Health Care and... Philosophy?

In an earlier post I discussed how "political" discussions are rarely truly political anymore, but instead are often a question of worldview. A good discussion on health care reform in America really needs to begin with the philosophy behind the health care. When we say "affordable health care for everyone" or that "no one should be denied coverage," what do we really mean?

As Christians we need to start these conversations at the beginning. Any good dialogue on health care needs to include a talk about the philosophy of those in charge of the decision-making process. Our government (Republican and Democrat alike) has bought the theory of Darwinian Evolution as fact; even President Bush, in an interview just before leaving office, scoffed at the notion of the Bible as literal Truth. Having accepted Evolution, Deism (belief in an uninvolved, irrelevant God) gave way to widespread Scientific Materialism (belief that this physical, material world is all there is, and it exists as the result of random processes over billions of years) and Postmodernism (Truth does not exist, and all philosophies are equally worthy or worthless).

But accepting this theory has significant consequences for us, the governed, as we will soon find out under President Obama's proposed health care plan. Consider the points of this philosophy:

There is no God, no Creator.
There is nothing beyond death - we cease to exist; no Heaven, no Hell.
There is no ultimate purpose or meaning to life, we are free to do whatever we'd like.
There is no absolute, objective basis for morality or ethics - whatever we choose to do, it must be considered as "natural" because the natural world is all that exists.

What would a society look like, operating according to this worldview? There being no God, I would not expect any mention of Him from our government, and government schools would not teach anything about Him to children.
There being no Heaven and no Hell, we would have to do our best to have a great time before we die, so our entire focus should be devoted to our happiness. I would consider myself entitled to the best life has to offer; I only get one trip through this buffet line, so why should I care about anyone else's experience?
With no higher purpose beyond my own happiness, I would do what I want to do. Sex? Drugs? Stealing? Adultery? What good is virtue that won't add one moment to my existence, since my existence is only guaranteed in the here and now?
Since nothing absolute exists (note the irony), I have no basis for telling anyone that anything is wrong. Might then makes right, be that 50% + 1 vote or a dictatorship. Those in charge are free to make the rules, because they are not accountable to any standard other than ones they create and agree to. And if they don't like the standards they create, why not make more?

Bringing the question back to health care:

Even if abortion kills a human being, why does that matter? That baby would have stopped me from having my best life now. If we know the baby is going to have a birth defect, why not kill it and be done, instead of spending a lot of money keeping an unproductive citizen alive? Why would we continue medical treatment for the elderly, or the terminall ill? These have nothing left to offer the rest of us. They are just sucking up resources that could be better spent helping younger people with a higher "quality of life." And who gets to draw the line in the sand, and decide who lives and who dies?

This is the terrifying road that the worldview of our government is leading us down. If there is nothing beyond the material world, there is no accountability for a government other than to its citizens. And they can be bribed, intimidated or coerced into accepting almost anything - human history is clear on this.

Our Founding Fathers wanted a limited government, with the bare minimum of centralized power possible to have the country function. The Bill of Rights itself protects the average citizen from the intrusions of government into civil life. They were wise to do this, for they recognized the tendencies of government since the beginning of time. Philosophy does matter, and not just to old men on university campuses. We are all about to get an enormous lesson in why it truly matters, and that lesson may just be the very literal death of some of us.