25AR30-40

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AR 30:40 - Why humanity's gravest peril is "symbolic collapse"

In this issue:

ATHEISM - felled by "a common symptom of adulthood"?

DISCERNMENT - when algorithm "mirrors belief," "image becomes idol" and "simulation becomes substitute"

Apologia Report 30:40 (1,728)
November 14, 2025

ATHEISM

"As We Grow Out of Intellectual Adolescence, Religion's Popularity Soars" by Charles Murray (New York Post, Oct 20 '25) -- "Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens recorded a two-hour conversation in 2007 <www.tinyurl.com/4vpaw3wc> deriding religion that got millions of YouTube views and was said to have sparked an atheist revolution. 

   "No longer. 

   "In the fall of 2025, it sometimes feels as if every influencer in good standing has gotten religion. David Brooks, Ross Douthat, E.J. Dionne, Peter Thiel, Andrew Sullivan, Arthur Brooks, Jordan Peterson, Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Niall Ferguson are only the most prominent of intellectuals who have gone public with good things to say about God, ranging from vague invocations of a universal force to doctrinal Christianity. 

   "What's going on?

   "I have a theory: We are emerging from the West's intellectual adolescence." 

   A brief history lesson follows, leading to: "By the middle of the 20th century, academia's appraisal of religion amounted to 'Smart people don't believe that stuff anymore.' 

   "That's the message I got when I reached Harvard in the fall of 1961. ...

   "When the topic of religion came up, professors and friends alike treated it dismissively or as a subject for humor. ...

   "Then, in the late 1990s, I began researching and writing a book that would be published as 'Human Accomplishment.' <www.tinyurl.com/2ntm36kh>

   "As I compiled my inventories of accomplishment in literature, music and the visual arts, it seemed obvious to me that the quality of artistic accomplishment cratered in the 20th century. ...

   "One explanation is that I'm a philistine. But another possibility is that secularization had displaced the classic ideals that drove high culture from 1500 through most of the 1800s.

   "In the Western tradition, excellence in the arts was defined by Truth, Beauty and the Good - qualities Aristotle originally identified, later transmuted into Christian values. 

   "Artists saw themselves as tapping into the transcendental truths relevant to their fields. ...

   "Beginning in the late 1800s, those who saw themselves as engaged in high culture became overwhelmingly secular. 

   "They rejected not just religious faith but the relevance of Truth, Beauty and the Good to their work. 

   "The artist's duty became to 'challenge' the audience.... 

   "When atonal composer Arnold Schoenberg [1874–1951] wrote, "Those who compose because they want to please others, and have audiences in mind, are not real artists," he was expressing the godlike position many artists ascribed to themselves as well as the contempt they had for their audiences. ...

   "By the time 'Human Accomplishment' was finished, I had concluded that when religion no longer supplies a framework for thinking about transcendent qualities, artists tend to make their work about their personal preferences, and their personal preferences tended to be self-absorbed and banal. ...

   "Johann Sebastian Bach does not need to explain himself. 

   "His music makes a prima facie case that his way of looking at the universe needs to be taken seriously. I am obligated to do so. ...

   "Bach's transcendent work alone makes a case for taking God seriously. ...

   "Perhaps a similar realization has been dawning on other overeducated agnostics. 

   "Children of the Enlightenment, we have seen ourselves as more rational than earlier generations and, in the process, cut ourselves off from mankind's accumulated wisdom about topics that do not lend themselves to pure reason and empiricism. ...

   "A common symptom of adolescence is deciding your parents are wrong about everything.

   "A common symptom of adulthood is realizing your parents are smarter than you thought. 

   "Maybe we're starting to grow up."

   Murray's piece ends with the demure bread crumb: "Charles Murray's latest book <www.tinyurl.com/yd9m3zbx> is "Taking Religion Seriously." <www.tinyurl.com/ce6928m8> 

   Kudos to the NY Post! (To which X/Grok had this to say: <www.tinyurl.com/Grokudozola> in response.)

