Western society could best be described as schizophrenic.

 The Oxford University Press dictionary defines schizophrenia as "a long term mental disorder involving faulty perception, inappropriate actions and feelings and withdrawal from reality into fantasy and delusion."

 That sounds like a pretty accurate description of our modern society.

 Think about it. The new Golden Rule of our society is tolerance, and by that we mean that we not only have to tolerate other people's view, but we have to afford them equal validity in truth. Such a view of life is untenable; it simply doesn't work.

 I'm no rocket scientist, but my guess is that when the people at NASA prepare for any of their missions, they wouldn't accept their leading experts to come to them with differing calculations and proceed anyway. No. They would abort their mission until the proper calculations could be determined.

 We understand that on a scientific level, yet on the philosophical level we want to deny that any one way could be the right way. Our new understanding of tolerance has produced a schizophrenic society that seems incapable of clear thinking. The result is we are living in a fog of "fantasy and delusion."

 Perhaps the cause for our slide into fantasy has been best expressed by Dr. William B. Provine, professor of biological studies at Cornell University: "Let me summarize my views on what modern evolutionary biology tells us loud and clear ... There are no gods, no purposes, no goal-directed forces of any kind. There is no life after death. When I die, I am absolutely certain that I am going to be dead. That's the end for me. There is no ultimate foundation for ethics, no ultimate meaning to life, and no free will for humans, either."

 Scary stuff. I wonder if Dr. Provine is a student of history. I wonder if he recalls that at least two madmen, Adolph Hitler and Joseph Stalin, used this very philosophy in their attempts to build a better world?

 Look again at Dr. Provine's compelling world view: "No gods, no purpose, no life after death, no basis for ethics (or morals we might add) and no meaning to life." Only a schizophrenic would find that appealing.

 You know the argument against God generally comes from the negative argument of pain and suffering in our world. "If God exists, why do we suffer?" is the question of the atheist. Since we do suffer their very illogical conclusion is, "there is no God."

 Here are a group of generally very angry people arguing against the possibility of any God existing on the basis of what they declare to be right and wrong, good and bad. Their argument rests upon the very thing they attempt to deny.

 Here's where it gets crazy - these people reject God on the basis of what they deem as unfair treatment, then offer a life with no purpose, no reward, no justice, no hope.

 What was that definition of schizophrenia again? "A long term mental disorder involving faulty perception, inappropriate actions and feelings and withdrawal from reality into fantasy and delusion."

 Opposed to such convoluted, muddied and confused thinking is the clear truth of the Christian world view. The Christian world view is, in point of fact, the only world view that meets all three of the philosophical tests for truth. We don't often think of that, but it is absolutely true (and yes, if there is a God, there is absolute truth and it is that very thing those who deny God seek their freedom from. They would rather have a view of life that ends with meaningless, death and no ultimate justice than to submit to a moral code they don't like. I think Rick Warren hit the nail on the head when he said, "Our morality often determines our theology.")

 Jesus was preparing to enter Jerusalem, when from the precipice of the mountain he wept over the very people who knew were about to murder him. He said, "If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace-but now it is hidden from your eyes." (Luke 19:42).

 A similar blindness has fallen on our schizophrenic generation. In pursuit of pleasure we reject the one who brings purpose. In pursuit of self-will we trample on meaning and hope. In our efforts to justify our madness, we've embraced a life of fantasy and self-delusion.