Rationalism is followed by romanticism, and romanticism is followed by religion. Romanticism deconstructs false logical structures and opens the way to spiritual experience. This in turn opens the way to Christ.
In 2000 I had a great spiritual and romantic experience. As I opened my mind to spiritual forces, thus came in the mindsets of practicing Christians and, after that, Christ Himself. When spiritual energies become inescapable, also becomes inescapable the greatest spiritual energy that is there. Christ comes in and takes the person to the true source.
Of course religion is often followed by rationalism; but there does not need to be a contradiction between the two. As my mathematics teacher who was a devout Christian said, there is no contradiction between science and Christianity. Physics, chemistry, biology and suchlike reveal the divine design, and genuine understanding of these subjects builds respect for the universe as well as what it came from. Science and religion can, and should, work together. One does not preclude the other.
So we see people saying things such as that religious people are stupid. I used to think the same thing; but the experiences that I have had are so numerous and so unavoidable that it would make a believer of a militant atheist such as one used to be, much more a regular skeptic. Reason and logic are tools, not ideologies. A truly rational person, when met with something that does not parse with his worldview, changes his worldview. A person who tries to deny the evidence is not rational and he is not logical. He is dishonest.
We especially see this dishonesty in some in the academia, who claim that an extraordinary claim requires an extraordinary level of proof. I see nothing at all extraordinary about something that the bulk of humanity believes. Far more extraordinary – and far more arrogant – is the claim that most people are stupid or crazy and that the only people who are not stupid or crazy are ones who do not have religious or spiritual beliefs. Some people who believe such things think that spirituality is narcissism. I can see no more glaring narcissism than theirs.
Then there is the claim that religion leads to fanaticism. Probably the most fanatical people I knew were Soviet Communists, and they did not believe in God. I have also seen fanaticism – as well as in some cases exceptional cruelty – in people who called themselves skeptics. Christ teaches mercy and humility, which these ideologies do not. This means that Christianity is far less likely to lead to cruel, fanatical or destructive behavior than these ideologies.
So then there are people claiming that Christians are brainwashed. They understand the transmission mechanism; they do not understand how it came about. Any ideology can be transmitted through generations. This includes anything from Communism to Islam. What these people do not understand is how – and why – something originated. Christianity began during the Roman Empire, which had advanced philosophy and science. The people who became Christians were not sheep; they were frequently fed to the lions. Yet Christianity outlasted the Roman Empire. Clearly we are seeing something far more viable working here than mere brainwashing.
Then there is the claim that religion is something archaic, and that progress means moving away from religion. Once again, that is completely wrong. Roman Empire had advanced science and engineering. They moved toward Christianity instead of away from it. There is such a thing as scientific and technological progress; but I do not see social progress or progress in thought. Societies change in different directions at different times, as does thought. Both the Western civilization and China have had periods of relaxed social attitudes and periods of stringent social attitudes. Philosophy of the Greeks and the Romans was quite advanced, but it gave way to Christianity and Islam. The idea that we are moving away from religion toward feminism or psychology or anything of the sort contradicts the most basic historical facts. In fact, religion is light years ahead of psychology. Psychology states that some people are evil and can only be evil whatever they do. Religion says that all sinners can be redeemed – which is a much more humane, a much wiser and a much more rational standpoint.
I of course got attacked a lot when I had that experience in 2000. Most of what came my way, I found ways to deconstruct, but it was not an easy task. Some was wrong beliefs that people had, and some was personal nastiness. You can deconstruct falsehoods, and you should. You can deconstruct abuse, and you should. You do not however deconstruct Jesus.
