A Kingdom of Conscience, or Nothing
Human action is dictated by a subjective hierarchy of values. Austrian economists have demonstrated that quite extensively in the market of material transactions, but it also applies to moral decisions we make daily. On top of this hierarchy of values sits the Divine. The Divine guides our moral and material choices. For the longer part of human civilization, the Divine was literally God. However, and increasingly so, the modern fiat man is opting to replace God with other secular cults such as The Science™, or nihilism.
Nihilism is a self-defeating enterprise, so it does very little to ponder on it.
Science can never provide a moral compass as it’s bound by the material world, but even if it’s the pursuit of truth that is the ultimate value to follow, science as a substitute for religion remains a performative contradiction, and here is why: Science as a practice is fundamentally religious as it’s predicated on religious axioms. A scientist must believe there’s such a thing as truth, that the truth is understandable, that understanding the truth is good, and that there is such a thing as good. So to be a scientist, you have to imagine that the world is comprehensible to the human intellect, but more, that it is beneficial to investigate the mysteries of the material world. Therefore, a scientist must transcend the material scientific realm and derive the ultimate value from somewhere else. C.S. Lewis states that science sits more comfortably with theistic notions on the basis that men became scientific in Western Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries because they expected law in nature, and they expected law in nature because they believed in a lawgiver. In other words, it was the belief in God that was the “motor that drove modern science”.
“Supposing there was no intelligence behind the universe, no creative mind. In that case, nobody designed my brain for the purpose of thinking. It is merely that when the atoms inside my skull happen, for physical or chemical reasons, to arrange themselves in a certain way, this gives me, as a by-product, the sensation I call thought. But, if so, how can I trust my own thinking to be true? It’s like upsetting a milk jug and hoping that the way it splashes itself will give you a map of London. But if I can’t trust my own thinking, of course I can’t trust the arguments leading to Atheism, and therefore have no reason to be an Atheist, or anything else. Unless I believe in God, I cannot believe in thought: so I can never use thought to disbelieve in God.” — C.S. Lewis
But there may be an intelligent design behind the universe. Darwin’s (not-so-elegant) theory of evolution faces mathematical challenges that debunk it as simply implausible. The case for an intelligent design is an absolutely serious scientific argument, and it’s the most obvious and intuitive one. This is a fact that most atheists/darwinists fail to contend with intellectually without falling back on the usual anti-religious bigotry.
By affirming God’s existence, we enthrone Him on top of our hierarchy of values as the ultimate moral beacon, and that is crucial for the development of any sophisticated civilization. With God as the provenance of morality, Man renounces his subjectivity and morality becomes absolute and objective. Harmonious co-existence is impossible if people do not agree to and obey the same rules. And while modern secular states have tried to forcefully substitute God as the ultimate law-giver in various pluralistic experiments, the consequences of the top-down approach and the gross deviation from natural laws (not made by man, but discovered by him) to positive laws (human-made) are anything but auspicious. Just as private property is the sole solution to the problem of scarcity, the problem of morality can only be solved by religious exclusivism. The alternative to either is conflict and in-fighting.
Great thinkers like Murray N. Rothbard and St. Thomas Aquinas posit that Natural Law is to be strictly derived from reason without appealing to the religious; reason being the ability to use logic to draw conclusions from available information. But we know that rationality stems from each person’s own value judgment; and while universal, it is not objective. It is, then, unfathomable to conceive of an immutable Natural Law that surpasses subjectivity without appealing to the Divine. Even if one concedes that Natural Law derives from human reason alone, Natural Law (just like science) still sits more comfortably with theistic notions, for it complements the existence of a creator despite not being a hard evidence thereof.
I believe in an intelligent designer, specifically the one of the Christian Bible. Why not any of the 5,000 other deities? Because there may be 5,000 deities, but there’s only 1 empty tomb. And although matters of faith should not be predicated on proofs, there is compelling evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ: His burial cloth, known as the Shroud of Turin (Science of a Miracle, History of a Miracle).
What framework does that impose on a believer? What is God’s ideal? Well, according to Alexandre Christoyannopoulos, many of the Church Fathers’ writings suggest anarchism as God’s ideal. In fact, the first Christians opposed the primacy and even the legitimacy of the state:
“So they called them and ordered them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered them, “Whether it is right in God’s sight to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge; for we cannot keep from speaking about what we have seen and heard.” ~ Acts 4:18–20
“When they had brought them, they had them stand before the council. The high priest questioned them, saying, “We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and you are determined to bring this man’s blood on us.” But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than any human authority.” ~ Acts 5:27–29
“When any of you has a grievance against another, do you dare to take it to court before the unrighteous, instead of taking it before the saints? Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? Do you not know that we are to judge angels — to say nothing of ordinary matters? If you have ordinary cases, then, do you appoint as judges those who have no standing in the church? I say this to your shame. Can it be that there is no one among you wise enough to decide between one believer and another, but a believer goes to court against a believer — and before unbelievers at that?” ~ 1 Corinthians 6:1–6
And what is the state? What is the state but an instrument of evil, of the devil? The state, the systematization of the predatory process over a given territory, emerged with a deliberate act of human rebellion against the kingdom of God.
