Single: A compelling answer to the question "What's wrong with the world?"
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An Undeceptions Podcast.

Hey, John Dixon here. Many of you know that in June 2021, my best mate of 40 plus years, Ben Shaw, died in our home in Sydney, surrounded by his loved ones. But not before he finished his wonderful book, Seven Reasons to Reconsider Christianity. It's a unique blend of humour and thoughtfulness designed to explain the heart of the Christian faith for those who aren't sure what to make of it.

His publisher invited me to do the voice record for the audiobook, which was a lot of fun. And they've given us permission to offer Undeceptions listeners a taste of the book over the next few weeks, in the lead up to Season 10. So, here's a bit of Ben Shaw's 7 Reasons to Reconsider Christianity. At least 2,000 people have been killed and several thousands remain missing after catastrophic floods swept through eastern parts of Libya, say officials.

I think most of us can agree that the world is a pretty messed up place. No matter where you live in the world, you'd be hard-pressed to watch half an hour of one of your main news channels without seeing at least something on war, crime, terrorism, racism, poverty, slavery or some human-induced environmental disaster.

Collectively, we've carelessly caused the extinction of hundreds of animals, destroyed precious forests and filled the oceans with plastics.

The United Nations Environment Programme estimates that we're dumping at least 8 million tonnes of plastic into our oceans every year. I think we all agree that our world is broken in multiple ways. But what we can't agree on is why. What's the root cause of all this brokenness and how do we fix it?

I'm no doctor, but I'm pretty sure the best way to heal someone is to first correctly diagnose the problem. There's no point in giving someone medicine for a stomach ulcer when they're suffering from a broken foot. So what's the problem with humanity? What's wrong with the world? What's causing all this crime, suffering, destruction and chaos?

People tend to lay the blame for our problems at the foot of at least one or a combination of the following. The inequality of social classes. The government. Poverty. Capitalism. A lack of education. Not enough gun control. Religious extremism. The internet.

I believe that Christianity offers the most sobering and accurate diagnosis of all. Essentially, the blame for what's wrong with the world doesn't lie with any of the things listed above. According to the core teachings of Jesus, these are the symptoms of the problem, not the root cause. Just as a headache or stomach pains aren't usually the root of the problem, but the symptoms of something deeper.

The Christian diagnosis of the problem of the world is that all human beings, in some form or another, have a virus which distorts us and eventually kills us. According to Jesus and the Bible, we're all broken in some way, infected with the virus of sin.

It's in the DNA of our souls. Within all of us, there's at least some form of arrogance, overconfidence, self-centeredness and greed. And if we're honest, we have the track record to prove it. History is our CV and it's not a good read.

Sure, we often do good things. I'm not saying we don't. Most of us show kindness, compassion, charity and love on a daily basis. We can be caring towards others much of the time when we're on form. But we can also exhibit cold-heartedness, selfishness, impatience, vanity, lust, greed, hatred and much more, sometimes even in the same moment.

Apparently, around 58% of us have lied on our resumes to get a job over someone else. Perhaps as many as half of us have been unfaithful to a partner. As many as two-thirds of us have stolen something from work. And most of us, at one point or another, have broken the law.

The problem is that most of us measure our goodness by our own standards, not God's. We can think, I'm a nice guy, or I'm a considerate person, without really seeing some harsh truths about our own lives. In Jesus' day, the religious elite prided themselves on their own goodness.

they were proud of keeping the laws of the Old Testament and of their own supposed godliness. As a result, they felt pretty good about themselves.

The trouble was that they were measuring themselves by their own standards, not God's. They thought they were being charitable, but actually they were only charitable to people they found culturally acceptable. They thought they were concerned for God, but actually they were much more concerned for their own reputations. They thought they were morally pure, but their morality was only skin deep.

It wasn't until Jesus confronted them that their true internal morality, or lack of it, was dramatically exposed. This is one of the lessons in Jesus' famous Sermon on the Mount and is the reason why to this day it's still so enduringly powerful. During the sermon, Jesus taught that all of us are morally impaired, every single one of us. No one is good completely.

The problem is that we don't always see or want to see the problem. People often feel that they're a good person because they're standing in the room of their own limited conscience, darkened by their culture and their own flexible standards. But when we see what Christ was like, and when we listen to what he had to say about ethics, goodness, kindness, humility, love and self-sacrifice,

we realize that we've been looking into a darkened mirror our whole life. When you're confronted with the life and teachings of Jesus, it's like suddenly having a mirror held up to your face with all the light bulbs in the room turned. Only then do you realize that you're not so good, clean, loving, kind, charitable, and considerate after all.

The film director and producer Betty Gordon was once interviewed about her film The Drowning, adapted from the novel Border Crossing by Pat Barker. The novel tells the story of Tom Seymour, a forensic psychologist haunted by a past case in which his expert testimony sealed the fate of a young boy who was consequently sent to prison.

In the interview, Gordon was asked what drew her to the story and made her want to turn it into a film. She gave this honest reply: "After a tragic incident, in which a close friend was murdered by her 19-year-old son, I was given the novel Border Crossing. When I read it, I knew I wanted to make it into a film. The book explores the question of evil, if it can ever really be explained, let alone treated.

As a culture, we are horrified and at the same time fascinated by the dark side of human nature. We consume media that focuses on evil characters. We read books about it. We want to lock it behind bars, exercise it and quarantine it. But we don't look away. Maybe that's because there is an implicit awareness that there is a darkness in all of us.

Now, some of my atheist friends would say to me at this point, oh, there you go again, another religious argument that makes us all feel guilty and terrible.

