What is “bio-determinism”? The term “bio-determinism” has been used in various ways. For the purposes of this post, “bio-determinism” refers to the assumption that biology (and the various sciences derived there from) speaks a value neutral and thereby factual description of the world. The reports of such sciences are assumed true in our culture. What “is” therefore … “is.” And there is nothing left to think about except how we must morally accommodate and live with such realities.
Such bio-determinism is insidious because it reifies the worst of our moral ills. It says the body is mere biology and therefore medicine becomes mere technology on our bodies. We are left with no room for the power of God to heal miraculously in our midst and change our very souls. It says character cannot change so we must best manage our character deficiencies through various medical and/or technique driven means. It says most of our moral maladies are the result of genetic disposition. Bio-determinism says causality always moves from physical to spiritual or from physical to social. It never considers that God may work in reverse of those terms. Stunningly, this bio-determinism may lie at the very foundation of racism, reifying in our consciousness that racial physical differences are a biological fact and that is just the way it is. Witness what Cornel West said in his “Genealogy of Racism”
“The initial basis of white supremacy is to be found in the classificatory categories and the descriptive, representational, order imposing aims of natural history (the beginnings of western science). The captivity of natural history to what I have called the normative gaze signifies the first stage of the emergence of the idea of white supremacy as an object of modern discourse.” (p.55)
It seems for West, modern science and its determinism lie at the very root of racism in the West reifying social and physical differences into “facts” that separate us. Bio-determinism is the normative gaze of excessive capitalism, the muti-national corporation and it is rarely questioned by the evangelical church, which seems to be as enamored as ever with modern science.
This “normative gaze” however strips us of the reality of the life changing gospel, the power of the Holy Spirit to heal, change lives, and bring love, forgiveness and reconciliation and justice wherever we move as representatives of the living resurrected Christ. The gospel of Jesus Christ, the extension of His living resurrection presence, challenges everything that is … and subverts the forces of bio determinism.
This is why I believe church communities must become places of witness to the limits of bio-determinism, modern science and even modern medicine. Don’t get me wrong. Science has its place. The medical doctor has a role to play under the Lordship of Christ in the healing of our bodies. But left alone, under the efficiencies of modern bureaucracy, the determinism of the bio-sciences become deadly. More and more I see society rebelling against the commodifying of medical care and the segregating of medical care from things religious. More and more I see society questioning the subtle segregating of the elderly into retirement communes, and the geneticizing/determining of character issues. More and more I see society raising an eye brow against the hegemony the drug companies are wielding over us as they try to train us that all things are solved through drug medication through their advertising and payola to doctors. Herein lies some of the value of the postmodern discourses (i.e. Foucault on “bio-power”). And I believe the churches emerging might be able to tap into this and become communities of resistance to the bio-determinism that is driving the post Christian cultures of N America. The emerging churches might be the kind of communities capable of witnessing by our way of life to the limits that there are to all things bio-science.
What would this look like? Healing services would be a regular occurance at these churches. These services would regularly call together those who have faith to pray & lay hands on the sick one anointed with oil. I believe such community rituals are paradygmatic of the postmodern defying hyper modernity’s tendency to strip us of the supernatural. I am not one who believes that divine healing excludes all medical care. But we should become communities that minister prayer, submission and discernment at the time of medical need. Here we display the limits of modern medicine. Likewise we would instill places of monastic practice in our communities to give us ways towards orienting our souls towards God and His life, so as to defeat the ways our culture trains us to be blind to God’s work. These communties would take renewed care of our elderly blessing them and nurturing them so that we might receive wisdom and love from them, which we so sorely need. We would have places of worship that in symbol, word and art point to and lead us to the transcendent mysterious all mighty God who rules over all other causality. We might gather in co-op’s to participate and support organic farming. And last but not the least, we would gather together, as a diverse people, with many cultures. We would come together in our allegiance to Christ and His work and learn how to live and love together. This last one especially requires an all out assault on those who say … “but this is the way we are,” another sign of bio determinism. I admit, we’ve got a long way to go in our church. And I am already exhausted. Nonetheless, a healing service is coming this Sunday at 9:30 a.m. around the altar. Praise God…
And oh yeah, to add more fuel on the fire, … we might rethink the way we name the subject that has become so hot in evangelical circles, “bio-ethics.” Let us avoid the suggestion that we can base ethics in biology. And we also might rethink whether “intelligent design” is worth spending so much time on. I am sure there is a place for engaging the issues of defending the nature of our faith in relation to science. But we must be careful not to join up in the same game. Let us become communities of resistance to bio determinism. Let us become living witnesses to the limits of modern science, modern medicine and all things bio-deterministic.
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I’m in Stratford Ontario with Rae Ann and Max. Doing a little R&R and loving it. (I needed it). Tomorrow I am at Resonate Echo in Hamilton Ontario to talk and discuss a few things emerging, the challenges of pastoring in the hyper-modern post Christian cultures we find ourselves in. Hope to see some of you there.
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Not a bad post.
But here is an item. I think I am following you but let’s make sure we don’t go down the path of exhibiting and extending the influence of the Kingdom by being against something. Too much of evangelicalism is charcaterized by what were are “against” and these tend to be defensive positions.
You say, “Let us become communities of resistance…” I say OK but let our resistance take the the form of doing what God does. By our actions we will speak we are “for” our God and His economy without ever having to say with great frequency we are “against” something. Your example of healing and prayer is a good example of demonstrating the reality and quality of life we profess to have and enjoy.