     More Murray:

   * "'Taking Religion Seriously' Review: Faith Makes a Comeback” by Barton Swaim (Wall Street Journal, Oct 17 '25) <www.archive.ph/KRQSI>

   * "Can Science Reckon With the Human Soul?" by Charles Murray (Wall Street Journal, Oct 16 '25) <www.tinyurl.com/9u9vvrhk>

 ---

DISCERNMENT

"When the Map Eats the Territory" by Gary Cymbaluk, Africa ministry director for Avant Ministries (cymbaluk.com, Oct 20 '25) -- "Scroll your social feed (just for a minute).

   "And watch the illusion unfold in front of your eyes.

   "An AI-generated star makes us laugh, cry, and forget she doesn't exist.

   "An AI country singer has a hit song.

   "An AI political deepfake incites outrage before truth gets out.

   "Welcome to 2025, where images have swallowed reality and we barely notice. ...

   "In Science and Sanity, [Polish scholar Alfred] Korzybski <www.tinyurl.com/ncpstfy3> argued that humanity's gravest peril wasn't nuclear war, climate change or moral collapse.

   "It's symbolic collapse.

   "What does this mean?

   "It means that when words, images, and signs no longer connect with the reality they're supposed to reflect, impending disaster is ahead. ...

   "Today, our digital maps (feeds, filters, algorithms) no longer show us the world. They show us our preferences bounced back, our biases reinforced.

   "Algorithms don't display reality; they mirror belief. The image becomes idol; the simulation becomes substitute. ...

   "Jacques Ellul <www.bit.ly/3YnR61O> called it 'the humiliation of the Word.' The image prioritizes the eye and bypasses reflection. The image demands reaction and it feels immediate. The image is seemingly embedded with preset-tense authority even when it's hollow. But its power is a cheap imitation: loud, yes, but lacking the weight and substance that only the Word carries.

   "Korzybski would agree: when symbols stop pointing outward and instead point to each other, discourse collapses, and madness multiplies.

   "If people lose their grounding in language that corresponds to reality, societies get unhinged. Emotion overtakes reason; authenticity slips; control becomes easier. ...

   "This surge of synthetic vision is not merely technical; it's spiritual. It blurs the line between image and truth, between Creator and creature, between Word and pixel.

   "Why does this matter?

   "Because illusions have power. They shape how people believe, choose, make decisions, and worship. If the maps we carry in our minds don't match the territory, we lose common ground, and the ability to engage meaningfully with each other and with God.

   "How do we prioritize Incarnation over illusion?

   "Here is the Christian counter‑narrative:

   "The Word became flesh. (John 1:14) Show up in person. Marina [my wife] says, 'Be present where your feet are.' Do not send an image when you can give a hand. Love is not a concept; but real, breathing, walking, visible flesh and blood. ...

   "Discernment is nonnegotiable. Before you believe it, share it, or build your worldview around it, you should ask: Is this true? Every claim. Every video. Every 'revelation' should be tested against Scripture, history, and inside wise relationships.

   "Awaken to abstraction. Know the difference between your feed and your faith. Remind yourself constantly: your feed is not your life; the image is not your God. Train your heart to see through the spectacle. ...

   "Now let's return to the fast-paced feed you just passed through (just for a minute).

   "It's a map that eats the territory. It seduces, distracts, distorts. And someone (Jesus) must anchor your soul in the real. In fact, until the Word is made flesh among you and your community, you will drift.

   "So what?

   "This matters because the  mission for followers of Jesus is about real people, real souls, and real hope. The Great Commission is carried out in flesh, not pixels, and we must connect with reality.

   "Pray that we anchor words to reality.

   "Invite your heart to resist abstraction.

   "And may our faith boldly assert that the Word became flesh and truth demands embodiment; not disincarnate belief." <www.cymbaluk.com> (Registration is required to get beyond its sparse, mysterious home page.)

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