{"id":13195,"date":"2026-10-26T10:17:37","date_gmt":"2026-10-26T17:17:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tiu.edu\/law\/?post_type=articles&p=13195"},"modified":"2026-10-26T10:17:37","modified_gmt":"2026-10-26T17:17:37","slug":"scotus-midterms-and-the-enlightenments-darkness","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/www.tiu.edu\/law\/articles\/scotus-midterms-and-the-enlightenments-darkness\/","title":{"rendered":"SCOTUS, Midterms, and The Enlightenment\u2019s Darkness"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cWhoever refuses to obey the general will shall be compelled to do so by the whole body. This means nothing less than he will be forced to be free\u201d[1]<\/strong><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>\u201cThe worship of the self by the godless self-gods means a death sentence for the self as the god that failed.\u201d[2]<\/strong><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>Those who lust to dominate the world become dominated by their passion for domination.[3]<\/strong><\/a><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The new SCOTUS Term just commenced \u2013 Mid-term elections \u2013 and all its pedantic rancor \u2013 have concluded. Some things are new, but other things stubbornly remain. We hear cries to return to reason and supposedly \u201ccommon sense\u201d that is, \u201creasoned\u201d agendas, to sustain freedom through increasingly anti-reason State Efforts.<\/p>\n

Some pundits seek to \u201cprogress more,\u201d seeking to repudiate the past\u2019s constitutionalism, classical liberalism, and even free speech. Others seek to return to the \u201cold ways\u201d of the Enlightenment and man\u2019s confidence in will power and reason.<\/p>\n

Problem: both of these notions place the solution to law and policy in a form of chronology<\/em> \u2013 go back or go forward.\u00a0 Theology, however, rightly understood and applied, is an exercise in revelation<\/em>.[4]<\/a> And, absent a normative revelational anchor, our law and policy vacillate in society like a drunk driver swerving from lane to lane. Revelation takes us outside the Creation to the Creator and His governance and will for self and society.<\/p>\n

Ignoring revelation puts us \u2013 whether acknowledged or not \u2013 into a Scylla and Charybdis of Rationalism and paganism, both forms of worshipping the creation instead of the Creator.\u00a0 Neo-paganism is still with us.\u00a0 Neo-paganism often embraces an anti-intellectual dimension, eschewing rational inquiry and discourse.\u00a0 Recall the influence of Joseph Campbell[5]<\/a> upon the Star Wars<\/em> franchise.\u00a0 Yoda, the Great Master [ala a pagan Ascended Master] instructs his disciple to \u201cclear your mind of questions\u201d[6]<\/a> as well as to \u201cFeel, don\u2019t think.\u201d[7]<\/a>\u00a0 Access the Force \u201cby feeling it\u201d.<\/p>\n

A true disciple of the Force must embrace a Gnostic and dualistic conception of metaphysics, as Yoda instructs:\u00a0 \u201cLuminous beings are we, not this crude matter:\u201d[8]<\/a> Physicality bad; spirituality good.[9]<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0 The Apostle Paul, as did the Apostle John, thundered against such Gnostic notions:<\/p>\n

\u201cDo not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch\u201d. . . These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion<\/em><\/strong> and asceticism<\/em><\/strong> and severity to the body<\/em><\/strong>, but they are of no value<\/em><\/strong> in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.[10]<\/a><\/p>\n

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits<\/em><\/strong> to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God.<\/em><\/strong> This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.[11]<\/a><\/p>\n

Given these Gnostic features of neo-paganism, which Scripture rejects, it seems prudent that a proper antidote involves being intentionally rational \u2013 engaging the mind, instead of ignoring or by-passing it.\u00a0 Well, yes and no \u2013 Let\u2019s get to the gist.<\/p>\n

Minimizing the mind, as paganism does, is problematic; however, over-emphasizing and relying on rationality in the form of rationalism is just as deadly.\u00a0 Christless rationality forms the thrust of the Enlightenment and is no answer to rank paganism.\u00a0 Here\u2019s why.<\/p>\n

The Enlightenment – by extolling \u201cReason\u201d – sought to rescue mankind from superstition and baseless myths.\u00a0 So far, so good.\u00a0 Yet, and in doing so, this move severed knowledge from revelation, and in some cases became openly hostile to Christianity.<\/p>\n

