Swimming Upstream part 2

Being Pro-Life in a Culture of Death

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. Psalm 139:13-14

Peter Singer, the most famous bioethicist on the planet, is known for his extreme but consistent views of utilitarianism. Moral absolutes do not exist, so we should do the greatest good for the greatest number of people.  Consistently, Singer has publicly defended abortion, euthanasia without consent, and even infanticide -- arguing that parents should have the rights to kill newborns if they wish. Not only is Dr. Singer in favor of abortion anytime, anywhere, but he states elsewhere that a newborn has no more rights than a pig.

But at a recent ethics conference at Oxford, Singer acknowledged that his views are not adequate for certain contemporary challenges. They can’t make people live for the good of others and the physical world. He admitted that his current position was in flux, and even that he had regrets about not believing in God.  He better watch out.  Perhaps the Hound of Heaven is tracking him down. C. S. Lewis, himself once an atheist warned:

“Really, a young Atheist cannot guard his faith too carefully. Dangers lie in wait for him on every side.”

What then are people to do without TRUTH (ethics, morals)? Enter what is called The Noble Lie.  This term comes from Plato’s "The Republic."  In it Plato described a city whose inhabitant were organized into categories: The Rulers,  Auxiliaries, Farmers, etc. The Rulers, he said, would be chosen  from the military elite (called Guardians) because they were good at shepherding and caring for the interest of the community. The Auxiliaries would be Guardians in training. The Rulers, Plato said, must tell the people of the city “The Noble Lie“--that the categories of Rules, Auxiliaries, Farmers, etc. was not due to circumstances within the people's control, upbringing, or education, but because of God's intervention. God, the Lie went, had put gold, silver, and iron into each person’s soul, and those metals determined where a person's station was in life was.)

Not long ago In a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, philosopher Loyal Rue said that science has made it impossible to believe any longer in the myths of the Bible. And with the loss of these teachings, he acknowledged that we have lost the very underpinnings of moral theory and cultural coherence, for science itself cannot provide us with such answers. We are left, therefore, with the unprecedented situation of needing to concoct what he calls a "noble lie." This is how he words it:

“The illusion must be so imaginative and so compelling that it can't be resisted. What I mean by the noble lie is one that deceives us, tricks us, compels us beyond self interest, beyond ego...[and] will deceive us into the view that our moral discourse must serve the interests not only of ourselves and each other, but those of the earth as well.”

Really live a Lie that we know is a Lie?  Is that the best can do without God?  Maybe. But you are created in His Image, recreated in Christ to know God, to follow Christ and shine His light into a dark, dark world.

Swim hard Upstream and against the current.