Post-modernism: enlightenment or not so much

         I have been doing some research on the subject of post-modernism. In this post, you will find some of the conclusions I have come to. It should be noted that this is not 100% conclusive but I think it gives a good overview of a few points at least. In the future, I may update this post and add more to it as time permits.

         Post-modernism endorses the ability for concepts to be in constant flux. It relies on the importance of concrete experience over abstract principles knowing that a person’s experience will be fallible and relative, rather than certain and universal.  There are no single thought priority systems, which should govern a person’s belief or investigation of facts. All knowledge should be continually subjected to direct testing because there are no definite terms, boundaries or truth. This idea states that truth is ambiguous and is subject to pluralism or more than one truth; therefore, is considered to be fallible rather than absolute or certain. This creates skepticism at any attempt to explain a valid truth for all groups, cultures, or races and instead focuses on relative truth. Relative truth significantly blurs the lines because what is true for you may not be true for me. Basically, this thought process uses one’s own understanding and interpretation to create reality. This “open mindedness” is really an indeterminate lack of any firm ground on a world view. This is readily seen in the disbelief in nationalism, or pride of one’s country, because they see it as building walls, making enemies and destroying nature. They believe capitalism creates a “have or have not society” which is not fair for the collective; as a result they tend to be more socialistic in nature. Religion is looked at as causing moral friction and division among people. It’s no surprise that most are atheistic in nature or agnostic.

“By replacing the modern worldview with multiplicity of views and worlds, the postmodern ear has in effect replaced knowledge with interpretation.” (Stanley Grenz)

         Consequently, the pursuit for knowledge is endless and is constantly being revised; even after study there still are no absolutes. The world does not exist as a thing-in-its-self but rather comes into being through interpretation.

This theory makes the claim that “all human knowledge is mediated by signs and symbols of uncertain provenance, constituted by historically and culturally variable predispositions, and influenced by often unconscious human interest.” (Richard Tarnas- The passions of the Western Mind, 394-398)

         Basically, Richard Tarnas is saying that all human knowledge is biased or has pluralism. What if I were to go outside and pick up a rock and I were to tell you that it was grey, course, extremely hard and virtually indestructible – would you come up with the same analysis? I would venture to say that your interpretation would be very similar to my own analysis. Are we then to say these facts can be considered truth? What if 100 people agreed with my analysis? Or what if conversely 100 people said that my rock was purple with yellow polka dots and soft? (haha I would first ask them what they smoking! Lol) But for the sake of argument, their interpretation is radically different from mine – what then? Aren’t there facts about what we know about rocks from past experience? If it were of a particular kind – say granite – then from history or scientific discovery we know this rock’s properties from a plethora of experience with rocks as a collective. Couldn’t we then say that these 100 people who claim my rock is soft and purple with yellow polka dots are wrong? Or do we say that everyone in history who said my rock was hard, course and virtually indestructible were all interpreting what a rock is from culture norms or unconscious human interest and are therefore essentially wrong! Wouldn’t that be ridiculous? I certainly think so – but in essence that is what post modernism claims – my rock based on interpretation could be soft and purple with yellow polka dots. What are the FACTS? What is the TRUTH??

(SIDE NOTE:: I wasn’t taking into account ALL of the possibilities in this analogy or this post would never end! I wanted to keep the facts simple)

“We do not have to describe a universe and then ask ourselves what our knowledge is like for such a universe to become possible. We must do the reverse. Given that there is knowledge, we have to inquire how things must be made in order to explain how we know them.” (Etienne Gilson)

         Herein lies some of the fundamental problems with postmodernism; it can only be seen as an arbitrary social construction.  It lacks any ground or support for rejecting other ideas or possibilities – everyone and everything certainly cannot ALL be right.  It devalues the ability to build theories because if every attempt to associate truth is denied how can you possibly move forward? Also, this theory refutes its self by stating that there is no objective truth because it ends up teaching us that there is some objective truth – post-modernism is right or has some merit.

