From Descarte to Robespierre to Raz

In Faith Tech, Part II; Reason, Chapter Seven ‘Faith Tech Roots of Science”, I wrote about how we can get from Descartes “I think therefore, I am” to heads rolling faster than you can imagine. It seemed a far-off and theoretical scenario at the time but I could sense the urge to include it anyway.

Today, June 15 2020, I saw that the the leaders of #CHAZ in Seattle, say they are #CHOP – Capitol Hill Autonomous Protest – or as in the chop/guillotine (French Revolution) for anyone who does not get on board! 

The fact that Seattle is a global tech capital should not escape the careful watcher.

As of November 2016, Seattle, Washington was home to six Fortune 500 companies: Internet retailer Amazon (#18), coffee chain Starbucks (#146), clothing merchant Nordstrom, Four more are located in the metropolitan area: Costco Wholesale (#15), Microsoft(#25), Paccar (#147), and Expedia Group (#385). (Source: Wikipedia)

Here is the relevant passage in Faith Tech

“The intellectual elite of Europe seized Descartes’ rational methods but discarded his faith connection. Consequently, 150 years later, France was in the midst of a massive and bloody social experiment. The goal was to abolish the church and aristocracy and create a new Republic. To establish liberty, equality and fraternity, hundreds of thousands were massacred in bloody battles and tens of thousands were sent to the guillotine. The problem is that when your only foundation is, I think therefore I am, then you have no reason to value human life.

The first pages of the Bible make it evident that humans have intrinsic worth because God made them in his image. Furthermore, people of faith have always known that our thoughts are not always our own. Some ideas are fed to us by spirit beings. This is a vital principle for mental health. We must learn to differentiate between our own thoughts and the thoughts that we pick up from our natural or spiritual environment.

On the other hand, if we follow Enlightenment thinking and discard biblical revelation, we end up with the position where the only reason for your existence is that you are a thinking being. From there it is only a small step to say, if you have a bad thought, you are a bad person. Then another small step, and you start to reason that if you want to create a better world, then you need to get rid of the bad ideas. Suddenly heads are rolling. You can see how current and real this problem is by considering how we handle the topic of hate speech. We can no longer say we dislike someone’s ideas without it being assumed that we hate the person. Once again, society is on the brink of insanity.

In 1794, one hundred and forty-four years after the death of Descartes, the champion of the French Revolution, Robespierre, realised that the loss of faith in France had left a gaping hole in the national soul. So he created a substitute. On the day of Pentecost, when Christians celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit, Robespierre staged a national festival to honour his newly invented supreme being – the goddess of reason. But when we bow to the goddess of reason, no one is safe.

#faithtech #faith #CHAZ #CHOP #BLACKLIVESMATTER #ALLLIVESMATTER #REPENTANCENEEDED #CONNECTTOGOD