SCRIPTURE: They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator. Romans 1:25 NIV
QUOTE: “If you want to know the root cause of totalitarianism… It’s at the level of the hubris, the human hubris, the human illusion, that everything in life can be controlled, that everything in life can be rationally understood, that everything in life can be rationally manipulated, that you can create an artificial new universe, an artificial new human being, which won’t suffer anymore or won’t die anymore.” — Mattias Desmet, Professor of Clinical Psychology, Ghent University, Belgium and author of The Psychology of Totalitarianism.
THOUGHT: Mattias Desmet’s particular area of expertise is something called mass formation, a social phenomenon where many individuals believe in an unreasonable narrative but are unable to think critically of it. Because it is based in a mechanistic view of the world, those who adhere can’t tolerate the notion that science can’t explain everything, that most phenomena in nature (and even math) behave irrationally and are completely unpredictable. If such phenomena go against the narrative, in a mass formation, people will default to the narrative.
I think his point is well taken that hubris (excessive pride or arrogance) is at the root of mass formation, which leads to totalitarianism – people willing to kill to preserve the illusion. Tolerating ambiguity and dissonance is tough; listening to the views of others without demanding that they be like us is tough. People want to be rid of cognitive dissonance, and if a lie will do the trick, so be it.
On a much larger scale, however, this devotion isn’t about totalitarianism. It’s about exchanging truth for lies. The truth is, God has simply outpaced us. The Creator set in motion life that would contain unpredictability, loss, grief, decay, death – but hope as well. The nature of hope lies in what we can’t see or test, and it flies in the face of hubris because hope represents a humbling. We must reach outside of our own resources and abilities to find meaning. Hope, then, represents the deepest aggravation to the soul who would exchange the truth of God for a lie, and worship what God created rather than God.
Ironically, Desmet teaches that speaking truth, and continuing to speak truth is the only thing capable of breaking mass formation.
PRAYER: Oh God, I would know the truth, speak the truth, and have the truth set me free.
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Blogger Amy Clemens is the author of Walking When You’d Rather Fly: Meditations on Faith After the Fall. In it she explores childhood sexual abuse and how it impacted her faith (or lack thereof) for four decades. You’ll find not only her story, but better yet, the Big Story of God.
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