Thomas Paine, having embraced the Enlightenment\u2019s invitation for \u201cfree-thinking,\u201d minced no words:<\/p>\n

\u201cOf all the systems of religion that ever were invented, there is no more derogatory to the Almighty, more unedifying to man, more repugnant to reason, and more contradictory to itself than this thing called Christianity. Too absurd for belief, too impossible to convince, and too inconsistent for practice, it renders the heart torpid or produces only atheists or fanatics. As an engine of power, it serves the purpose of despotism, and as a means of wealth, the avarice of priests, but so far as respects the good of man in general it leads to nothing here or hereafter.\u201d[12]<\/a><\/p>\n

Other Enlightenment examples could be multiplied.[13]<\/a> While paganism minimized the human mind, the Enlightenment elevated it to a position of ultimacy \u2013 indeed, man did become the measure of all things –\u00a0 by using his mind.[14]<\/a>\u00a0 While appearing scholarly and reputable, this form of rationalism promotes a great many problems. And, law often gravitated to this pole \u2013 and while providing a promise against paganism, failed to deliver in the long run.<\/p>\n

First, because rationalism jettisons God, it replaces Him with something in creation, just as Paul notes.[15]<\/a>\u00a0 In the Enlightenment\u2019s case, this means human reason and its by-product, secularism.<\/p>\n

Second, politically speaking, reliance on Reason is a prime driver for engendering arrogance toward \u201cordinary\u201d people[16]<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Modern elites are as gods, and they behave like it.[17]<\/a><\/p>\n

This chasm thus created between the elites and the \u201cordinary\u201d largely explains the blistery political landscape now facing the West:<\/p>\n

Most obviously, the chasm helps to explain the astonishing arrogance of the elites, as well as the significance of the populism that reacts and rises up against the ignorance\u2014the \u201cforgotten people\u201d behind Donald Trump in the U.S., Nigel Farage and Breit in the U.K., Marine Le Peen in France, Giorgia Meloni in Italy, and Viktor Oban in Hungary.[18]<\/a><\/p>\n

The elites and their rationalism assume the divine attribute of omniscience, therefore justifying their parochialism concerning others:<\/p>\n

\u201c[W]hy waste time debating with people who do not and cannot possibly understand what is best for them?\u201d[19]<\/a><\/p>\n

This engenders a condescending paternalism.\u00a0 \u201cDo as we dictate; we\u2019re the experts.\u201d\u00a0 Accordingly, we now see measures aimed at curtailing free speech via technology rather than tanks.\u00a0 As Guinness notes:<\/p>\n

[T]he elites shifted their efforts from undermining dictators abroad to undermining democracy at home, and they radically subverted the First Amendment, replacing free speech with censorship \u2013 all in the name of the elites\u2019 \u201csaving democracy.\u201d[20]<\/a><\/p>\n

This (perhaps) well-intended move, however, raises a crucial question:<\/p>\n

Can a human civilization rely solely on reason and its powers so that humans can rise to be gods and run the world and its affairs successfully?[21]<\/a><\/p>\n

The Psalmist knows the answer:\u00a0 nothing makes God laugh like human beings who think they are gods, who discard the true and living God and His Son:[22]<\/a><\/p>\n

Why do the nations rage<\/p>\n

and the peoples plot in vain?<\/p>\n

The kings of the earth set themselves,<\/p>\n

and the rulers take counsel together,<\/p>\n

against the LORD and against his Anointed, saying,<\/p>\n

\u201cLet us burst their bonds apart<\/p>\n

and cast away their cords from us.\u201d<\/p>\n

He who sits in the heavens laughs;<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

the Lord holds them in derision<\/em><\/strong>.[23]<\/a><\/p>\n

Instead, those who handle law and policy \u2013 kings and rulers \u2013 should do so dependent on revelational matters:\u00a0 Kissing the Son:<\/p>\n

