Scientism Fails Counseling 101

How can a meaningless universe offer comfort?
How can a purposeless universe offer direction?

Scientism is the worldview of atheists. It claims that everything important for humans can be provided by the scientific method. Good luck finding meaning in a test tube containing only material substances. Will a hurting person be helped by hearing, ‘Humans emerged by a fortuitous concourse of atoms in a mindless cosmos; you have no free will, stuff happens, and death ends everything’?

You can’t get blood from a turnip, nor soul from a stone. To the extent anyone is helped by a so-called secular counselor, it will come only by him plagiarizing the Christian worldview, where we have value because we were created by a righteous and loving God.

‘Mum, what’s the meaning of life?’ How to talk about philosophy with little kids (The Conversation, 13 Feb 2025). This ‘how-to’ article sets itself up as a guide to one of the most important questions anyone can ask: what is the meaning of life? The author, Ben Kilby, a PhD candidate at Monash University, does not state his worldview, but one can be fairly certain he would not survive academia as a Christian counselor. His worldview is evident from his three steps for parents:

First, prompt your child to reflect on the question. You could ask: “What do you think?”

This allows your child to explore their own experiences. They might say, “I live for football and Bluey!”

Second, move to generalisation. You can ask, “Do you think that’s the meaning of life for everyone?” This opens up a philosophical discussion beyond the self. Your child might say, “Well, Stella lives for gymnastics and cheese.”

Finally, prompt towards abstraction, by asking “What makes life meaningful for all people?”

This non-directive counseling approach, similar to the method of formerly trendy psychologist Carl Rogers, contains an undertone of evolutionary philosophy. Just when a child needs something solid and eternal to lean on, Kilby has them look inside their empty skull full of evolved mush instead of to God.

By assumption, the child has evolved the tools of figuring out their own meaning. But suppose the child answers question #1 with, ‘I think the meaning of life is to kill as many idiots as possible.’ What then? Would Kilby blush and hasten to say, ‘But that would be wrong!’ in response? ‘Why is it wrong?’ ‘Because it’s not right!’ ‘Why is it not right?’ (repeat).

What if the kid answers the second question, ‘Well, Stella and her friends live for killing idiots.’ What if the kid answered #3 with, ‘Everybody thinks we need to get rid of idiots.’ Kilby’s empty sweet-talk contains no “Thou shalt nots” because he has no supreme authority, no benevolent Creator who tells us how the human being needs to operate for maximum flourishing.

Morality in a more-than-human world (Science, 20 Feb 2025). This is a book review by Joshua Gellers of The Moral Circle by Jeff Sebo. The book is subtitled, “Who Matters, What Matters, and Why.” Talk about an author with a runaway Yoda Complex! Why is this book promoted by the American Association for the Advance of Science (AAAS) in their premiere journal? Expect equal time from a Christian theologian? That will be the day.

Gellers’ Biblical namesake Joshua stated boldly, “Choose you this day whom you will serve… as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!” (Joshua 24:15). Oh, but that is too old-fashioned and ‘religious’ for Joshua Gellers, the Darwinist. We have science now. And yet does he show the latest guru on meaning (Jeff Sebo) providing any answers?

As evidenced by its subtitle (“Who Matters, What Matters, and Why”), The Moral Circle takes on a heady task. Drawing on the utilitarian tradition, Sebo articulates a moral calculus that broadly observes the importance of traits such as agency, consciousness, and sentience: “If a being has at least a one in a thousand chance of mattering, given the evidence, then they merit at least some consideration, even if only a tiny amount.” This seemingly simple framework is actually quite novel. Recognizing that the possession of morally important attributes by nonhumans is rife with uncertainty, he counsels that the optimal approach should be one of caution and humility.

How about some caution and humility toward creationism or intelligent design, then? Try that out on Gellers and Sebo. After they calm down from their Bible Derangement Syndrome, then ask if they have any business deciding “who/what matters or why” regarding any other beings, whether animal or robot. What gives you the right, ask them, to pontificate on what is morally good for another culture? You are materialists.

But isn’t “Gods” in the book subtitle, you ask? Yes, but the only “gods” mentioned in the book review are pagan shamans, like themselves.

