Understanding how the Lordship of Jesus Christ extends to all areas of life.
Here are the Top Ten Utopian Myths, in no particular order:
1. Life would be better if everyone had the same income and/or resources.
Truth: A totally classless society is impossible, and all attempts have resulted eventually in collective poverty.
2. If we could only communicate better, then we would understand each other, and we would all get along.
Truth: If we truly understood what everyone else really believed, we might like each other less!
3. We can legislate our way to a perfect and peaceful society.
Truth: All law is an imposition of an external standard on someone who doesn’t want to embrace it. The problem is not a lack of legislation, it is that many people desire to do things that are harmful to others, and they always will. In case we haven’t noticed, criminals do not obey the law.
4. If would could get rid of all guns and nukes, we would have world peace.
Truth: There wasn’t world peace before the invention of guns and nukes.
5. Saving the environment will save our species.
Truth: Environmental crises are only a reflection of people’s hearts. Cleaning the environment, as important as that may be, does not intrinsically address the problems of greed and carelessness that cause ecological problems.
6. Everyone should have the right to do anything they want to do as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone else.
Truth: Self-destructive behaviors always hurt other people, even in indirect ways.
7. Giving people maximum freedom (or liberty) will result in maximum happiness.
Truth: You need to have a moral framework to know how use freedom responsibly (Individual Self-Government) or else that “freedom” will simply result in anarchy.
8. Words are tools of oppression used by the stronger elites to subjugate and control the weaker masses. The deconstruction of language will lead to egalitarianism and equal opportunity. (Postmodern argument)
Truth: Postmodernists are using words to convince of this supposed truth. Do you think they are hoping to control us?
9. We should embrace either all religions as equal and valid, or no religion at all.
Any worldview or philosophy answers (or seeks to answer) some fundamentally religious questions?
All religions (including Atheism) answer these questions, but in fundamentally different and oppositional ways. The Law of Non-Contradiction (in forma Logic) requires that these contradictory truth claims cannot all be true in the same way in the same sense. It is impossible for us to simply ignore these inherently religious questions.
10. If we can just get a president elected who espouses our views, then everything will improve.
Truth: In a Representative Republic, the elected leaders are a reflection of the people of that nation. If the people cannot effectively govern themselves, then an elected official will only reflect that inability of the people to be self-governed.
Copyright 2011, Israel Wayne.
Israel Wayne is an author and conference speaker.