After God led His people out of the desert and into the promised land, the Israelites soon turned to the worship of the pagan gods of Canaan, and God therefore delivered them into the hands of their enemies. Then, when the people repented and entreated God for mercy, He sent a judge to deliver them from oppression. We read in the final verse of the Book of Judges that “in those days there was no king in Israel; all the people did what was right in their own eyes.” (Judges 21:25)
The Israelites had lived in a state of semi-anarchy and had turned to a series of judges or mediators to settle their disagreements. But after repeated cycles of unfaithfulness, the people finally broke their covenant with God and sought to emulate their pagan neighbors by demanding that a king rules over them, blaming their weakness on disunity rather than disobedience to God’s Law. We read in the First Book of Samuel:
So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. They said to him, “You are old, and your sons do not follow your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have.” But when they said, “Give us a king to lead us,” this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the Lord. And the Lord told him: “Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king. As they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you. Now listen to them; but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will claim as his rights.” Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking him for a king. He said, “This is what the king who will reign over you will claim as his rights: He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, and they will run in front of his chariots. Some he will assign to be commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and others to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and still others to make weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants. He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants. Your male and female servants and the best of your cattle and donkeys he will take for his own use. He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves. When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, but the Lord will not answer you in that day.” But the people refused to listen to Samuel. “No!” they said. “We want a king over us. Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles.” When Samuel heard all that the people said, he repeated it before the Lord. The Lord answered, “Listen to them and give them a king.” (1 Samuel 8:4–22)
God gives stern warning against statolatry (the term was used and popularized by Ludwig von Mises in his 1944 work Omnipotent Government, and he defines as being literally the worship of the state, analogous to idolatry) and He does not share the Divine spot of the hierarchy of values with anyone or anything else, as He spoke to Moses on top of Mount Sinai:
“You shall have no other gods before me. […] You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God.” ~ Exodus 20:3-5
But even when the people transgress against their creator, God lets them. Because free will has always been a precious gift from God, one that He never denies to any of His creations. Even when people shut their doors and hearts in His face, God never forces Himself onto them nor does He retaliate with vengeful wrath, for few things are as detestable to God as coercive violence.
On their way they entered a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him; but they did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem. When his disciples James and John saw it, they said, “Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” But he turned and rebuked them. Then they went on to another village. ~ Luke 9:52–56
The greatest biblical indictment of the state comes in Jesus’ third and final temptation in the wilderness, where He’s taken up to a high mountain by Satan and told that He will be given dominion over all the kingdoms of the world if He but bends the knee to the devil. This is clear evidence that all Earthly kingdoms and governments are ruled by Satan, otherwise they would not be Satan’s to give.
Then the devil led him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And the devil said to him, “To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.” ~ Luke 4:5–7
But Jesus forcefully rejects the offer, Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only’ (Matthew 4:10). Even as a crowd of 5,000 gathered to take him by force to make Him king, He withdrew again to the mountain by himself (John 6:15). Times and again, Jesus rejects earthly authority, for His dominion is not of this world, but a kingdom of heaven. Earthly rulers, who yield the coercive hammer of the state, are doing Satan’s bidding; and the Bible is full of warnings thereof, Do not put your trust in princes, in mortals, in whom there is no help (Psalm 146:3).
Thus, Christianity is fundamentally anti-statist for it recognizes no authority but that of God. Furthermore, the Roman Catholic Church is the only church true to that approach. As a matter of fact, apart from Rome, there only exist national churches (like the Armenian or the Greek Church), state churches (like the Russian or the Anglican Church), or else sects founded by individuals (like the Lutherans and the Calvinists). The Roman Catholic Church is the only church that is neither a national church, nor a state church, nor a sect founded by a man; it is the only church in the world which maintains and asserts the principle of universal social unity against earthly ties and national particularism; it is the only church which maintains and asserts the freedom of the spiritual power against the absolutism of the state; in a word, it is the only church against which the gates of Hades have not prevailed.
The Christian principle of separating church and state serves not to legitimize Caesar (Matthew 22:21 — Mark 12:17), nor to keep religious fervor to the confines of cathedrals and temples. Church and state must be kept separate specifically so that the Church remains unsullied and untainted by the wickedness of the state. The moment the Church assumes coercive control, it gives up its ethos as the virtuous opposition to the moral depravity of earthly governments. And it is only by believing in God that we can ever criticize the government. Absent God, the government encroaches itself on top of everyone’s hierarchy of values to the point of no return.
In an interview for the Austrian (a publication of the Mises Institute), Hans-Hermann Hoppe reflects on the influence of Christianity on the world:
“Whether you are a believer or not, there is no way of denying that religion has played a hugely important role in human history and that it is the West, i.e., the part of the world shaped by Latin Christendom in particular, that has surpassed all other world regions both in terms of its material as well as its cultural achievements, and that among its superior cultural achievements in particular is also the idea of natural human rights and human freedom. The Christian notion that each person is created in the image of God contributed to the uniquely Western tradition of individualism and was instrumental in abolishing, at long last, the institution of slavery within the Christian orbit (all the while it lingered on outside the West, even until today). And the institutional separation and jealous competition for social recognition and authority in the West between the Christian church and its hierarchy of popes, cardinals, bishops, and priests, on the one hand, and all worldly power with its hierarchy of emperors, kings, nobles, and heads of households on the other contributed greatly to the uniquely Western tradition of limited (as opposed to absolutist) government.”
We know that we are God’s children, and that the whole world lies under the power of the evil one. And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves from idols — 1 John 5:19–21
Christianity is a religion of absolutes. In Christianity, we give up human subjectivity in favor of God’s absolutism. Natural law is absolute. Morality is absolute. The truth is absolute. Rather than succumb to pipe dreams of statist welfare and security, Christians ought to embrace and cherish the kingdom of God which is the exact opposite of the kingdoms (states) of this world, and which never systematically uses violence and coercion, a kingdom that has already arrived. It has been given to us free, in an act of immense mercy and love. It is a kingdom of conscience, or nothing.
This essay was inspired by Jesús Huerta de Soto’s Keynote Lecture delivered at Fundación Rafael del Pino, Madrid, on the 17th of May 2017, titled “Anarchy, God, and Pope Francis”