But it's going on in your life. Every time you set out to love, something keeps pulling on you, trying to get you to hate. Every time you set out to be kind and say nice things about people, something is pulling on you to be jealous and envious and to spread evil gossip about them.

There's a tension at the heart of human nature. And whenever we set out to dream our dreams and to build our temples, we must be honest enough to recognize it. The Bible gives this very sobering yet powerful answer to the question, what's wrong with the world? It's you and me. However, you may well ask, if this is the condition of all humanity, how did we get here?

The answer is given to us in the early chapters of Genesis, told semi-pictorially in the story of the creation of the world and the Garden of Eden. In those first chapters of the Bible, we read of God gifting humanity, represented in Adam and Eve, with the ability to choose between right and wrong, between following God or following their own instincts and desires. They chose autonomy.

And now we all have too. It's as if we've all taken part in a referendum and each one of us has voted to leave God. In his marvelous little book, Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis has a chapter called The Great Sin. The book is worth getting for this chapter alone. In it, he says that the great sin, the origin of all sin, is pride. We think we know better than our Creator.

We've effectively fired him from his job, taken on the role of chief decision maker for our lives, and poisoned ourselves in the process. The result of sin in our lives has been catastrophic. According to the story contained in Genesis 3, four things break as a result of our pride. One, our relationship with God is broken.

The relationship of harmony between God and humankind, represented in Adam and Eve, was destroyed. Adam and Eve were cast out of the paradise of Eden and, most importantly, cast away from God's presence. In effect, God was saying, you cannot enjoy the gift of paradise if you refuse the giver of paradise. We all distrust God and ignore his guidelines for life. Our relationship with him is broken.

Two, our relationships with others are broken. The second consequence of sinful pride in the story of Eden is discord between human beings. Adam blamed Eve and their relationship was marred with shame. The same pattern was passed on to their children. In the very next chapter, Cain kills his brother Abel. We've seen disharmony and conflict within our families, in our communities and in between countries ever since.

Three, our bodies are broken. The third result of walking away from God is that our bodies are decaying and eventually will cease to function. Basically, we die. Before Adam and Eve rebelled against their creator, God warned them that if they walked away from him, they and their offspring would die and be separated from God forever.

Consequently, as rebels against our Creator, we all suffer from sickness, pain and disease, and eventually we go to the grave. But if that wasn't bad enough, the Bible also talks about death in spiritual terms. Basically, rebellion against God results in an experience of eternal death beyond the grave, with no hope of heaven.

As our creator and sustainer, he's the life support system we all need to be plugged into. But if you unplug yourself from him, you will eventually die eternally. Four, our world is broken. The fourth consequence of our rebellion against God is often missed by many Christians, but it's there in the story. When Adam and Eve decided to go it alone, God cursed the ground.

This was symbolic of a broken world. Nature itself was spoiled and continues to malfunction in various ways. When we see decay, destruction and chaos, it's a striking visual reminder that this is a world gone wrong.

In the pages that follow Genesis 3, through historical events, parables, songs and sermons, the Bible graphically teaches us about sin and its consequences, drawing on numerous terms and images. In moral terms, where sons and daughters of disobedience corrupt, immoral and essentially evil.

In navigational terms, we're lost and have wandered from the path like sheep. In relational terms, we've flirted with evil and played the harlot and committed spiritual adultery. Now, I'm sorry to kick you when you're down, but the Christian assessment of our condition gets worse. Here's the thing. We can't heal ourselves.

We may be able to stem the blood flow, so to speak, or improve our collective quality of life through palliative care, using laws, rules, punishments and incentives, but we can't totally fix the root of the problem. We all have a serious heart problem that requires surgery that we can't perform on ourselves.

Christianity is virtually unique regarding this aspect of its assessment of the human condition. In just about any religion of the world, there is a belief that somehow, in some way, we can heal, restore and save ourselves. If only we could do this or that, the thinking goes, then we will have happiness and harmony. But will we really ever get there? Have we ever come close? Are things actually getting better?

The trouble is that increasing wealth and improved educational programs haven't ultimately helped us. Not totally. Let's not forget that many of the leaders of the Nazi party, the very men who built and ran death camps like Auschwitz and Dachau, were some of the most well-educated and wealthiest men in Europe.

Many of them had read the classics, sat in concert halls listening to Mozart, Chopin and the like, and had college degrees and even doctorates. Yet they were still capable of the most heinous crimes in history. Likewise, some of the most notorious criminals of the last hundred years were highly educated and sophisticated people. As one saying goes, educate a devil and you don't get an angel, you just get a very clever devil.

More than a quarter of a million Russians have voluntarily joined the armed forces in recent... The Bible, on the other hand, teaches that we can't ultimately fix ourselves by anything we do. Be that education, discipline, or even religious laws.

While Christianity does indeed teach its followers to love their neighbor and be kind, charitable and compassionate to others, the Bible also teaches that these good deeds won't entirely solve the problem of the human heart and therefore our world. The Old Testament is basically one massive lesson in how commandments and laws may help stem the symptoms of the disease of sin, but will never ultimately fix it.

The heart of the human problem cannot be solved with a plaster cast of rules. What's required is a totally new heart, or as Jesus taught, to be born again, to become a new person. Changing metaphors, what we need is a total reboot, an installation of a completely new operating system and hard drive in every single one of us.

We'll see more about this in the chapters ahead. The point of this one is that Christianity is worth considering because it gives us the most accurate diagnosis of our problems and the best answer to the question, what's wrong with the world? The answer, I am. I hope you liked this taste of Ben Shaw's Seven Reasons to Reconsider Christianity, published by The Good Book Company, available everywhere.

We'll give you some more of these over the next few weeks. And before you know it, we'll be back with Undeceptions Season 10. See ya. An Undeceptions Podcast.