Kaka D. Iralu
The true modern man, (which may include many educated Nagas), does not believe in the existence of a personal God. This modern man was produced after the Renaissance period (14th to the 17th century). Now, modern man’s dilemma is one where: Having rejected the existence of a personal infinite God, man has to wrestle with the question of whether he is then, A MACHINE or AN ANIMAL. Such a dilemma is to always live in a tension of knowing ones own humanity but unable to live out that humanity in all its practical dimensions of family life, social life, political life, economic life etc. But modern man’s dilemma has its roots in the Middle ages (5th to the 14th century). We shall therefore begin with the Middle Ages.
1. In the Middle Ages, the predominant theology and philosophy that held sway was that, in the fall of man, it was only the “will” of man that fell and not the “intellect” of man. In the preceding ages, of the Christian era and the old Roman world, the Biblical view was that in Adam’s fall, both the will and intellect of man fell in the fall. Further, the Biblical revelation as understood in that era, was that man was created by a personal God who created man in his own image. Man was therefore, not an animal or a machine but a personal being with a moral choice. The Biblical revelation further enlightened them that man- exercising that moral choice- fell both in the realm of the will as well as the intellect. It further held that salvation of man is a work of God, entirely un-dependent on man’s ability to work out his salvation through any “intermediary” like the Church or the Pope or man’s un-fallen intellect (Reason).
But on the philosophical side, this Middle age theology that only the will of man fell in the fall gave birth to the philosophy that man, exercising his un-fallen intellect, can reason out the purpose of his existence including the Universe. It is a philosophical position where man asserts that with himself as the reference point, man can built a universal philosophy that can explain everything under his intellectual umbrella!
2. The Renaissance period (14th to 17th century), revived and resurrected the Pre-Christian philosophies of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle (B.C.470-B.C.322). It also included all the classical Greek philosophies that were all centered in man as the primary source of reference. This added a lot of additional materials to man’s storehouse of the arrogant assertion that man can explain himself and the universe in which he has his existence. With this store house of man’s knowledge, by the time of Rene Descartes (1596-1650), he had declared: “ergo cognito, ergo sum”- I think, therefore I am! By the time of Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), he had declared: “One ought to think autonomously, free of the dictates of external authority.” Therefore, with regard to morality, Kant argued that “the source of the good lies not in anything outside the human subject, either in nature or given by God.” By Darwin’s time (1809-1882), modern man thought he had found an answer to the enigma of his origins. In this discovery, modern man asserted that he had evolved from the animal to his present state through a struggle of “survival of the fittest.” (In reality, Darwin proposed just a theory and not a scientific fact. But the scientists of his day declared that it was a scientific fact and pursued it to proof it. It still remains an unproven theory till today)
But in spite of all the unproven factors, from the time of Darwin onward, modern man began to look downward from himself to the animal world and the mechanical world to find a meaning of his existence. In this search he became trapped in mathematics and physics where he also became lost in a mechanical world of cause and effect in a closed system. In this mechanical universe, and going by his philosophical premises, he found that he also had to inevitably admit that he himself is also just a cog in that machine. After all, when man becomes autonomous from God, where else could he go to find meaning and purpose for his existence?
In the modern era (18Th century to the present), some philosophers like Kant (1728-1804) went on talking about some universal principles bereft of any moral basis or authority. But on the other hand, every modern philosopher had to conclude that in the area of morals, WHAT IS, IS RIGHT. For the truly modern man, morals become just a means of manipulation by society in the midst of the machine. It is not surprising therefore, that Karl Marx (1818-82) said that “Religion is the opiate of the Masses” or Rousseau (1712-78) saying that “Man is born free, but everywhere, he is in chains.” These men had become trapped in the animal world where they even declared that man is a political animal. From that trap, they railed against God and religion, screaming that though they were born free, they have been imprisoned by God and religion. To find oneself in the shoes of a truly modern man is a damning and desolating experience with no escape route from that closed system.
However, in diametrical opposition to this modern man’s dilemma, the true Christian position is one where God who has created this mechanical universe, (but is not a part of that mechanical universe), has given us absolute moral laws for moral human beings. This was revealed to us through propositional revelations in the scriptures (Bible) in the flow of human history (Adam to Noah to Moses to Jesus). This means that: Behind the law, stands the law giver, who is not a machine but a personal God. To put it in modern terms, this means that man is not a programmed computer chip but a personal human being with tremendous creative potentialities. This is so because man bears the image of his creator, who has created the whole universe with all its wonders! (I cannot, but add here, that this also means that man has the potential to change his political history based on scriptures!)
This revelation alone gives us an explanation as to what the mechanical world is all about. It also gives an explanation of what the animal world is. But most wonderfully, it gives us an explanation of what human beings are in God’s created and ordered universe. It alone gives us an explanation of how we are related to both the animal world and the mechanical world (as co-creatures or creation) but also with a vertical dimension of being related to a personal God who loves us and gave us his only begotten son to redeem us from the fall.
Without this knowledge, we can only go round and round in circles of philosophy and science which can spin us into mental insanity! Revelation on the other hand is the personal God speaking into the mechanical and animal worlds to tell us who we really are in that world!
