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Postmodernism in religious thinking
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Post-modernism is arguably the most depressing philosophy ever to spring from the western mind. It is difficult to talk about post-modernism because nobody really understands it. - Kalle Lasn
The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy agrees, but offers more helpful information:
That postmodernism is indefinable is a truism. However, it can be described as a set of critical, strategic and rhetorical practices employing concepts such as difference, repetition, the trace, the simulacrum, and hyperreality to destabilize other concepts such as presence, identity, historical progress, epistemic certainty, and the univocity of meaning.
In other words, postmodernism attempts to break every else. It's a philosophy that tries to demonstrate that nothing can ever be proven, nothing is reliable, and nothing is known. To do this, it often employs a form of deconstructionism: break everything down as far as it will go, even beyond the point of absurdity. In a way, it's losing the forest for the trees, becoming consumed with definitions and categories and labels to the point where conversation grinds to a halt, or worse, wanders endlessly in semantic minefields that serve no purpose. Postmodernism tries to reveal the flaws in everything else through a kind of hyper-criticism, yet never offers anything useful of its own.
As Timothy Sandefur suggests, postmodernism it's a kind of solipsism, where my ideas and my experiences are the only things that can be certain, and so they define the universe. All attempts to understand anything are equally valid. Science, religion, mysticism, everything is on equal footing because there's no real objective reality, only subjective perception.
Sandefur suggests that it's a philosophy no one can take seriously. As Richard Dawkins puts it, there are no postmodernists at 30,000 feet:
Airplanes built according to scientific principles work. They stay aloft, and they get you to a chosen destination. Airplanes built to tribal or mythological specifications, such as the dummy planes of the cargo cults in jungle clearings, or the beeswaxed wings of Icarus, don't.
Religion often uses postmodern philosophy. "It's true to me," or "I know the church is true," echo a certain amout of postmodern thinking. These are statements about the state of the individual, not the reality of the claim. But for believers, what's "true" to a person on the inside is an accurate and reliable reflection of what's true in the external world.
Intuitions are caused by the creator of the universe. Personal revelation is truth injected into us. Prayer is a valid method of obtaining factual information about the world. The Holy Ghost whispers promptings to us. There's a trend in religion that truth is found internally. It's true to me, so it must be true.
Religion likes postmodernism because it gives people an excuse to believe anything they like. With it, their beliefs are as justified and as reasonable as anything else. Revelation from God works just as well as the scientific method.
We see postmodern thinking when believers suggest that all information we obtain about the world is ultimately subjective, and so our eyes and ears are just as reliable as our "spiritual" sense. They might also argue that since nothing can really be known for certain, all possibilities are open, and that means God's existence is just as likely as his non-existence. Both options are equally plausible. God exists outside of science, so we can't disprove his existence.
In this sense, being baptized is a matter of choosing which reality we want to live in, not a matter of accepting the reality we actually have.
Stephen Colbert famously summed up postmodernism with the word "truthiness:"
| The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| The Word - Truthiness | ||||
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In order for religion to work, believers are forced to adopt some form of postmodernism. Only by undermining the real world can they find room to suggest that miracles happen, the supernatural exists, morality is endowed to us from somewhere else, and personal revelation is reliable.
With reality suspended, the world really is an uncertain and chaotic place. But God is there to make sense of it once again. God is the source of all meaning, morality, and purpose, the rock upon which the universe and humanity is built. This is why the idea of a world without God might seem like leaping into an empty abyss of anarchy. The postmodern philosophy we must adopt in order to accommodate God creates a worldview where nothing else makes sense. Without God, we're left to flounder in a world where there is no truth, no purpose, no meaning, and no morality.
This is the senseless world that postmodern believers would be left with if God were removed, and so this is the world they challenge non-believers with. They present postmodern ideas about how without God there is no reason to be moral, that the universe is full of things we can't yet know, and that a secular worldview ultimately leaves one unable to draw any conclusions or make any judgments. They argue semantics, deconstructing as many terms and labels and definitions as possible to create the illusion that no worldview but their own makes sense.
What a surprise it is to find that when we discard our belief in God, we find we're still on solid ground. It's actually not much different. We just stop applying the "God" label to things. Morality is much the same, we just don't assume God is behind it. Finding happiness is much the same, we just don't assume there's a pre-set path to do it. The postmodern philosophy, it turns out, was only a sophomoric distraction. The world still makes sense, we can still find meaning and purpose, there are still reasons to be moral, and truth can still be found.
Email Jonathan: slcfreethinking@gmail.com
Read Jonathan's other articles on science and religion
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