[10] Now therefore, O kings, be wise;<\/p>\n

be warned, O rulers of the earth.<\/p>\n

[11] Serve the LORD with fear,<\/p>\n

and rejoice with trembling.<\/p>\n

[12] Kiss the Son,<\/p>\n

lest he be angry, and you perish in the way,<\/p>\n

for his wrath is quickly kindled.<\/p>\n

Blessed are all who take refuge in him.[24]<\/a><\/p>\n

Consequently, avoiding pagan mysticism (a good thing) by incarnating reason (a bad means) provides no societal solution, as the psalmist understands.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Incarnating reason becomes the foundation for societal managerialism<\/em>.\u00a0 This is the notion that man can \u201cfigure it out\u201d for himself on his own terms without Divine aid.\u00a0 The right experts will do the thinking for the rest of us.\u00a0 This absolutizes reason which in turn carries the seeds of authoritarianism.[25]<\/a> How so?<\/p>\n

Over-reliance on intellectuals, experts, and specialists tends toward oligarchy \u2013 a consolidation of coercive power supposedly based on Reason.\u00a0 Being a specialist, however, is not equivalent to possessing wisdom or leadership.\u00a0 Moreover, this form of self-reliance creates the illusion that \u201ceverything can be figured out and smoothly engineered,\u201d leading to the birth of the \u201cmessianic intellectual\u201d class[26]<\/a>\u00a0 We\u2019ve seen this assumption operate previously \u2013 in the Garden of Eden.\u00a0 This Edenic serpentine-inspired equation remains enticing yet grossly wrong:<\/p>\n

Autonomous human reason + <\/em><\/p>\n

proper managerial choices (increasingly enforced via Statist coercion) = <\/em><\/p>\n

Worldly perfection <\/em><\/p>\n

Ironically, it was Paradise itself that was destroyed by unaided Reason.\u00a0 And, this primordial error continues to wreak havoc today.<\/p>\n

This mistaken notion fosters all sorts of problems. First, the Enlightenment\u2019s favored Child, Modernism, appealed to unaided reason as a universal norm, a veritable societal panacea.\u00a0 Modernism\u2019s logic however, produced Post-modernism, which rejects universals.\u00a0 Accordingly, the postmodernists confidently \u201creasoned\u201d that<\/p>\n

\u201creason, argument, logic, data, evidence mathematics, and even the scientific method itself are anything but universal.\u201d[27]<\/a><\/p>\n

Rather, these notions of rationality are suspected to be instruments of power to promote \u201cwhite privilege\u201d and \u201cwhite nationalism.\u201d[28]<\/a>\u00a0 As Guinness concludes, reducing logic to \u201ca white way of knowing\u201d is flagrantly irrational, sounding in particulars, not universals:<\/p>\n

Such blatant irrationalism which is the unintended consequence of Enlightenment rationalism, is both a problem and a telling example of the inadequacy of unaided reason.[29]<\/a><\/p>\n

It gets worse:\u00a0 relying on unaided reason<\/p>\n

\u201ccreates the illusion that to change the mind through reason is to change the person and to transform the culture.\u201d[30]<\/a><\/p>\n

That\u2019s precisely what the revolutionaries who gave us the bloody French, Russian, and Chinese revolutions thought.\u00a0 They agitated in the name of \u201cthe People\u201d and left swaths of real people dead.\u00a0 When \u201cre-education\u201d and Reason do not prevail, the revolutionary elites invoked the State\u2019s coercive arm (deploying bullets, bazookas, and bombs) to close the gap \u2013 hence all these \u201cefforts of Reason\u201d were both naively utopian and brutally murderous \u2013 all in the name of the god of Reason.[31]<\/a><\/p>\n

As Guinness observes,<\/p>\n

Deep and lasting change happens in [and through civil] society<\/em> and not through the state<\/em>.[32]<\/a><\/p>\n

True change for the good must be rooted in human freedom, not coercion, and in human responsibility, not servitude.\u00a0 Both vessels are necessarily rooted in the fundamental reality of humans being created in the image of God \u2013 human dignity can be rightly grounded in no other way.\u00a0 Reason alone never suffices.<\/p>\n

Third, as we glean from the Apostle Paul, the root ethical issue centers on what we worship:\u00a0 the Creator or the creation.\u00a0 Reliance on Reason ala the Enlightenment actually produces just a another form of dressed-up paganism.\u00a0 Gouverneur Morris, the American Minister to France shortly after the Founding and a devout Christian, quickly noticed that the French Revolution stemmed from a different<\/em> religion<\/em>, yet one dressed up in the vestments of \u201csecular\u201d rationality.\u00a0 Writing to Lord George Graham, Morris noted that he had lived:<\/p>\n

