The subtle myth of neutrality! It works something like this: Christians believe that God exists, right? Unbelievers, on the other hand, believe that God doesn’t exist, right?
Now let’s imagine that a Christian and an unbeliever are having a discussion – let’s say about the increase in crime in Western countries. If the Christian wants to mention that the increase in lawlessness just happens to be occurring at the same time as the greatest apostasy from Christianity the world has ever seen and that these two things are intrinsically connected, he is, of course, going to have to mention God. And it is at this point in the discussion that he may well be told to “stop ramming your religion down my throat” or such like. By which the unbeliever means, “Hey, buddy, I thought we were having a discussion about crime, and suddenly you’ve stepped way over the line of neutrality and now you’re trying to foist your religious beliefs on me.”
But is it really the case that the unbeliever is adopting neutral territory?
For the unbeliever, even though his view of crime – why it exists, why it has increased in recent years, what its cure is – is intrinsically connected to his belief that there is no God, he doesn’t actually ever have to mention “non-God” in order not to bring God into the discussion. He just doesn’t mention God.
And so, while the Christian is busy mentioning God and the unbeliever is busy not mentioning “non-God,” the impression given is that the Christian is bent on foisting his religious beliefs on all and sundry, whereas the unbeliever is the epitome of perfect neutrality and would never dream of ramming any of his beliefs down anyone’s throat. Except, of course, that he does it all the time, albeit in a way that is much harder to spot, because his core belief is a negative presupposition rather than a positive one.
And it is this very point of alleged neutrality that is being used to hack away at the foundations of Christian civilization, even as you read this. Just take a look at the culture wars that are taking place in most Western countries at present. The unbelievers that have controlled these countries for the past few decades have adopted some of the most radical programs of social reform that the world has ever seen, all in an unbiblical direction and all entirely un-neutral. But as soon as someone rises up to challenge what is going on and invokes the “G” word, the most militant unbelievers cry foul, throwing their hands into the air in uproar, screaming about keeping God out of politics, out of economics, out of the schools, out of the law, out of sexual ethics, out of the abortion clinics, out of anything and everything, except that maybe they’ll let believers keep him for a few hours on a Sunday.
And this is the way that the secular humanists silence any real opposition to their agenda – by painting themselves and their agenda as completely neutral and therefore utterly harmless, so that anyone who invokes the “G” word to oppose them must be automatically barred from the debate. In this way, they are able to deny freedom of speech and of thought, successfully cover up their own underlying assumptions and get away with “ramming their non-God beliefs and agenda down our throats” on a daily basis.
This is an extract from Rob Slane’s book A Christian and an Unbeliever Discuss: Life, the Universe & Everything. This excerpt was published in the July/August 2015 issue of the magazine.