Though we often lose sight of this hard reality, our ideas are more tightly bound together than we might think. While we may indeed have an overstock of internal contradictions in the way we look at the world, we in turn have consistencies we know not of. My many friends in sundry creationist ministries, especially those that specialize in a more worldview approach to the question are adepts at pointing these things out. There is, for example, a rather strong tie, as Ben Stein and the producers of the movie Expelled pointed out, between the Darwinian notion of survival of the fittest and social Darwinism that reaches its logical zenith in Hitler’s final solution.
There is, in turn, I believe, a rather strong connection between the cultural acceptance of a Darwinian explanation of creation, and the nearly ubiquitous spread of gambling. That connection is even tighter than we might think. My thesis isn’t merely that Darwinism does away with all ethics, and therefore gambling is no longer immoral. Instead the point is that a worldview wherein a world comes out of nothing by chance is a worldview prone to believing that wealth comes out of nothing by chance. (Which, by the way, in turn fuels socialistic envy. If the whole world pops into being, then it follows that wealth itself pops into being. Your having more of it than I do then must be a function of the same dumb luck that made the universe, rather than the effect of which the cause was your hard work.)
If then we accept the premise that wealth comes about by chance, why wouldn’t we begin to pursue wealth in the same arena? If wealth is the result of the random collision of time, space and chance, why not pick six numbers out of a hat and hope for millions? Why not drop coins in a one-armed bandit, and wait to be paid? Why not see if you can outsmart the odds gods by betting on football games, or March Madness? What’s the point of working hard, when stuff just happens?
The Apostle Paul begins his letter to the church at Rome by reminding them of the universal guilt of mankind. He argues that we know that God is, because of everything else that is. The existence of the creation requires a Creator, not dumb luck. But we suppress that truth in unrighteousness, and end up worshipping the creature, rather than the Creator. Paul made much the same point among the Greeks on Mars Hill. There he noted their vast array of good luck charms, the many idols that had been set up and he noted, “Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious” (Acts 17:22). The same is true of the men of Reno, the men of Atlantic City, the men of every race track, Indian reservation and convenience store in our country. They too, no matter how hardened or secular in their viewpoint, are likewise religious men. And we thus we too live in a religious culture.
One need not, by the way, even lay down a bet to participate in this peculiar religion. How much of our daily trade is caught up in this same mindset? We no longer buy this set of tires over the other because of the superior tread life. No, we buy the tires that promise to send one lucky buyer to the Bahamas for a week. We buy our burgers at this place instead of that so that we might get more game pieces to win a big rv. We listen to the radio station with the prize patrol van. We drink the soda with the cap that gives us a chance to win. Everywhere we turn there is homage being paid to our patron saint, to the goddess of our age, Lady Luck.
The Scriptures not only highlight our perpetual tendency to idolatry, but likewise always affirm the nature of our idols. They are dumb mutes. They are as lifeless as they are foolish. They are as dead as a dangling rabbit’s foot, as wilted as a plucked four-leaf clover. This is who our culture bows down to, even as it is that god to which we in the church are tempted to turn. Just as the children of Israel were tempted to fall into syncretism, to blend together the living God with the false gods of the surrounding culture, so we do the same. We worship the sovereign God, but we pay homage to luck. We ascribe great powers to luck, and crossing our fingers, from time to time, pray she will deliver us.
A culture that believes that the fullness of the universe can be the fruit of chance is a culture that believes that dominion comes by chance. A culture that believes that dominion comes by chance is a culture that does not produce. A culture that does not produce will soon consume the wealth of its parents as we do, even as it accrues debts to be paid off by its children. A culture that is too busy playing the numbers to actually work will in the end self-destruct and starve to death.
To be counter-cultural is, in our day, to work. As we are about our calling of exercising dominion over His creation, as we reflect the glory of creation by re-creating through our labors, we will be blessed. We will prosper. If, however, we tip our hats to lady luck, though she is dead, she will curse us. If we work, we will eat the fruit of our hands in peace. If we worship the gods of this age, our hands will be empty, and we will be surrounded by war as we fight over the scraps. Luck is no lady.