Christians Helping Our World

Do we really matter? Does what we do really matter? Does it ultimately have meaning?

Just as a person's beliefs and view of the world guide their behavior and approach to life, an organization, political body, or government's worldview guides why, what, and how they do what they do. The results affect our lives and our world. So yes it matters. But does it ultimately matter?

When an atheist dictator like Stalin or Mao implements policies that kill tens of millions upon tens of millions of individuals in the name of a transcendentalized atheistic worldview (e.g. Marxism) and to protect their power and position; it matters. But does it ultimately matter? There certainly are worldviews that teach it does not. Atheism is one of them.

The Christian worldview teaches that reality is ultimately meaningful. An important concept is the doctrine of Imago Dei which asserts that we are made in the "image of God." This teaching, if true, provides a framework of morality for the decisions and actions that human beings make and has much to say about the potential dignity, value, capacity, and ability we may be capable of. The capability for rational thought, ethics, and morals.

Ethics is really about the right action and the greater good while morals indicate their practice. Interestingly, "Moral" has a dual meaning. The first is one's comprehension of morality and capability to practice while the second is about putting it into practice.

Which brings us to social ethics which is moral theory applied to groups. Social ethics can be synonymous with social and political philosophy that make up a political body or government's worldview. Unfortunately, not all are congruent with the concept of Imago Dei.

For example, Christianity teaches that “Whoever sheds the blood of man by man shall his blood be shed for in the image of God has God made man” when speaking of murder (note that the word kill in the ten commandments is 'raw-tsakh' translated as murder and never used in conjunction with just war or self-defense). As a result, the concept of Imago Dei helps to guide the decisions and actions of governments that integrate it into their social ethic.

This is why it is ultimately wrong for a Stalin, Mao, or Hitler to take the life they took in the manner in which they took it and why it is ultimately important for how government implements even just policy. For example, a government certainly can determine that their boundaries have been unjustly violated, their culture trampled, and citizen's displaced and seek to fully correct the injustice.

However, how they correct the injustice is ultimately important. Despite the possibility that an atheist worldview might incorporate humanism to some degree (or not), Imago Dei nor ultimate meaning guide how they will go about correcting the situation. And that realization should be enough to give pause.

Interestingly, while the authentic Christian worldview sets forth a reason to pursue moral accountability as ultimately real and meaningful, we find that we cannot do it perfectly. Freud said the fallen condition of humanity represented the natural state of humanity. But Freud was an atheist. Freud had no idea that this is not normal... that another explanation exists: that while moral evil affected the original image of God in man: it endures nonethess.

Meaning that despite our condition, we possess the ability to make morally correct decisions and that why and how we do what we do is ultimately meaningful.

For Further Information: The Recalcitrant Imago Dei: Human Persons and the Failure of Naturalism by J.P. Moreland