My Response to Dave Bazan's Worldview

Below are some of the lyrics that Dave Bazan has on his new album. His lyrics on his new album are an apologetic for his somewhat agnostic ideas. These lyrics distort theology in a way that is fatalistic. I will discuss more later. He uses this fatalistic theology to justify being angry at God. Here are some of the lyrics.


(“Curse your branches
“all fallen leaves should curse their branches for not letting them decide where they should fall and not letting them refuse to fall at all”

When we Fell
“When you set the table and when you chose the scale. did you write the riddle that you knew they would fail; did you make them tremble so they would tell the tale, did you push us when we fell. If you knew what would happen and made us just the same then you my lord can take the blame.”

In Stitches
I might as well admit it, like i even have a choice.)




Dave spends the rest of his tracks explaining why he can’t reconcile his inner tension with God and how it this tension has created chaos in his life..ie. drinking etc.. The album sounds as though Bazan is showing God parts of the Bible that don’t add up or make philosophical sense. His songs portray the Biblical narratives in a way that assumes human agents aren’t free, but rather, are pre-determined by God. Bazan questions God’s Biblical actions as if he has a "better" understanding of how to rule the universe. According to Bazan, God is playing a twisted game with humanity and threatening damnation to those that don’t “pass the divine test of faith”. His fatalistic theological assumptions places the blame on God himself for the existence of evil; this is Bazan’s logical conclusion. However, this conclusion is clearly contradicted in scripture. (Hab. 1:13, James 1:13-17).

Before answering these remarks from Dave, we must know a little about him that may clue us into these his disturbing lyrics. Dave has a Bible degree and grew up in a very conservative charismatic church; His theistic struggles, fundamentally, are philosophical and theological. His fatalistic understanding of theology may be due to his brief time as Mark Driscoll’s worship leader at Mars Hill in Seattle, Washington. We may see more enlightened agnostics come out with the evangelical rise of Theistic Determinism.

Bazan’s greatest struggles appear to be coming to grips with God’s actions due given the divine attributes such as omniscience and sovereignty. He blames God for holding humanity hostage to a cosmic determinism that is blind, inscrutable, and inescapable. The often misunderstood Christian form of this doctrine is called divine providence. Providence is different from fatalism on one key component; the Christian understanding of providence provides authentic freedom and human responsibility. Bazan eliminates all human responsibility in his hermeneutical claims. If there is no human responsibility, then Bazan is right to conclude that God is the “puppet master” of which we have no say in the matter.
Dave’s fatalistic understanding of biblical theology makes the future precarious and meaningless, while biblical providence gives us divine guidance and a hope that makes life bearable. it’s obvious Dave is highly philosophically trained. Consequently, he asserts his philosophical reasoning into scripture without considering any harmonious option.

My harmonious option is answered in a previous blog entitled “The Coherence of the Sovereignty of God and Free Will.” http://chadsthought.blogspot.com/2009/07/coherence-of-sovereignty-of-god-and.html My essential claim is that God DID NOT CAUSE the fall. Every event has a cause (we were the cause in the event of the fall), but every cause doesn’t have a cause; therefore, we can’t blame God for the fall. Free will is a result of the Imago Dei (Gen. 1:26-28) Without it, God could not receive the most glory from his prized creation. Enforced love is no love at all. Love requires choice.

Bazan would argue the Bible would support a philosophical determinism which states, human behavior cannot be uncaused, for nothing can happen without a cause. Is God the cause for all external behavior? Dave’s argument is self defeating. A determinist must contend they and non-determinists are determined to believe what they believe. My claim is that freedom is caused by God in His infinite knowledge.

Humans are not machines that cannot be moved until an outside force tips it in one direction or another. Every cause doesn’t have a cause. This fact doesn’t suggest that God is ever surprised nor does it deny Him Sovereignty. Was God not an uncaused Cause? If Bazan doesn’t believe an uncaused cause, then why does he speak in his songs as though God exists? Fatalism surely is hopeless.

It seems to me that some form of self-determinism is most compatible with the biblical view of God’s sovereignty and human responsibility. a person’s acts are self-caused. There are certainly external factors that causes behavior, but personal subjects are able to direct their own action. Just as no outside force caused God to create the world, no outside force causes people to choose certain actions.This view is held by Thomas Aquinas and CS Lewis, and Chad Logan... Not that my should ever be placed aside theirs.

Maybe I could write a song like this, “every cause doesn’t have a cause; therefore, we can’t blame God for the fall.”