What might be the erroneous assumptions we have swallowed with our cultural atmosphere, specifically in the West? There’s a very good book entitled, “The lies we are told and the truth we must hold”. It is written by Dr. Sharon James, and deals with several false notions that are current in the Western mind-set these days. She pin-points these false assumptions, the very first of which is the unsuspected cause of a lot of our existential confusion … “There is no God and there is no absolute morality”.

I will come back to the issue of morality in due time, but what I want to emphasise for the moment is that aspect of our secular worldview that has been invading our intellectual space now for quite some time – the odd affirmation that there is no God. Why is this odd? Well, because to affirm as a truth that there is no God (that is, no ultimate almighty Creator who is both powerful and personal) one would need to make an exhaustive examination of the entire universe, both that which is in the visible and in the invisible realms, to have been able to come up validly with the conclusion that there is no God. The Russian astronaut Yuri Gagarin, the first to trip around the world in space, came back to earth claiming that since he had seen no God “up there”, then there is no God. It is all proud stupidity! Of course there may well be a God – we’ll come back to that later too.

What I want to bring out here is that if this atheistic assumption is taken as truth, it will affect a number of other ideas that we assume to be true. To take just one example, can there be any purpose in the existence of the world and the universe and humankind if there is no divine intelligence and power behind the creation of this extraordinary living space we all enjoy? That is a question worth pondering. Does not our hopelessness and meaninglessness come in fact from having adopted such an atheistic assumption? And let us remember that atheism is a belief system (as Professor Alister McGrath, a former atheist, informs us). In fact it is a belief system with no evidence! Not a helpful assumption therefore, to say the least.

Clive Every-Clayton

A great thinker of the 20^th century, Francis A. Schaeffer, summed up man’s situation thus: “The dilemma of modern man is simple: he simply doesn’t know why man has any meaning. He is lost. Man remains a zero. It is the damnation of our generation. If a man cannot find any meaning for himself, that is his problem”.

This difficulty was compounded by Jean-Paul Sartre’s insistence that we have to create our own meaning, which has contributed to the whole mess and confusion of the search for self-understanding and the supposed possibility of inventing one’s identity today. The problem with that is, we are simply not able to invent ourselves; rather, from the very moment of our birth, we exist as “given”; wisdom dictates that we accept what cannot be changed, as the serenity prayer puts it. 

In our reality today, we have to reckon that we come from somewhere; we have a back story. We cannot start out from scratch, neither can we abolish the past – our past. We are caught in existence at this moment in history.

What to do therefore? Re-invent ourselves? But we drag our past with us and we can never be dissociated from it. Rather, as we grow, we need light to guide us, truth to correct us, wisdom to instruct us on how to understand ourselves properly. “Know thyself” is not a banal piece of advice: it is the essence of our happiness and our survival. But that means we have to assess ourselves as we are, as objectively as we can (which is not easy when we are the subject). We have to assess judiciously how other people consider us: we all know how their opinions can do much harm in damaging our self-esteem, and how sometimes their assessment does us much good, boosting our morale. In fact, unknown to our own hearts, what we really need is for someone who knows us truly and who loves us dearly, to tell us who we are, why we are here and what the meaning is to our existence. That person exists! We must listen to him!

How to assess rightly our human reality?

The omniscient Creator who made humankind “in his image” is the one – the only one – capable of telling us who we really are as human beings. Of course, there are billions of different versions of humans throughout the globe; yet there is a commonality to our humanity that our Creator knows well. His kind wisdom gives us the vital indications we need in order to understand ourselves truly.

These indications were well grasped by the great French thinker Blaise Pascal, and his “thoughts” are very illuminating on this theme.  He calls people to “know… what a paradox you are to yourself. Be humble, impotent reason! Be silent, feeble nature! Learn that man infinitely transcends man, hear from your master your true condition, which is unknown to you. Listen to God. Is it not clear that man’s condition is dual?”

Pascal calls us to be humble. What is humility? Its essence is to consider ourselves according to truth. Pride is considering ourselves as better than we are. Discouragement comes from considering ourselves as worse than we are. Humility strikes the balance, seeking both to assess and to accept the true reality of who we are. And Pascal’s profound insight is to recognise that this is “dual”. There are two essential sides to our human nature.

Pascal continues to explain that “there are two equally constant truths: One is that man in the state of his creation, or in the state of grace, is exalted above the whole of nature, made like God and sharing in his divinity. The other is that in the state of corruption and sin he has fallen from that first state and has become like the beasts. These two propositions,”  he concludes, “are equally firm and certain” (Pensée §131/434).

