The Impermanence and Unreality of our so-called "Reality"

“The world is in a great dream and but few are awake in it.”  

                 

The above is a quote from William Law from his book A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life (1729). Describing our world as being in a “great dream” is very fitting; there is a lack of permanence, even an unreality, in all that we see. Our bodies will grow old and die and decay. Things we build may outlast us, but not for long. Even great things like our nation and our economy are temporal—if life continues long enough on this earth they will fall and be forgotten; if Christ returns only that which abides in Him will remain. Either way everything on this earth that we see, experience, and contribute to will someday be no more.

And yet most people hold unto these things and treat them like ultimate ends. How many people show more concern for the government of this country, a government that will ultimately fall and be no more, than they do for God’s Kingdom, a Kingdom that will forever endure? How many people are more concerned about what their friends think of them than what God thinks of them? How many people pay more attention to the state of their car than the state of their soul? They are dreaming. And like everyone in a dream they treat their dream as if it is the ultimate reality.

What is particularly interesting and often painful to witness is people recognizing that there must be something more than this dream, but they do not have knowledge or hope of anything greater and so they live in despair. This is a constant theme in our art. For example, consider the following from one of Beck’s songs. “I just hold unto to nothing/To see how long nothing lasts.” To see that everything on this earth is ultimately nothing yet to hold unto it nonetheless out of despair that there is nothing more, that is depressing stuff. This is a person to whom the Gospel would be very good news!

Or consider the following from Conor Oberst. “I’m so bored with my life, but I’m still afraid to die.” This is an honest sentence if I ever heard one and I believe it to be the true, though unspoken, opinion of most people. Without Christ there is no purpose, no comfort—there is ultimately nothing. To quote my favorite nursery rhyme, “life is but a dream.”

I say all this to highlight two very important purposes of Christian education.

First, Christian schools partner with parents to teach their children that there is an abiding reality beyond this world. Yes, many treat this life as if it is all there is, but they are in a great dream for there is a reality beyond what we now see and experience and this reality is everlasting and eternal. When everything we watch and listen to treats this world as the final reality, it is easy to be influenced by this thinking. As Christians schools we want to swim against that current and help children grow the muscle they will need to swim upstream.

Second, as Christ said in Luke 10 “the harvest is plentiful.” People out there are desperate. Many see the futility of this life, of this world, yet without the Gospel message they will continue “to hold unto nothing.” I hope that my students graduate with both the ability and the desire to share the Gospel with the countless lost out there who need it, but live in such blindness that they don’t even know what they need.

My Current Political Concerns

The five political issues that most interest me at this time are religious liberty, the rule of law, federalism, civic discourse, and abortion.

I believe that religious liberty, and by that I mean the right to share one’s beliefs and worship according to one’s conscience, is a fundamental human right. There is a growing anti-clerical feel in the atmosphere and that worries me. Republicans appear to be more concerned about this issue than Democrats, but I think the arguments that Thomas Frank made in What’s the Matter with Kansas are fairly accurate. I believe many Republicans are frankly full of crap and provide mere lip service to the beliefs I sincerely hold and deeply cherish. Yet despite voting Democrat in the past I progressively feel like there isn’t a place for me in the Democratic Party because of its increasing and often open hostility to religion.

We were founded as a nation of laws, not men; however more and more of our self-appointed elites think themselves above the laws of this land. President Trump is a crass and obvious example of this, but frankly President Obama abused his Constitutional mandate via executive orders. I am honestly appalled and distressed by many of the words and actions of our sitting President, but some of the extra legal tactics of the Democrats, like the character assignation that we’ve seen with Kavanaugh this last week, are just as distasteful to me. (I have no idea whether the allegations against Kavanaugh are true and I believe fair and open hearings to get to the truth are important, but the way victims are being deployed for Machiavellian political ends is obvious and rather disgusting.)

I think most problems are best solved locally. Both parties claim this but both aggrandize power to themselves whenever they control the federal government. An unelected federal bureaucracy checked by an unelected judiciary determines the grand majority of political controversies, especially important and difficult ones—this makes a mockery of our pretensions to democracy. When people don’t have a real say they lose civic virtue and become apathetic. They forsake the common good because they have no real say in it and instead find their identity in individualistic and materialistic pursuits. The best way to reinvigorate the American people would be to give them a real say and real control in politics and this can only happen at the local level.

