Anything Goes

Allow me to set forth a humble, albeit provocative, proposal. 

For an atheist to remain intellectually consistent, he/she ought to applaud events most people condemn and find morally reprehensible; i.e. the Holocaust and mass-shootings.

I know from experience that atheists reject this proposition out of hand. Yet when pressed, none has ever given me a reason why they reject it. The typical response is simply to say the proposal is absurd. They label it as such because while clinging tenaciously to their identity as non-theist, they maintain a sentimental adherence to a moral code when it is to their advantage to do so, but quickly ignore it when it is inconvenient.

Let me explain . . .

Most of those who identify with the New Atheists (Dawkins, Hitchens, Dennett, et al) eschew creation by an eternal, all-powerful deity while endorsing Evolution as the explanation of human origins. Being materialists, they reject a supernatural realm of the spirit in favor of a universe limited to space, matter, and time. For the materialist, there is no reality beyond the physical universe. Human beings are merely the result of random chemical reactions and molecular combinations; biological machines that are conceived, born, live a few decades, die, and return to the matter from whence they rose. There is ultimately no purpose to their lives. They are merely a happy coincidence of cosmic forces. Because there is nothing beyond the limits of the material realm, no eternal Life and Law Giver, there is no transcendent law; no objective morality, no real right and wrong, good and evil. There is just what is. The accidents called human beings may like or dislike things based on how they affect them, but in reality, there is no real right and wrong.

The atheist proposes that as humans agree to live together, they make rules so they can get along. They may agree to a set of values they call good and evil, but it is all just a temporary arrangement ultimately based on a fiction.

Set over against the acceptable fiction of an objective right and wrong, good and evil, is the Evolutionary certainty of Survival of the Fittest. I need not belabor a definition since we were all indoctrinated in it in public school. As a short refresher, Survival of the Fittest was Darwin’s mechanism propelling his concept of evolution. He claimed small mutations that provided a benefit to an organism made it more fit to survive, and so would outlast competitors for food and space. Over time, a multitude of these small mutations would give rise to a whole new species.

The Proposal

Here is my proposal. Before I state it, this caveat – It is so shocking, so morally reprehensible, to even make it will elicit a denial from anyone who is not a certified psychotic. Yet, it is logically consistent with a Secular Materialist worldview. Here it is …

IF — the atheist genuinely believes in Survival of the Fittest AND that there is no objective right and wrong, good and evil, would not events like the Holocaust and mass shootings be beneficial? If all of life is about climbing to ever higher levels of complexity and the capacity to thrive in a given environment, as materialist-evolution contends, then isn’t ANYTHING that propels that an advantage? In fact, Hitler and the Nazis justified the Holocaust for precisely that reason. Years before the Nazis gassed Jews, the medical establishment of Germany, driven by the social implications of Darwinian Evolution, was quietly killing off the mentally and physically “unfit.” Their justification? These unfit members of society were hindering human evolution. The Nazis simply applied the “remedy” to a larger group of what they deemed “sub-humans” gumming up the works of evolution.

Using the bare, valueless logic of Survival of the Fittest, how can someone who shoots up a school be blamed? Isn’t he using the force of the tools he wields as a means to exert his dominance and superiority over the less fit? Isn’t the fact of student deaths proof they were less fit to survive? After all, those who CAN survive, will.

If you are repulsed by this line of reasoning (who ISN’T repulsed by it?) – it PROVES my point. Any sane person MUST be repulsed by it precisely because there IS an objective morality that defines right and wrong, good and evil. The atheist’s inescapable moral outrage at being shackled with the logical consequences of their own position is evidence of his/her error.

Lance Ralston

Lance is the founding and lead pastor of Calvary Chapel Oxnard where he has served since 1982. Lance & David Guzik co-pastored the church for six years before David planted a church in a nearby community.

Lance & his wife Lynn were married in 1980 and have three adult children and five grandchildren. Lance loves teaching the Bible, History, and Leadership. He holds Masters-of-Arts in Biblical Studies and Ministry.
Lance serves as a chaplain for both the Oxnard and Port Hueneme Police Departments and enjoys backpacking, wood-working, working out, gardening, home improvement projects, reading, and graphic design.

The popular Communio Sanctorum: History of the Christian Church podcast can be found in both audio and video at the Into His Image website along with a growing inventory of Lances teaching.