You deserve the rest! Have a great time!
-Deb B.
hi david,
its amy (the blonde girl from resonate who is from mississauga). just wanted to say thanks for talking to us last night. i appreciate that there are others out there who want to ask questions and seek truth.
in the car on the way home, a few of us discussed how we left feeling affirmed in many ways about things we have been feeling lately about God, and the screwed up/beautiful thing we call the Church.
thanks for your honesty and openness,
amy*
It is good to say that we aren’t animals, that we aren’t merely hapless pawns of All Powerful Biology. Amen, Dave.
I want to add that there’s nothing like a bonafide miracle to blow the doors off of wrong thinking. Talk to someone who’s been raised from the dead about the foolishness of biodeterminism!
Right practice alone (in the form of organic co:ops or monastic practice or even specific kinds of liturgy about healing) will not usurp modernity from our bone marrow and frontal lobes. But I believe that encounter with the One who does miracles – not just the “I found my car keys” kind of miracles, but the “Raised from the dead” kind of miracles – makes a lot of our strategizing about how to live a non-biodetermined life a moot issue.
So I wonder if the best place to start is with the prayer, “Lord I believe. Help Thou my unbelief.”
Hey, have a great time of R and R with your fam.
To wav …
excellent reminder … and I agree that we must always remember that the strategy of resistence is one of engagment that recognizes we are in the minority … nonethless being acommunity of an identity is what allows for “affirming life” all of life in what we do as mission and witness in the world ..
Thanks to all others for their encouragement as we are home, rested … and blessed… DF
Excellent post. You don’t see to many like them in this particular conversation. Thank you!
As to the mention about being ‘against’ something as opposed to be ‘for’ something. Repentance implies moving away from something to something. Repentance also implies the ability to name that ‘something’ we are to move away from. You can’t move to something without knowing you are moving away from something. Metanoia means to change one’s mind. What are we changing? The Evangelical community, generally speaking, has done little to ‘move away’ from the normative gaze and bio-determinism you have mentioned here. We don’t want to move too quickly on talk of not talking about being against the normative gaze of Western Christianity. What are we to be for in this regard? How does a Christian, in North America, resist the normative gaze and create spaces to practice Pentecost? Great post!
postmodernegro … are you anthony smith? … thanks for the post … I’d enjoy some coffee with you if you’re ever near by … I have alot of questions concerning Cornel West, Beele Hooks etc. their relation to the African American church .. if any … maybe you could help me … Blessings
Dave,
I’m pretty much 100% on this one. I’ve been challenging the idea that human beings are nothing more than “machines made of meat” for about 7 years now. I’ve not heard the term bio-determinism, but it sounds to me like what you’re addressing is basically scientism, along with metaphysical materialism and reductionism.
These kinds of views applied to human beings result in things like behaviorism and evolutionary psychology (psychobiology). Chesterton noted, “The stupidest or wickedest action is supposed to become reasonable or respectable, not by having found a reason in scientific fact, but merely by having found any sort of excuse in scientific language.” C. S. Lewis likewise observed, “For the wise men of old the cardinal problem had been how to conform the soul to reality, and the solution had been knowledge, self-discipline and virtue. For magic and applied science alike the problem is how to subdue reality to the wishes of men: the solution is a technique.”
My only question for you is in relation to your claim that it is “paradygmatic of the postmodern [to defy] hyper modernity’s tendency to strip us of the supernatural.” Do you really think that is the case? My impression has been that post-modernity as a whole has been as accepting of anti-supernatural, materialist views of the world as modernity. It has just been more honest about the consequences of such a view and has pointed out the falseness of modernity’s claims to be purely objective and perfectly rational. Can you clarify that for me?
Peace,
Gordy
Excellent question Gord … I think you may be right if we’re talking about writers in philosophy that have been grouped postmodern, particularly the French continental variety. Many are blandly atheistic. Yet even derrida appears to open up a space for the nonrational, “the Chora,” that which lies beyond the “logocentric.” Of course the people I have in mind are those thinkers who would also be classified as postmodern but maybe are not often thought of in those terms. Specifically someone like Wittgentsein who in opposition to the positivists of his day who thought language defined the limits of what could be known, Wittgenstein believed that language defined the limits of what could be talked about, and what was important were all the things that lied beyond. It is some of these “beyond Enlightenment modernism” moves which take the self confidence off the excessive empiricist realism that so dominates modernism and scientism.
Blessings
Applaud your blog! I have a victims support page against Eli Lilly for it’s defective Zyprexa product causing my diabetes.–Daniel Haszard http://www.zyprexa-victims.com
My little note – I like your blog. This one in particular, however. I’ve gotten into short little arguements with folks on this one. They haven’t lasted very long, partially because I haven’t been able to articulate the substance of what I have to say a small fraction as well as you have here. Also partially because it seems to the other side of the arguement that the arguement itslef is from Saturn. Who questions modern medicine? It’s ludicrous. Thanks. I like lucicrosity. “Ludicrosity” can be a word as long as “Postmodernegro” can be a word.
http://www.thegreatgiveaway.blogspot.com/
this is a test
This is my first time to use a blog and it is getting confusing.
I am about halfway through the book and find it very thought provoking. Could you tell me which denomination is currently coming the closest to practicing your concepts?
Ken