I finished reading Clay Jones,’ “Immortal: How the Fear of Death Drives Us and What We Can Do About It.” As I was reading a section regarding the way that atheists seek to comfort themselves when they think about death, I was reminded of the role that hidden assumptions play in our lives. Jones quotes several atheists who justify their lack of belief in God and in heaven by proclaiming that living forever would be boring and worse than dying. One atheist says, “We generally find that our pleasures wear out. . . . And the fact that so many earthly pleasures are in fact exhausted by us strongly suggests that any earthly pleasure is in principle exhaustible by significant repetition.” In other words, even the good things that we might get to do in heaven will get boring after a while. Thus, it would be better to die, to cease to exist, than to exist forever bored. In the same vein, another atheist quotes Woody Allen who said, “Eternity is a long time; especially near the end.”
Of course, there is a least one unstated assumption lingering beneath the surface that leads these atheists to make such statements—namely that boredom will be a problem in heaven just like here on earth. But if you understand heaven as a place of paradise where people are not encumbered by certain earthly weaknesses, then boredom might not be a problem at all. In fact, I would suggest that boredom won’t be a thing at all in heaven.
The point I’m making is that underneath nearly all of our beliefs lie hidden assumptions. And the great majority of the time, we don’t even realize that we have made these assumptions because we are not accustomed to looking for them. One of the great keys to living an intellectually virtuous life is to learn to recognize our assumptions, to analyze them, and to reject those that are detrimental to ourselves and others. Not only will life be richer, but we will save ourselves many problems by doing so.
I would venture to say that many of our problems in life, whether they be personal problems or inter-personal relational conflicts, stem from false assumptions that we hold about the world around us or false assumptions that we believe about others. Jesus cautioned us about improperly judging others.
Jesus also said in John 8:31-32, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” As a Christian who seeks to recognize and analyze his assumptions, I assume that Jesus is the unique God, who entered into His Creation and clothed Himself with flesh. As such, I assume that He knows what He’s talking about. Deception and self-deception are problems that Jesus warned against. Many are quite comfortable walking in darkness because they enjoy their sin more than truth and righteousness (John 3:19-21).
Our secular culture believes that there is nothing wrong with various practices that the Bible condemns as sin. Our culture-at-large has no problem practicing and promoting various sexual sins, disregarding unborn human life, silencing those with whom they disagree, and rejecting the church, just to name a few. What some don’t realize is that they are making several assumptions in order to conduct themselves this way—namely that either God doesn’t care about our behavior with regards to these things & others OR that God’s will can’t be known with any real certainty (so who is anyone to judge?). Yet, if these assumptions are wrong, a great number of people could be in big trouble with God!
The question is, “Are we willing to discover our hidden assumptions and examine them to determine if we have assumed wrongly?” Countless are not willing because they would rather not have their lives disturbed by the necessary changes that such discovery would necessitate. As Jesus said referencing His first coming, “Light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed,” (John 3:19-20, ESV).