Realising how our self-image impacts our mental health Pascal comments further, “It is dangerous to explain to man how like he is to the animals without pointing out his greatness. It is also dangerous to make too much of his greatness without his vileness. It is still more dangerous to leave him in ignorance of both, but it is most valuable to represent both to him” (Pensée §121/418). So we really need to take on board both aspects of our reality – our nobleness and our vileness. We are great – the greatest of God’s creation; yet we are perverted, twisted, fallen from our pristine glory. And that is as true of you as it is true of me.

A final more amusing thought from this great French author: “Man is neither angel nor beast, and it is unfortunately the case that anyone trying to act the angel acts the beast”! (Pensée 678/358) He would thus pinprick the bubble of our pride. We are both wonderful, yet wicked; both marvellous and malevolent; both glorious in humanity’s origin and yet tragically fallen from such grace.

Clive Every-Clayton

A French author came up with this interesting guidance, which I translate freely: “In order to trust in what gives hope, we must distrust what makes us despair”. This pinpoints the problem with seeking authentic hope-full answers: people already have their beliefs about existential issues, but what they trust in is not right or helpful. The first thing they need if they are to be helped into a happier life-style is to despair of the present erroneous basis of their thinking. Or as philosopher Cornelius Van Til said succinctly: “I am asking you to be critical of your own most basic assumptions”.

We all have assumptions. If these are wrong, we are skewed! It is wise therefore to check out what our assumptions are, and to dare to assess them critically. The reason so many people suffer in their soul is that they are living on the basis of false assumptions – assumptions that are not in sync with reality. This cannot be helpful surely. So though the task is not easy – indeed it requires a big dose of humility – let us pause to examine what we really hold to in our heart of hearts.

We pick up our assumptions from the surrounding “plausibility structure”. In other words, we conform to the thought processes of society around us. Seldom do we have either the discernment or the courage to stand up and oppose the prevailing cultural norms – and yet, these norms change and have constantly evolved over time, and are capable of changing again in the near future. So to adopt the ideas of our generation will not necessarily serve us in finding real, lasting truth about ourselves. Or as someone well said, “If you espouse the philosophy of one generation, you will be a widow in the next”.

Of course the difficulty is to find some objective solidity to ground our assessment on, while in the raging seas of varying opinions. What is “eternal”? What truth is ever valid? Some ideas may seem plausible simply because we have imbibed them from the same culture as those around us: “everybody thinks that way”. But if they will pass away in a generation, they are – let’s face it – unreliable.

So, check out what your beliefs are based on. Examine your assumptions. Probably if you’re serious you will find that they do not hold water – you could find better. But where to turn for anything better? That is the next question.

Clive Every-Clayton

We need – indeed, as a human race, have always needed – valid answers to the great existential questions we all ask sometimes. Questions like, “Where did we come from?” “Why are we here?” “Where are we going?” “How to know right from wrong?” “Is there a God?” “What happens to us when we die?” “Is there reliable truth to answer these questions?” “How can we know?”

This blog is entitled “Authentic hope for answers”. This expresses in four words my conviction not only that there are universal answers to these questions, but that these answers are available to the sincere seeker. Furthermore, we all, both as individuals and as a society desperately need real answers to these basic and vital questions. Why? Because without valid answers we just press on further into hopelessness, meaninglessness and despair.

Our angst comes from not having yet found the true answers to these questions. Great minds down the ages, from philosophers to sages to scientists have struggled more or less valiantly with these issues, but finding the answer has proved elusive. In the absence of answers, what happens? People who don’t know what life is all about, who have no idea – and maybe little thought – about the meaning of their existence, become deeply confused, uncertain, destabilised. This can lead to one of two outcomes. The more “positive” of these is to conclude that pleasure is the only thing that counts – pleasure at whatever cost. Pleasure in enjoying life to the full, seeking a maximum of joys in the hopeless quest for ideal happiness: yet it still remains tantalisingly out of reach. The less happy outcome of finding no answers is to drift into psychological despair, to face up to the miserable meaninglessness of existence and to give up on life. Both of these outcomes contribute to the consumption of alcohol and drugs – which compound the basic inner problems with outer, physical suffering too. Some in the category of the second outcome conclude that life is not worth living and end it all in utter tragedy.

To all such sufferers I would cry out: stop! Listen! There are answers! Hope for answers need not be disappointed. There is truth – and the one who seeks still can find.

Clive Every-Clayton

It has become commonplace to disparage “religion”, and of course “religion” is vast enough to be an easy target for complaint and valid criticism. Political correctness prevents us from calling out one as terrible while countenancing others as okay; fear of reprisals keeps us from denouncing one faith whose extremist followers might be capable of terrorist attacks in response, for example. We seek to treat “faith” with respect, while caring little about the content of the various faiths, unless they are totally abhorrent.