Right now in the world, there is a lot to deconstruct. We see fascist trends in psychology claiming, cruelly and in violation of all reason and all sense, that some people are evil and can only be evil whatever they do, however hard they work and whatever work they do on themselves. We see wrongful trends in feminism viciously attacking beauty and love and those who have or value love and beauty. We see postmodernism and avant garde making a huge mess of the culture and pushing ugly cultural products while viciously attacking real art and real poetry. We see corruption in courts, using a racket disorder called Parental Alienation Syndrome to take children away from mothers reporting abuse. We see New Agers teaching cruelty and lack of compassion, claiming that everyone is responsible for everything that happens to them and that if I were to rape you and kill you it would be your fault. We see self-esteem movement rewarding low standards and punishing people who have higher standards and thus find it harder to feel good about themselves. We see a rise in militantly racist and misogynistic ideologies. All of these things are wrong.
What is not? Once again, Christ. Most things can be taken apart, but you do not take apart someone who walks upon water. And in my own life, He has been working a change in my character. I find myself monitoring every action and every thought that I get and finding most of them sinful, even ones that I did not think were sinful before. So I work to change from within. I work to become honest for real, including honest with myself. I work to become more careful and more considerate and attentive. I work to take resposibility. I work to become humbler. I work to become understanding and compassionate. Most of these things I either did not see as virtues or did not consider relevant to my own purpose; but Christ shows me to the contrary.
This is the way in which Christ saves. He works to change you from within. He shows you where what you are doing is wrong – even at levels at which you would not expect – and what wisdom and righteousness and love actually mean. And then, inspired with the wisdom of Christ, you improve your own life and those of others.
At the church I attend, there is an older Aboriginal woman who lost her daughter to domestic violence. When she prays or preaches fireworks go off. She says that Jesus turned her from a victim into a victor. She admits to having felt like a social outcast, but she is full of confidence and courage now. The psychologists want to teach women who've been through things like domestic violence to be strong in themselves. They are wrong. They should be teaching them to be strong in Christ. Here, the woman will be on the right side of the greatest power in the universe. And that will allow her to have genuine courage and genuine strength, as does this woman, as opposed to the bad attitude and venal conduct that we see in many women who've been through the system.
At another church I attended, the preacher said that we must be dangerous people for God. He was absolutely correct. We are living in a world in which fascist ideologies have decided that some people are dangerous to society and that this justifies their permanent demonization, dehumanization and evisceration. I hope that I be dangerous to people who think such things; I hope that more people be dangerous to people who claim such things and make tons of money from sowing misery and confusion. These people claim to be serving society; but they are undermining what made it great or even possible at all. According to their logic, their ancestors were narcissists and sociopaths, since they did not like the way their societies ran and left them to seek freedom across the Atlantic. According to their logic, the most significant contributors to the world are narcissists, as the definition of the disorder includes seeking great success or having original ideas, meaning that most people who achieve great success or have original ideas are narcissists. According to their logic, America's business and political culture – including its great founders and its great industrialists and entrepreneurs - is composed of sociopaths and narcissists; and if they think that they as psychologists are exempt from this they are wrong. Original psychologists made claims that were against what society believed at that time, meaning that they were narcissists and sociopaths by definition. I have had it with this hysteria, and so should everyone else. I hope that people see through the ideological poison such as what these people perpetrate and come to actual wisdom.
Many of the things that I mentioned – self-esteem psychology, personality psychology, Third Wave feminism, use of Parental Alienation Syndrome in courts, and teaching strength in self rather than strength in God – are done in the name of science and in many cases at taxpayer expense. Far more effective than any of these things in affectuating personal betterment and solving social problems is experience of Christ. So I ask Christ to attend other people, including the feminists and the skeptics, and impart them of what He has shown me. If He could work what this has worked in the situation of a militant atheist such as one I used to be, then He could solve the problems of anyone else.
So this is where it stands. A militant atheist from a Communist background has come to Christ. I did not do this by being a sheep. I did this as an intellectual rebel who was availed of truth that I did not expect and did not anticipate and that was completely against what I had been taught. I certainly hope that Christ does the job on many others as well. There are certainly enough people who found wisdom and courage in Christ and are doing genuinely good things.