Brad Alles

We’re looking at a Christian worldview of psychology and the behavior of people.  If the Christian perspective is wrong, there are questions that need to be answered.  First, if humanity possesses only a body, with no soul, why is there thought?

Remember in Monism, the belief is that humans have a body only.  We have a brain, made of atoms and molecules, but no soul, which is unable to be touched.  We are simply matter in motion–our brain tells us what to do, reacting to stimuli, but we have no free will or soul with which to make decisions.

If this is true, how did thought come from matter?  Our brain has matter, but our thoughts do not.  How is this possible?

A second question comes to mind.  All other worldviews state that humans are basically good.  Psychologist  Abraham Maslow said, “As far as I know, we just don’t have any intrinsic instinct for evil.”  But if humanity is basically good, why is there evil?  We see suffering and evil every day; we see it in our homes, neighborhoods, and other countries.  Why do these acts happen if people are good?

Maslow explained the evil this way: “Sick people are made by a sick culture.”  But think about that–we make the culture.  If we’re good, shouldn’t the culture be good as well?  What failed?  The culture?  Or the people who make the culture?

Third, if humanity needs to do whatever we want, where does it stop?  If good mental and psychological health is acting on our inner desires, do we ever say some things are not permissible?

For instance, take the issue of pedophilia.  There are people in the American Psychological Association that are debating if this is actually deviant behavior, or simply another lifestyle choice.  They say maybe those who prefer “adult-child sex” are just different, but not wrong morally.  Read articles on counselors who debate this issue–they advocate for the removal of this impulse from the list of behaviors that need therapy.

Ideas have consequences.  This issue of “intergenerational intimacy” is just one of many.  And people’s worldview assumptions, such as the nature of man being good, can take us down devastating paths if we follow them.