“Even when the experts all agree, they may well be mistaken” Bertrand Russell. This surely was true before Columbus discovered America. The fact that almost everyone believed the earth was flat did not make it so.
We realize that almost everyone alive today believes that the soul of man is immortal. Everyone believing so does not make it so. Some would cry out in surprise saying, “How can so many be wrong?” Bertrand Russell’s quote indicates that just because all the experts agree on something, that does not make it right.
At the time of the flood, the entire population of the earth, minus eight people, did not believe that there would be a flood. They might very well have asked Noah, “How can so many be wrong?”
Are we unduly influenced by numbers? Peer pressure is a very real thing, especially for young people. When everyone is doing it, there is pressure to conform. The young, and not so young, who are striving to conform to dress codes, hair styles and life styles feel a compunction to conform because the experts convey this is the way to look and behave. Unfortunately, it is not only possible that they may be wrong, it is almost certain that they are.
Paul instructs us not to conform to the world. Instead, we are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. In actual fact, we are all conformists, either to the world or to God. Since so many more conform to the world than to God, we will always be in the minority if we follow Paul’s instructions to be transformed by the renewing of our mind.
Renewing our mind must be a daily process. We do it by the daily reading of God’s word. There is no other way to be transformed to God’s way of thinking. Advertisers are experts on the use of words repeated over and over to persuade people to conform to what they want them to do.
We are subconsciously bombarded by advertising that affects our behavior and habits. “Don’t leave home without it” and “Just do it” are advertising slogans that almost everyone recognizes and millions slavishly follow. We need to mentally change the “it” to something scriptural whenever we hear such catchy slogans. For us, the “it” of “don’t leave home without it” should mean that we always carry some literature or a Bible with us so that we are prepared to give an answer to everyone about our hope.
The “it” of “Just do it” should be to “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.” By mentally changing advertising slogans to conform to our standards and ideals, it will help us neutralize their materialistic effect and transform their ideas into mini-exhortations. The “good hands people” should be mentally translated as our brethren and sisters and “when it rains, it pours” into the showers of blessing our Heavenly Father has promised to rain upon us.
Let us make a game of transforming secular slogans into godly ideas that will remind us of spiritual principles. Romans 12:2 in the Phillips translation says, “Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mold, but let God remold your minds from within.”
We need to fight back so that in the battle for our minds, the Lord, and not the world, wins.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One