From autonomous vehicles and grandmothers on ventilators to sacrificial buffalo and Mayan shamans, Keane touches on more kinds of morally relevant beings than perhaps any other scholar has to date. And despite the impossibility of drawing universal conclusions about what qualifies an entity for moral concern, his sprawling but tightly managed effort does sketch out several pervasive trends: that humans “have always lived with ethically significant others,” that every culture throughout history abides by a code of ethics, and that moral differences between societies are inevitable.

The chutzpah of this know-nothing is astonishing. Who decides what is a “morally relevant being”? What do such words even mean in a Stuff Happens world? Predictably, the book and reviewer collapse into subjectivity. Try their ideas out on the current Chinese dictator and his powerful underlings. They would declare that peasants and people of other religions are slaves to the regime; that is their purpose. Is that OK? Is it morally appropriate for the dictator to put the peasants to forced labor and to harvest their organs while they are still alive?

No one should ever wish to live in the subjective dream-world of a moral relativist or utilitarian, because what is “useful” ends up being decided by the powerful. Evolution rewards power (“fitness”) not righteousness. If morality evolves, it is not morality at all. What one person “feels” is right will be denied by someone else, and what a culture thinks is right today could evolve into the opposite in the future.

All humans are born in the image of God, which includes a conscience, an awareness of God, a deep longing for purpose and understanding, and fear of death coupled with a desire for eternal life. Only humans have semantic language, abstract thought and full personhood. Anyone denying our created humanness cannot possibly give good counsel unless they plagiarize it from the Bible.

Proponents of evolutionary scientism, as practiced by today’s powerful shamans in academia, are just the latest in a long line of false teachers that the apostle Peter described as “wells without water, clouds carried by a tempest, for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever” (II Peter 2:17). We might liken them to fire hydrants without water during the destructive LA fires last month. They sound impressive with their academic lingo, but they will fall away and be forgotten like meteors in the sky that draw eyes and shouts for a moment, but have no permanent influence. 

Good counsel: raise children in a Bible-teaching church.

Want answers that last? Start here: “Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil” (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14). Teach your questioning children who want to know the meaning of life to “Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near of which you will say, “I have no pleasure in them'” (v. 1).

The God who created us, as revealed in the Bible, knows our needs as no fallen human can. He’s the Manufacturer and has given us the Operator’s Manual. Our Maker’s commandment now is to repent (Acts 2:38-40) and believe in the Savior he sent to take away our sins (John 3:13-17). That is the doorway (John 10:7-10) to meaning and good mental health. The Word made flesh (John 1:1-14), Jesus Christ, when received (v. 12) gives us an indwelling truth Teacher, the Holy Spirit, who can keep us aimed at the light (John 16:12-15). 

Jesus also created a fellowship of disciples, the church. It’s not a building but a family. He instituted leaders who, knowing the Scriptures, would able to teach, guide, and encourage one another (Titus 2:11-15). The Holy Spirit enables each member to share in that encouragement in various ways, like the parts of a body nourish and build up the whole. The church as Jesus founded it has been helping people find meaning in life and understanding about godliness far longer than human “psychology” has existed. Who should an honest seeker follow? the opinions of mortals who weren’t there at the beginning and don’t know everything, or the One who brought the world into existence and does know everything?

God’s plan after sin entered the world (Genesis 3) was to redeem individuals and then build up a growing family of learners on their way to heaven who, while on their way, show the world the beauty of holiness in countless ways. Churches are intended to be a blessing to the world. Using the gifts and talents God has given each individual, church members work! They reduce suffering and evil (e.g., hospitals, schools). They help individuals with needs. They expose and oppose evil practices. They create sublime works of art and music. Don’t leave children with godless psychologists who tell them to think up their own meaning in life. Guide them toward rock-solid principles from the ultimate source of truth, the Word of God. Take them to Sunday School at a solid, Bible-teaching church that obeys the Lord Jesus Christ, and watch them grow in grace, knowledge and joy. And let each of us, old or young, read and meditate on God’s word. “The entrance of Your words gives light; It gives understanding to the simple” (Psalm 119:130).