\u201cTo see a new Religion arise.\u00a0 It consists of a Denial of all religion and its votaries have the Superstition of not being superstitious.\u00a0 They have as much Zeal as any other sect and are as ready to lay Waste [to] the World in order to make Proselytes.\u201d[33]<\/a><\/p>\n

Thus, the Enlightenment\u2019s secular feting of Reason was actually fervently religious though expressing itself as being anti-religious.\u00a0 The Enlightenment had the veneer of being luminously non-religious, but in fact manifested a religion oozing darkness.\u00a0 The reality is that the Statist experts and bureaucrats who became politicized under the guise of Reason became the \u201cspiritual militia of the material [world]\u201d.[34]<\/a><\/p>\n

And, this spiritual militia exists to pursue and feed upon raw power \u2013 if God, the actual omnipotent One, is deemed sidelined, then something or someone within creation must grasp the ring of power.\u00a0 This is the lust of a godless mindset; it\u2019s the fundamental temptation presented by the serpent to Eve, and by Satan to Jesus.[35]<\/a>\u00a0 It is \u2013 and always will be \u2013 an idolatrous invitation to worship the created Self either individually or in its collective manifestation, the State \u2013 with inevitable disastrous results:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe worship of the self by the godless self-gods means a death sentence for the self as the god that failed.\u201d[36]<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>Those who lust to dominate the world become dominated by their passion for domination.[37]<\/a><\/p>\n

Ultimately, the Idol of Self always worships on the altar of Death, and this is true whether the idolatrous worship appears as a spell-chanting androgynous voodoo shaman sacrificing children or a serious bow-tie clad tweed-wearing respectable and chic scholar of Reason advocating for abortion.\u00a0 We don\u2019t need the Enlightenment\u2019s man-made light; we only truly see \u2013 and truly flourish — and truly become responsibly free – in His light:<\/p>\n

For with you is the fountain of life;<\/p>\n

in your light do we see light.[38]<\/a><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s commit to focusing on \u2013 and worshiping \u2013 the true light of the world \u2013 even or especially after Midterms and a new SCOTUS term:\u00a0 The Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God because \u201cin him was life, and the life was the light of men.\u201d[39]<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

[1]<\/a> Rousseau, cited in Nicola-Ann Hardwicke, https:\/\/www.e-ir.info\/2011\/03\/01\/rousseau-and-the-social-contract-tradition\/#google_vignette<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Os Guinness, Our Civilizational Moment \u2013 The Waning of the West and the War of the Worlds<\/em> (2024), 81<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Idea derived from Augustine, City of God,<\/em> Book 1, Chapter 1<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Dr. P. Andrew Sandlin, Founder and President of the Center for Cultural Leadership, first presented this crucial observation to me.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces<\/em> (1949).\u00a0 Geroge Lucas explicitly credited this work of Campbell for shaping the narrative of the Star Wars<\/em> franchise.\u00a0\u00a0 Lucas candidly and effusively describes this influence in a biography of Campbell.\u00a0 See, \u00a0Stephan Larsen and Robin Larsen, Joseph Campbell, A Fire in the Mind <\/em>(2002), 541<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> Yoda, The Empire Strikes<\/em> Back (1980)<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn, The Phantom Menace<\/em> (1999)<\/p>\n

[8]<\/a> Yoda, The Empire Strikes<\/em> Back (1980)<\/p>\n

[9]<\/a> The Apostle Paul thundered against Gnostic dualism: see, e.g., the book of Colossians.<\/p>\n

[10]<\/a> Col. 2:21-23<\/p>\n

[11]<\/a> 1 John 4:1-3<\/p>\n

[12]<\/a> Thomas Paine, Age of Reason<\/em>, https:\/\/www.goodreads.com\/work\/quotes\/1018077-the-age-of-reason-being-an-investigation-of-true-and-fabulous-theology#:~:text=Of%20all%20the%20systems%20of,to%20nothing%20here%20or%20hereafter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[13]<\/a> One could canvas similar quotes from Voltaire, Diderot, Rousseau, et al.\u00a0 In each case man and his reason became the standard for knowledge and ethics to the exclusion of Christian revelation.<\/p>\n

