Revolutions
Those who grew up in the 1960s and 1970s lived through a revolutionary transformation of Western culture from a Judea-Christian worldview to the prevailing secular views of today. The turbulent sixties saw the assassination of president Kennedy, the Vietnam war, the emergence of rock'n roll, the rise of radical feminism, the "sexual revolution," the emergence of the drug culture, the space race culminating with the landing of man on the moon, the Civil Rights movement, the "generation gap," Woodstock, the banning of school prayer, the assassination of Martin Luther King, the assassination of Robert Kennedy, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the nuclear arms race, the peace movement, hippies, the rise of the "counter culture," the rise of Eastern Mysticism, the rise of the ecology movement, founding of the "Great Society," mini-skirts, and so on. In the early 1970s we had the Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision, which gave us mass murder via abortion. The mantras of the day were: "tune in, turn on, drop out," "if it feels good do it," "peace and love," "make love not war," etc. The prevailing ethic changed from "love thy neighbor as thyself" to "do what you want as long as you don't hurt anyone else." A generation turned its back on its parents and their culture to embrace a new and "better " way presumably free from materialism, greed, aggression, and hypocrisy.
This new worldview rejected Christianity and embraced either secular humanism, the idea that people can solve all their problems without God, or pantheism, the eastern idea that everything in the universe is God in evolution. The new values became world peace, personal peace, affluence, ecology, and hedonism. The only absolute became that there were no absolutes. Absolute truth either didn't exist or was unknowable; truth was merely relative to the individual.
Man was assumed to be basically good or a blank slate without need for redemption or forgiveness. Indeed, by assuming evolution, man came to be viewed as just another animal with no special place in the world. At the same time, animals came to be regarded as having "rights" which could even supercede the rights of people. Man as an animal looses his dignity, moral responsibility, and accountability. His loss of dignity is reflected in the broad acceptance of abortion, euthanasia, infanticide, and suicide.
Naturalism, the belief that the universe is self-subsistent and evolving via natural processes, became the bedrock upon which all secular philosophies were built. Christianity was seen as archaic, sexually repressive, unscientific, sexist, racist, divisive, and just plain dangerous.
The seeds of the sixties and seventies are now evident in rampant pornography, rampant teen pregnancy, "safe sex," high crime rate, high divorce rate, unmarried couples "living together," corruption in business and government, the rejection of Christianity by the "intellectual elite," the AIDS epidemic, the persecution of Christians in schools, homosexual "clergy," homosexual "rights," the "tolerance" movement, the rise of "scientism," a liberal activist judiciary which legislates from the bench, the elimination of prayer at school functions, the erection of the "wall of separation between church and state," pedophilic priests, mass killings in our schools by our youth, the decline in education and test scores, the debt crisis, etc. The impact of the secularist world view can readily be seen in movies, television, music, art, and advertising. The church has been scandalized by adulterous evangelists and preachers, compromised by liberal theologians, and intimidated by the liberal media and academia. The left is trying to eliminate Christianity from public life through the media, in our schools, and through our government. Christians in the media are portrayed as ignorant, bigoted, hypocritical, greedy, deceptive, weak, control freaks, irrelevant, full of hate, prejudice, etc. Speaking out against homosexuality is thought of as "hate speech." The public schools with the help of Planned Parenthood distribute condoms to our youth, provide abortion counseling, claim all "sexual orientations" are equally good and valid, and attempt to drive a wedge between children and their parents by rendering "reproductive services" without parental consent. Students are often prohibited from expressing a Christian viewpoint in class or in projects to facilitate "inclusiveness and diversity" among students and to uphold "the wall of separation between church and state."
Naturalism is the fatal fallacy of secularism. Remove naturalism and the rest of the secular edifice crumbles leaving theism as the only foundation to build on. Presumably, science has demonstrated beyond reasonable doubt that life evolved by natural processes alone, and the universe is merely the inevitable outworking of quantum mechanics. However, science is baffled by the most fundamental questions of our existence. We still don't know where the original matter-energy came from and why it consisted of matter only (no antimatter). We don't know what caused the inhomogeniety in the early universe that allegedly lead to the formation of stars and galaxies. There is no explanation for the chemical origin of life, just a faithful acceptance of it. No one knows how the complex specified information found in biochemicals got there. No one has satisfactorily explained how the theory of evolution and the inverted cone of diversity found in the fossil record can be reconciled. Macroevolution has never been adequately explained in terms of information. Astronomers now say the universe consists primarily of dark matter and dark energy, entities which are poorly understood at best. Some scientists consciously deny the evidence for intelligent design in nature; evolutionist Richard Dawkins says that biologists must constantly remind themselves that what they are studying was not designed.
The truth of the matter is that naturalism is a failed enterprise; only its faithful adherents believe the missing answers will be found. It is clear that naturalism is just a philosophy that leaves much to be desired. Those who hold to it do so for emotional and religious reasons and not because of scientific evidence, their objections notwithstanding. Romans 1:19-32 explains what has happened in our culture and many before it:
"For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God, or give thanks; but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, that their bodies might be dishonored among them. For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error. And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; and, although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them."
- Romans 1:19-32 (NASB)
Prayer and godly living are our best weapons against this trend, as the scriptures explain:
"If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land."
- 2 Chronicles 7:14 (KJV)
The revolution of the sixties has lead to much ungodliness in our culture. The revolution was nothing new but simply the same deception Satan has perpetrated upon sinful man since the beginning. It's time that we Christians have a revolution as well, standing firm in what we believe such as the doctrines of creation and redemption, praying and depending on the Lord, and speaking the truth in love to our generation:
"In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will."
- 2 Tim 2:25-26 (KJV)