Despite taking pride in relying solely on reason, when it comes to making public statements about its values, rationalism gets all touchy-feely. Instead of deriving its values from the rest of its worldview, it steals selectively from Jesus’ love-based values.
Why rationalists resort to stealing Christian values
Their problem is this. The values that can be derived logically from the rest of rationalism’s worldview are so brutal that they are repugnant to most people. For example, the brutal logic of evolution has been called “survival of the fittest.” That concept was reflected in Hitler’s master race theory, Stalin’s purging of Russian peasants and the so-called ‘science’ of Eugenics. Those foul atrocities and the values that gave rise to them meet with widespread loathing in common law countries.
In attempting to make itself seem more palatable, rationalism steals some of Christ’s love-based values that are logically incompatible with its basic beliefs. Jesus’ self-sacrificing love and care for the disadvantaged, for example, are incompatible with the harsh logic of evolution. If our only purpose is to breed to pass on genes that are likely to survive the merciless test of natural selection, why would we care for the disadvantaged?
Rationalism would be roundly rejected – including by many who think of themselves as rationalists – if people understood the values that flow logically from it’s worldview.
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