CAST UP!

2-tier and its implications

There are far reaching implications to the 2-tier perspective that has become so widespread. These implications have grave consequences for how people view the world they live. For brevity’s sake we will list only three.

1. A large number of views causes confusion.
American society was traditionally far less faceted in its beliefs. There was an accepted core of beliefs and opinions that acted as an adhesive to the members of society. Of course, there has always been differences of opinion, naturally, and those opinions are part of what it means to be human. Nevertheless, this multiplicity of opinions among society members and the belief that everyone is correct no matter how extreme and opposed the opinions may be, has caused among other things, an extensive number of choices and greater confusion.

I fully realize there is no way around this issue when diversity of thought is so highly prized. Unfortunately, this large number of opinions and the sheer multiplicity of views that exist today adds significantly to people thinking incorrectly about the world in which they live. The result of this panorama of opinions can be illustrated as a multitude of doors, each vying to be considered as correct. With the large number of alternatives for people to choose from, the task of choosing the correct door becomes far more difficult. Finding the correct door among 10 doors is challenging; finding the correct door where there are 100 doors is significantly more difficult. Although diversity is sometimes good and welcomed, it has resulted in an array of beliefs that are so diversified and so multifaceted that people are inundated by alternatives.

Moreover, this multiplicity of opinion presents another challenge. American society now encourages extreme views of opinion regardless of its accuracy, truth, or potential detriment to the well-being of the individual or the well-being of American society as a whole. And, it seems that the more aberrant the view of morality becomes, the more the person holding the view is held up as an example of bravery and even celebrated.

This has even proven to be the case within Christianity. Due in part to the influence of secularist culture, numerous church denominations have adopted divergent cultural perspectives that has led to a loss of biblical soundness. Those affected no longer recognize the stones in their path and the stumbling they have experienced.

2. Human thinking influences truth rather than truth influencing people.
When religion is relegated to the upper tier of personal choice and value, the result is the public view that human thinking influences truth rather than truth influencing people’s thinking. This is completely inverted.

A 2-tier perspective means that the single most important consideration every person must face (the question of God and the truth claims made in the Bible) is considered nothing more than a human value, subject only to the beliefs of each individual. God, then, is deemed true if an individual believes he is true, and God is non-existent if an individual believes he is non-existent, and so forth. This is tantamount to saying the sky is blue if a person believes the sky is blue or that 2 +2 = 5 if a person believes it to be the case. Our society has become one in which we ask questions like, “Who is God to you?” As if our thoughts and opinions make God to be what we think him to be.

But is this what is really going on here? In reality, those who cling to a lower tier view of reality do not believe in God and therefore strive unceasingly to portray belief in God as unreal and unscientific. In fact, to those of the lower tier, belief in God is complete folly. The scientific and naturalist’s conclusion is that God has nothing to do with reality and the conversation is excluded altogether.

3. Scientific atheism’s claims belong in the upper tier...not the lower.
Scientific atheism’s perspective is the product of upper tier thinking forced into the lower. The scientific community portrays their views as fact rather than opinion and hypothesis. They project their views as supported by irrefutable evidence when many of their postulations require more faith to believe than belief in a creator. They influence others to think that belief in God, especially as a creator, is simply another social science phenomenon and therefore outside of the boundaries of scientific discussion. Such action is tantamount to hiding, possibly better stated, mislabeling the correct door from the ones seeking to find and enter the correct door.

Let us close the discussion with a statement made by Jesus Christ to a large crowd that followed him and recorded in the gospel of Luke. In that crowd were some who believed in him and some who did not. Among those who did not believe were the national lawyers. These were highly trained men who were charged with understanding truth and disseminating it to the populace. The lawyers taught truth incorrectly and brought warning and condemnation from Christ. Consider Jesus' words to them and how those words apply to our discussion.

"Woe to you lawyers! Because you have taken away the key of knowledge. You yourselves did not enter in, and those who were entering in you hindered" (Luke 12:52 EMTV).

Do I go too far when comparing those who originally received Jesus' verbal reprimand for misdirecting people away from the truth with those who do the same today? I think I do not.

Here lay a hidden stone in the road which causes many people to stumble.