[14]<\/a> This form of relativism stems from paganism of the Classical period:\u00a0 Protagoras (490-420 BC), who claimed, \u201cman is the measure of all things.\u201d https:\/\/plato.stanford.edu\/entries\/protagoras\/<\/a><\/p>\n

[15]<\/a> Romans 1:25<\/p>\n

[16]<\/a> As C.S. Lewis reminds us, however, \u201cThere are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal.\u201d\u00a0 The Weight of Glory,<\/em> https:\/\/www.goodreads.com\/quotes\/42142-there-are-no-ordinary-people-you-have-never-talked-to<\/p>\n

[17]<\/a> Os Guinness, Our Civilizational Moment \u2013 The Waning of the West and the War of the Worlds<\/em> (2024), 61.<\/p>\n

[18]<\/a> Id. at 62<\/p>\n

[19]<\/a> Id.<\/p>\n

[20]<\/a> Id. at 63<\/p>\n

[21]<\/a> Id.<\/p>\n

[22]<\/a> Os Guinness, Our Civilizational Moment \u2013 The Waning of the West and the War of the Worlds<\/em> (2024),<\/p>\n

65<\/p>\n

[23]<\/a> Ps. 2:1-4<\/p>\n

[24]<\/a> Ps. 2:10-12<\/p>\n

[25]<\/a> Guinness, at 66<\/p>\n

[26]<\/a> Id. at 67<\/p>\n

[27]<\/a> Id. at 75<\/p>\n

[28]<\/a> Id.<\/p>\n

[29]<\/a> Id.<\/p>\n

[30]<\/a> Id.<\/p>\n

[31]<\/a> The French Revolution, in despising the Christian faith and seeking to de-Christianize France, established The Cult of Reason in 1793 along with a Festival of Reason.\u00a0 A year later revolutionary radical Robespierre replaced this cult with the Cult of the Supreme Being, invoking Voltaire\u2019s notion that \u201cIf God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.\u00a0 Ruth Scurr, Fatal Purity: Robespierre and the French Revolution<\/em> (2006), 294.\u00a0 Notice how, though wrapped in \u201crationality\u201d and intellectualism, this exhibits pagan impulses and roots: God is created<\/em> from man\u2019s ideas \u2013 a direct inversion of the truth.\u00a0 And, this invented God is not separate from the creation, rejecting the foundational binary of all reality:\u00a0 The Creator-creation distinction.<\/p>\n

[32]<\/a> Id. at 76<\/p>\n

[33]<\/a> Cited by Guinness, at 77.<\/p>\n

[34]<\/a> Julien Benda, writing in The Treason of the Intellectuals<\/em> (1927) cited by Guinness at 78<\/p>\n

[35]<\/a> In Gen. 3:5 the serpent claims that Eve will receive power to \u201cbe like God\u201d to see and autonomously determine good and evil; In Matthew 4, Satan tempts Jesus by ultimately promising to give Him \u201call the kingdoms of the world and their glory\u201d (v. 8) \u2013 worldly power \u2013 in exchange for pagan worship of a created being.<\/p>\n

[36]<\/a> Os Guinness, Our Civilizational Moment \u2013 The Waning of the West and the War of the Worlds<\/em> (2024), 81<\/p>\n

[37]<\/a> Idea derived from Augustine, City of God,<\/em> Book 1, Chapter 1<\/p>\n

[38]<\/a> Ps. 36:9<\/p>\n

[39]<\/a> John 1:4<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_cloudinary_featured_overwrite":false},"publisher":[28],"class_list":["post-13195","articles","type-articles","status-publish","hentry","publisher-center-public-legal-theology"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSCOTUS, Midterms, and The Enlightenment\u2019s Darkness - Trinity Law School<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tiu.edu\/law\/articles\/scotus-midterms-and-the-enlightenments-darkness\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"SCOTUS, Midterms, and The Enlightenment\u2019s Darkness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201cWhoever refuses to obey the general will shall be compelled to do so by the whole body. 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