Is there a place for religion in the modern world? The problem with religion, for many, is that it historically has led to injustice and superstition. This criticism is well-taken but may prove too much. It assumes we ought to be just and we ought to be reasonable, and these are essentially religious claims. Anytime we talk about what we ought to do, we are assuming certain goods and making a value judgment among those goods—i.e., we are assuming a moral order of goods up to a highest good. I believe this is necessarily by faith because, although we can perceive the moral order, we cannot prove it scientifically.
We must therefore assume some highest good. Naturalism gives us one option, suggesting our perceptions do not indicate moral truth, only what is useful for survival. The highest “good” therefore becomes an individual’s choice, in the absence of any objective good. This is at the heart of the crisis of meaning we are facing today. As we reject religion, we are free to choose our own highest good but with the caveat there is no actual good.
The writer of Ecclesiastes long ago recognized this dilemma, having come to the point in life where he felt everything to be meaningless, “vanity of vanities” (Eccl. 1). At the same time, he retained a longing for the transcendent, that “[God] has made everything beautiful in its time [and] has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.” (Eccl. 3:11, ESV). In the final estimation, the writer concludes that the highest good, if anything, is the transcendent good in that it is goodness itself. “The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil” (Eccl. 12:13-14, ESV).
In other words, to conclude that even our universe is good or that there is any other lesser good, we must first believe that there is a goodness that precedes and transcends the universe by which goodness is defined. As Genesis puts it, God spoke creation into being and “saw that it was good.” Similarly, Plato’s dialogues posit the form of the good, a divine reality, of which every lesser good is a reflection. The highest good is thus not the individual, the state, or even one’s own family; all is to be placed under the Good. This is that which is the unity of all good in its proper order and the cornerstone of reality if reality truly contains a moral order.
By faith, we believe that God “exists and that he rewards those who seek him.”
It seems, then, we are left longing for a transcendent good that allows morality and meaning to fall into place; but the universe has required us to accept it by faith as the first principle. Faith is believing there is good and that the moral order bespeaks a divine plan at the center of reality. Put simply, by faith, we believe that God “exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” (Hebrews 11:6, ESV).
Because there is a divine order to the universe, from this first principle, we can discover that order through our reason. The ancients also realized this, and saw reason as both indicating an order to reality emanating from a higher mind, and the means by which to uncover that order. In the words of Cicero, “that original and final law is the intelligence of God, who ordains or forbids everything by reason.”
In short, the good requires God, and it is only by assuming God that we are able to utilize reason in the pursuit of the good. While this is a word to seekers, it is also a clarification to believers. God cannot make good to be evil or evil to be good, or contradict reason, because what is good is defined by his unchanging nature. Cicero again: “For reason existed—reason derived from the nature of the universe, impelling people to right actions and restraining them from wrong. That reason did not first become law when it was written down, but rather when it came into being. And it came into being at the same time as the divine mind.”
The problem is not so much religion, then, as it is bad religion. Avoiding the latter is easier said than done, admittedly, but it has been the upward struggle of humanity. The Jewish prophets recognized that God created mankind “in his image” (Genesis 1) and, therefore, he would remember the poor and “judge the world in righteousness” (Psalms 9, 96). Jesus came challenging sects of Judaism that had, by that time, elevated tradition over truth and piety over virtue—calling his people back to first principles of “justice and mercy and faithfulness” (Matthew 23:23, ESV); to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind [and] love your neighbor as yourself” (Matt. 22:37-40); to do unto others as you would have them do unto you (Matt. 7:12). Offering himself in sacrifice forgiving his enemies, the Gospel proclaims, Christ rose again—demonstrating the ultimate triumph of virtue over power, the last becoming first, and the eternal love of God for all humanity.
The good requires God, and it is only by assuming God that we are able to utilize reason in the pursuit of the good.
As Tom Holland documents in his book Dominion, the Christian message revolutionized the world. For example, Holland shows how the concept of human rights was originally articulated in the Middle Ages under the assumption of God creating man in his image and upholding the dignity of the poor and marginalized. Holland also shows how separation of church and state began to develop under the realization that earthly powers were not absolute but subservient to God’s eternal law. Also in the Middle Ages, thinkers such as Aquinas reclaimed the role of reason as a necessary counterpart to faith, paving the way for social and scientific development.
But Holland also documents the lapses of Christendom into both injustice and superstition, despite Jesus’ teaching. The Enlightenment recognized the problems inherent in faith without reason, and better articulated human rights in their particulars. America’s founders thereafter sought to protect such rights and, to that end, fashioned a novel system of government, incorporating millennia of hard-won wisdom. These were advancements in our understanding of truth but, at the same time, were still built on the unchanging foundation of God creating mankind in his image and endowing him with reason. We grew in our understanding of human rights, the proper role of both church and state, and constitutional government assuming the limited authority of political leaders. The basis for it all remained, as reaffirmed in the Declaration of Independence, the “self-evident” moral order and “endow[ment]” of the Creator.”
The public discourse has often been reduced to a false choice between “faith,” taken to mean blind acceptance of arbitrary propositions, and “reason,” taken to mean empirically provable values. Now the discourse is shifting, as a greater number of people are realizing true faith and reason do not conflict with but rather support one another. Without faith in the good, and instead in a false god of state or race, Hitler was “reasonable” in his choices. And without reason, “faith” becomes an excuse not to progress in our understanding of everything from science to the best systems of government. But by reaffirming both faith and reason, properly understood, we can together fulfill our purpose to tend and enjoy the good earth God has given us, for his glory—and through it all, come to know fully the divine love revealed as the cornerstone of reality.