Paul Derengowski, PhD
According to Joel Beeke in his discussion related to theology and actually doing it, he claimed that, “Some even say that doing theology is a waste of time.” Why? Because those making such a negative assumption are “controlled by materialistic naturalism—the belief that only those things we can see and handle are real.”((Joel R. Beeke and Paul M. Smalley, Reformed Systematic Theology, 4 vols (Wheaton: Crossway [2019]): 1.39.)) But, who are the materialistic naturalists?
Materialistic naturalists are mainly those individuals committed to Darwinian evolution who will not, regardless of the arguments to the contrary, be open to discussing anything apart from their “scientific” worldview that presupposes that all questions about reality are only answered in terms of what is empirically discovered. Hence, what cannot be seen, heard, tasted, touched, or smelled is beyond the pale of discovery and therefore not “scientific” or true.
Doug Groothuis clarifies this philosophical, if not theological, worldview by stating,
Darwinian naturalism takes two forms: metaphysical naturalism and methodological naturalism. Metaphysical naturalism is the philosophical claim that only material states exists; there is nothing immaterial, spiritual or supernatural. Methodological naturalism is the means of scientific inquiry given the presupposition of metaphysical naturalism. This methodology can also be stated in supposedly agnostic fashion. A scientist claims that he or she is not ruling out God and the supernatural, but that science qua science should not attempt to study such things. Therefore, only natural explanations are allowable; only materialistic explanations are christened “scientific.”((Douglas Groothuis, Christian Apologetics (Downer’s Grove: IVP Academic, 2011): 278.))
In other words, it is not that God, in some cases, is not an interesting sidelight. It is just that thinking about God is deemed to be a fruitful or inefficient use of one’s time, given the presupposition that nothing supernatural exists in the natural world. The supernatural has been judged and placed in the category of myth, ghosts, and spooks, all of which are considered irrational. Only those subscribing to materialism or naturalism are assumed to be reasonable, rational, free and logical thinkers.
An interesting irony behind the question of doing theology is that regardless of what a person claims to be, everyone does theology. That does not mean that all theologies are necessarily deep or profound, much less true. In fact, most theologies, because they share anti-Christian worldviews, are going to be false. Atheism, Buddhism, Gnosticism (or neo-Gnosticism) et al are all false worldviews, but are not devoid of theological thought. All of them have devoted inordinate amounts of time attempting to contradict or refute Christian theology, while propping up false deities and idols, some of which even take human form. They are those that the apostle Paul addressed as “suppress the truth” in unrighteousness (Rom. 1:18), as they attempt to turn the truth into a lie and the lie into the truth, as they worship and serve the creature rather than the Creator.
Therefore, while some may assert that doing theology is a waste of time, the reality is everyone has spent time thinking theologically, and that because every living, breathing human being has been created in God’s image and cannot help but think about God, whether they admit it or not. It is just that some would just as soon block God out of their thought processes in an attempt to achieve total autonomy. Hence, everyone is a theologian, whether a good or a bad one, and that despite how much time they devote to developing their theological conclusions.