Catholic Answers Press. Kindle Edition.

Materialism and Atheism
Materialism as a world view is front and center here. In that view, reality consists only of material objects, processes and properties that operate according to physical laws. Since nothing spiritual exists, God does not exist.  The implications of materialism are explained by Dr. Francis Crick, Ph.D, of DNA fame are dark:

You, your joys and your sorrows, your memories and ambitions, your sense of personal identity and free will, are in fact no more than the behavior of a vast assembly of nerve cells and their associated molecules.  Francis Crick, The Astonishing Hypothesis: The Scientific Search for the Soul,  Nelson, Matt. Just Whatever: How to Help the Spiritually Indifferent Find Beliefs that Really Matter (Kindle Locations 745-746). Catholic Answers Press. Kindle Edition.

The high cost of materialism
What are the costs of materialism? Some atheist philosophers are consistent enough to admit this; one such academic is Alexander Rosenberg of Duke University. Consider his admissions regarding what he calls “life’s persistent questions” in his book The Atheist’s Guide to Reality: Enjoying Life Without Illusions: Here are his questions and answers
 

• Is there a God? No.

• What is the nature of reality? What physics says it is. 

• What is the purpose of the universe? There is none.

• What is the meaning of life? Ditto. 

• Why am I here? Just dumb luck.

• Does prayer work? Of course not.

• Is there a soul? Is it immortal? Are you kidding? Is there free will? Not a chance!

• What happens when we die? Everything pretty much goes on as before, except us.

• What is the difference between right and wrong, good and bad? There is no moral difference between them.

• Why should I be moral? Because it makes you feel better than being immoral.

• Is abortion, euthanasia, suicide, paying taxes, foreign aid, or anything else you don’t like forbidden, permissible, or sometimes obligatory? Anything Goes.

 
Alexander Rosenberg, The Atheist’s Guide to Reality: Enjoying Life Without Illusions (New York: W.W. Norton, 2011), 2-3. As quoted in Nelson, Matt. Just Whatever: How to Help the Spiritually Indifferent Find Beliefs that Really Matter (Kindle Locations 755-757). Catholic Answers Press. Kindle Edition.
 
How to Evangelize
How do you talk to people like this? Nelson has some ideas: First, make Jesus loved and admired and then show them that it is most probably true. Then offer a pathway. Blaise Pascal wrote:

"Men despise religion; they hate it, and fear it is true. To remedy this, we must begin by showing that religion is not contrary to reason; that it is venerable, to inspire respect for it; then we must make it lovable, to make it good, make men hope it is true; finally, we must prove it is true. Venerable, because it has perfect knowledge of man; lovable, because it promises the true good.  Pascal, Blaise. Pensees . Ozymandias Press. Kindle Edition. " (187)  Pascal, Blaise. Pensees . Ozymandias Press. Kindle Edition. 

Dr. Nelson, following Pascal, argues that the way of evangelization leads through beauty. Church architecture, art and music. The liturgy, well-done, is important here. The goodness of faith shown in the life of the saints. There are enough bad examples of faith. You will not learn to love ballet by watching bad dancers. The saint's lives are attractive. Then, a discussion about Christian truth can happen. No one comes to faith through morality alone. Instead, people learn to love Christianity because first they learn to love Christ. 

Happy Christians bring people to Christ, in short. Obviously true! I enjoyed this book and his video course. This is a very good introduction to apologetics. An easy read with lots to think about. Fr. John