Maybe it is because I am on Twitter, but it seems as if our discourse has lost all civility and been stripped of all moral norms. A lot of people like to blame our current President, and he is certainly part of the problem, but this issue runs deeper than one person and a new President will not bring about a significant or material change. I think the heart of our problem is philosophical. If all real knowledge comes from experience then only those that have experienced something can talk about it. What is more, if only certain groups can talk about certain things then all discourse will be reduced to lecture. For example, if only a woman can talk about sexism or a person of color discuss racism then there can be no discourse between a man and a woman on sexism and no discourse on racism between a Caucasian and African-American. Instead, the person with experience will talk and the other will be reduced to listening. No one likes one-way discourse and this creates resentment that comes out in virulent insults and the expressions of toxic prejudices. Neither are justified, but I think our post-modern epistemology destroys any hope of a commonly accessible truth and this in turn shifts the goal of discourse from either the discovery or proof of truth to the imposition of power.

Finally, I have been convinced, via philosophical argument, that abortion is wrong. I believe the government should do all in their power to limit it. Most Republicans pay lip service to this issue, but I doubt the sincerity of many.

I should add that I don't think many of these things can be solved through the political process. Things like our epistemology, the way we talk to one another, and even our commitment to religious liberty inform our politics and can at times be influenced by our politics, but they problems rooted in habits, customs, etc. that run far deeper than what mere lawmaking or litigation can reach. 

What is more there are a number of structural changes, like the increase in surveillance technology and the ability of robots to replace human workers that will have huge social and eventually political ramifications. These will likely prove to be the biggest challenges the next generation will face. 

An Education for a Dog or a Man?

Are men made in the likeness of God? Do they bear His image? Or are they the random by-product of purposeless flux and change? This is a really important question because a being with a divine and eternal soul would live very different and have different moral requirements than a being that was purely biological.

For example, consider the different expectations that we put on children as opposed to pets during mealtime. While animals simply eat, children are expected to have good manners, to engage in polite conversation, and to remain at the table until dismissed.

We rightly have different expectations because a dog and a child are two different types of things. A dog, because it is strictly a biological being, eats food only to maintain its body. People, because they have souls, eat certain foods because they enjoy the taste and they eat with others because they enjoy company and conversation.

Or consider a sunset. If you were to attempt to point out a particular beautiful sunset to a dog it would likely sniff your finger. This is because animals have no capacity to recognize and appreciate beauty. Whereas a man that can’t recognize and appreciate beauty is defective.

Because humans are made in the image of God they are created to know and live according to truth, to do what is good and right, and to appreciate and express beauty. We don’t fault a dog for living exclusively for the cravings of its belly, but we rightly fault a man for living the same way. A man that lives like a dog denies and thereby loses a part of his humanity—the part that is highest and best.

What does this have to do with education? Here’s the answer: this has everything to do with education. You see, if people are strictly biological beings, like dogs, we ought to give them a certain type of education, but if they are made in the image of the God they are fitted for a completely different type of education.

For example, if man is merely a biological being then the purpose of his education should be to help him survive and flourish biologically. He will be taught “real-world skills” and things that are “relevant” and “practical.” He will also be taught utilitarian morals like “tell the truth or others will disbelieve you,” and “be kind if you want others to be kind to you.” He will be taught like this so that he and his fellow creatures don’t destroy each other. In this education there is no room for poetry and philosophy—when are you ever going to use those types of things! History and literature will be placed on the backburner—after all there are plenty of millionaires who know nothing of the Peloponnesian War and couldn’t give a lick for Dostoevsky. In this schema knowledge is only valuable if it is useful. In terms of morals these biological beings would be taught to be safe and not harm others, but there would be no talk of developing inner nobility or being a person of integrity—if something feels good and doesn't hurt anyone else, why should they deny themselves it?

The type of education I am describing is one that many of us had, yet it is an education fitted for a dog and not a man. To put it another way, everyone talks about teaching the “full person” but you cannot teach the full person without knowing what a person is. Because man is made in the image of God we cannot know what a person is without knowing who God is.

Because we are divine image-bearers our education must be fitted to that reality. Yes, we must learn how to meet our biological needs, but we are more than bodies, more than producers and consumers, and an education that only focuses on the maintenance and perpetuation of bodies, whether physically or economically, denies and fails to develop what is highest and best in us. Those of us that work at Christian schools don't just want the bodies and bank accounts of our students to flourish, we want their souls to flourish! Our sons and daughters have a God-given capacity to appreciate beauty—we seek to expose them to works of beauty! Our children have a God-given capacity to know the truth—we seek to instruct them in the truth in the hope that they will come to love and live in light of the truth. Our kids have the capacity to live lives of virtue and goodness—we want to show them the fruit that these lives produce and how they can grow not in self-righteousness, but in real righteousness.

You and I are not the random by-products of unthinking matter; we are thinking, feeling, eternal souls made in the image of God capable of living flourishing lives and spreading joy and goodness wherever we go. A true education is one fitted to this reality.