The result is that a secular society is quite happy to become irreligious; all religious convictions are side-lined and no particular attention paid to their moral values. People don’t care about what religion teaches about morality. Agnosticism, unbelief, scepticism and atheism influence people’s moral choices by the very absence of absolutes. The result is a general easy-going relativism. In the absence of high moral ideals, hedonism dominates people’s way of life; but having a good time is not necessarily having a good life.

The usefulness of “religion” is its appeal to Transcendence to buttress its moral standards. And we only have to consider the discouraging effects on modern secular society of the lack of such transcendent values to realise that, after all, religion may have some usefulness. Or maybe we prefer to let our selfish hedonism pursue its course, but in that case things will keep on going from bad to worse, with further family breakdown, increasing numbers of  teenagers suffering mental illness due to lack of guidelines, yet more children knifing each other in school and many other kinds of societal breakdown… 

What we need is a good religion, widely accepted, bringing wise guidelines, hope, and answers to our deep existential questions. Lack of reasonable answers is the underlying cause of our society’s malaise. This is why we cry out our anguish, our quest unsatisfied for anything we can cling on to as truly believable and good. It is my conviction that only Christianity – in its fullness and in faithfulness to its origins – that can provide our society with the wise balance of well-proven values that our society so desperately needs. Jesus remains the great moral master of all time and his words of wisdom still guide many believers into the paths of righteousness, peace and stability that so many lack today. 

It is time to revaluate Christianity and re-examine its life-affirming message of hope and love.

Clive Every-Clayton

It is amazing how contemporary the book of Ecclesiastes is, with its anguished cry: “Meaningless! Meaningless! Everything is meaningless”. In this Old Testament book, penned centuries before philosophy began, the author shares his troubled journey: he has tried every avenue to find satisfaction: wealth, women, wisdom, work, wine – whatever. His life still proves frustrating and seems ultimately futile. 

People today also, facing the injustices of life, the foreboding of death and the intuition of judgment – try everything to get happiness and still end up with no life-giving answers; that is our modern human despair! 

Why does the Bible contain such a horrible assessment of our human reality? Because the author is depicting life without God. And why does it sound so contemporary? Because modern secular people, bereft of God and careless of eternity, discover life without God is meaningless. The godless are literally hope-less. 

Without God and the Bible, neither philosophy nor science can provide any overarching purpose to our existence, nor propose life-fulfilling answers. That’s why our Western society suffers so many psychological ills and mental stresses. We see nothing that can alleviate our human anguish.

What we need is to heed the striking words of Ecclesiastes’ last chapter:

• “Remember your Creator” – because he is there! He holds the secret of happiness. He did not intend us to be miserable when he made us – our anguish comes from our godlessness. His loving wisdom knows the way to our true human flourishing, and he invites us there. And his word gives us the answers we will never find otherwise.

• “Hold God in respect and obey his commandments” – because he is almighty, and he knows you through and through; he deserves your respect; and the commandments he gives are his loving way of telling us how to find fulfilment.

• “God will bring every deed into judgment” – because he is just: there is ultimate justice in the universe! We are accountable to him. We need to make our peace with our Maker before we face him in judgment. 

• “Get right with God!” He is a loving God, ready to welcome you with total forgiveness. “Get to know Him and be at peace,” is the biblical invitation. We can open up to God through Christ, and when we put God in his rightful place in our hearts we will find true human fulfilment.

Clive Every-Clayton

Are you suffering? Have you wondered why God allows suffering?

I had to write a couple of hundred words for a newspaper article when I suddenly became ill and was urged to go straight to A&E. My pain was considerable: I gave it 7 out of 10. I was received, diagnosed and treated through a sleepless night. I ended up composing my article on a hospital bed.

Later, getting better, I was reading a book in which a one-time atheist, now Christian apologist, answers the question, “If God, why suffering?” He argues that God whose wisdom is infinite must have good reasons for allowing bad things to happen. After all, his wisdom is evident in creating the universe with its fine tuning and beauty. It’s rather that our minds are too small to grasp totally the profound reasons that are in the mind of God. It’s not for us believers, the author says, to furnish our atheist friends with all God’s possible answers for allowing evil: rather it’s for the atheist to show that such reasons can’t exist. 

My suffering has allowed me time in hospital to think about the big issues of life and death. I have enjoyed the kindness of nurses, the love of visitors and the specialist help of doctors. I’ve had time to read the Bible, pray and write these thoughts. And I have renewed my trust that God knows what he is doing when in his loving providence he lets me experience suffering.

Clive Every-Clayton