On a Road to No Where.....
So, what exactly is the postmodern world? Throughout the 20thcentury a shift took place that has laid a foundation for modern thinking. As the generations committed to the concepts and ideals of absolute Truth began to die off, a new lens for discovering truth and applying value to truth began to emerge in our society. Irregardless of whether or not the generations of the past actually possessed that which is true (this is beyond the scope of this particular writing), the commitment to the concept of Truth which applies to everyone was commonly held by most people in our western culture. Political wars and international wars were fought to protect the premise that Western ideals were true because they were true, not merely because we believed them to be true. We actually believed the Communists and the Nazis were wrong! Freedom and Liberty, Human Rights, The intrinsic value of human life, the sanctity of marriage, the moral virtues of Scripture, the provision and protection provided by God, and the impetus for political decision making home and abroad motivated by being “in the right”, were just a few of the examples of our cultural commitment to the concepts of Truth which applied to all. We were a society moderately built upon the foundation of a Judeo Christian heritage that trusted in Revelation and Reason to lead us toward a discovery of Cosmic Truth that we trusted to guide us through this life and beyond. Most people believed in God, accepted the reality of a heaven they had never seen, believed in a human soul that could not be scientifically proven, and embraced cultural norms as being applicable beyond the individual who practiced them. Throughout the 20th century, however, the teachings of philosophical skeptics and scientifically gifted proponents of a closed universe began to win the day as well as the hearts of our people.
So, what exactly is the postmodern world? Throughout the 20thcentury a shift took place that has laid a foundation for modern thinking. As the generations committed to the concepts and ideals of absolute Truth began to die off, a new lens for discovering truth and applying value to truth began to emerge in our society. Irregardless of whether or not the generations of the past actually possessed that which is true (this is beyond the scope of this particular writing), the commitment to the concept of Truth which applies to everyone was commonly held by most people in our western culture. Political wars and international wars were fought to protect the premise that Western ideals were true because they were true, not merely because we believed them to be true. We actually believed the Communists and the Nazis were wrong! Freedom and Liberty, Human Rights, The intrinsic value of human life, the sanctity of marriage, the moral virtues of Scripture, the provision and protection provided by God, and the impetus for political decision making home and abroad motivated by being “in the right”, were just a few of the examples of our cultural commitment to the concepts of Truth which applied to all. We were a society moderately built upon the foundation of a Judeo Christian heritage that trusted in Revelation and Reason to lead us toward a discovery of Cosmic Truth that we trusted to guide us through this life and beyond. Most people believed in God, accepted the reality of a heaven they had never seen, believed in a human soul that could not be scientifically proven, and embraced cultural norms as being applicable beyond the individual who practiced them. Throughout the 20th century, however, the teachings of philosophical skeptics and scientifically gifted proponents of a closed universe began to win the day as well as the hearts of our people.
In recent years this faith in absolute Truth has begun to waver. It needs to be understood that this cultural event has happened for good reasons and bad. We are beginning to understand that the faith we placed in progress, materialism, and scientific advancement, did not solve the most important issues in life - things like personal significance, meaning and purpose, health and security, contentment and peace of mind. However, even though these questions remained largely unanswered in the masses, we have come to believe and embrace the value of personal truth and private interpretations of truth. Though we do this to our own peril, we do this as a form of protest to the declaration that science and progress have the answers we need. The Post modern world is discovering this is not true, and that we cannot make sense of life and discover meaning in life apart from the exploration of the Spiritual. However, the spiritual realm being explored is subject to post-modern rules, which assign the highest value to a person’s right to explore and express truth within the cultural environment they have grown to value and embrace. Spiritual Truth is still ultimately decided by those who are living it, not by Someone who lives outside of and beyond the limitations of our cultural context.
In the Postmodern world we are beginning to question both the futility of a random universe and the sheer folly of our past interpretations of the data available to us. We have begun to realize that there is truth beyond what science and technology proclaim. There is a renewed commitment to the questions of “why”, “where are we going”, and “what is our purpose for being here?” Spirituality is on the rise, which is not the same thing as saying that Biblical Christianity is on the rise. We have not abandoned our faith in personal preference and private truth, we have simply surrendered our faith to something other than the scientific method in the discovery of our truth. The environment where truth is found has shifted from the laboratory, the class room, and the newspapers; to the truth which is found on face book, twitter, and other powerful social networks. Culture has become the primary container for truth, and each individual is left to connect her self to whatever version of truth which makes the most sense to each individual person.
It is difficult to understand the primary motivation behind this century long journey. Some say it is the extreme philosophical intellect of the Enlightenment teachers and authors which have at last filtered into our cultural thinking processes. Some say it is the natural consequence of Capitalistic values which have spilled over into our moral and religious lives. Some say it is simply the end result of the elevation of the Autonomous Individual as the center of cultural understanding and experience. Others argue that it is the end result of taking prayer and the Bible out of our public schools. We could make a case for each of these, depending, of course, on our particular, often biased, analysis of culture. The end result is “here we are”, caught in the middle of a cultural revolution that has worked to shape the thinking and the understanding of the concept of Truth for several generations. We have become a people committed to the idea of relative truth, private interpretation and cultural expression being the primary means of arriving at truth, as we continue to educate our young within this often unchallenged environment of post modern interpretations of reality.
Written on Monday, 16 May 2011 12:24 by Rick Farmer
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