Thought provoking: Danger of Perspectival View of Truth:

“Recently, a panel of nineteen experts appointed by the National Institute of Health recommended that federal funding be used for producing and harvesting – and destroying – fetuses for laboratory experimentation. The panel’s reasoning is that ‘personhood’ is a “social construct" . Human beings, in other words, aren’t born, but defined. According to them, cultural consensus (not always popular, but that of the experts) defines reality. What happens, however, when culture decides a certain race or gender is non-human, and those non-humans are targeted for extinction? If reality is culture bound it would be an act of imperialism for another culture to intervene. Without an absolute standard, there is no basis for judging a Nazi or a misogynist (hater of women) any more than there is for defining a human life.” (Dennis McCallum)

Black Friday - What a perfect name, Unfortunately!!!

         This blog post is more of me lamenting over how much I really think they have named “Black Friday” appropriately! I think all of south Florida was out hustling about. In fact, if it weren’t for the simple fact that I needed some work done on my car and the mall was right there, I would not have participated myself.  Being as it may, I did. I actually had more fun people watching than I did actually doing any shopping myself.  My observations of what I saw were actually disheartening! This is my favorite time of year – I love the music, colder weather (when I did not live in Florida), decorating the tree, being with family and most importantly celebrating the birth of Jesus! This time of year is a time to give – even if you don’t believe or celebrate Jesus’ birthday! You still sit around a tree and exchange gifts. Black Friday in all of its retail glory is suppose to be a day about sale / bargains to go out and buy those presents for the loved ones. (At least that’s how I look at it)Why are so many people dreadfully unhappy? This is a time when you can be buying gifts for the upcoming holidays - I am the only one who thinks about the person opening the item in question and the sense of joy that brings knowing it will put a smile on their face. Sadly, there were rude, self centered people all around – I remember walking into the mall feeling a sense of happiness because the smell of Christmas was in the air. I walked out- actually more like ran out with a sense of “get me away from these crazy people”! Where was the joy? I did not see nor feel it at all!! There was an older lady in a line I was in; she turned around and looked at me and I smiled politely she rolled her eyes and turned around. It was one of those moments you think to yourself – “I wonder what her problem is?” I then went to grab a bite to eat and there were no seats available – there was a table with two tables adjoined with four vacant chairs. I asked the lady that was sitting there if the table farthest from them was saved she turned around and said yes. But the daughter yelled “Mom – they are not saved” then she said I could sit there.  A little bit later, there was another person yelling at one of the cashiers in another store. A lady was approaching a door and a young guy just stood there as this lady struggled with all of the bags in her hand to open the door. This list can go on and on!! On a funny note, there was a young boy, while I was in Macy’s, who was begging his mom not to buy that “fish net looking thing”!! LOL I laughed because the child was dead serious! The mother protested and said it wasn’t that bad – I wish I knew what the item in question was it might have been even funnier!!

         People all seem to be in their own personal bubble and consequently they happen to share the same space with you but not by choice. Rarely as a collective do we talk to someone we don’t know or smile, hold the door or just show any sort of display of manners in general. Is it really that much effort to be polite to people rather than greet someone with a “sour face”? I guess I was raised more traditionally and there is nothing better in my personal opinion than a man who will hold the door for the lady’s – that makes me smile – so have at it gentleman – hold a door for a lady and see her thank-you and smile!! Take the smile challenge and be a nice person – enjoy the holidays – sing, dance, laugh but please no sour faces apply!! Life is entirely too short to be as miserable as the people I saw this past Friday!! There is much to celebrate and be thankful for if you really take the time to consider all that you have rather than what you don't!!! Obviously, stuff clearly doesn't make people happy or that mall would have been the happiest place on earth!!

I leave this post with this last thought:

Luke 6:38: “Give and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”

Atheism and Christianity: Blind Faith or Intelligent faith?

         I am embarking on my journey into the world of apologetics – I am very interested in what’s happening in the world around me and how and what are shaping people’s minds. My curiosity was peaked the other day because I was looking at a scientific site and they had a forum where people were discussing different topics. Of course the evolution and creation debate caught my eye. It was here that I saw some nasty and distasteful comments about how brainless Christians are and I just could not remain silent. I prayed that God would give me the right words and I jumped into the fire. This post has taken a lot of effort on my part and a lot of research; in fact, I haven’t done this much since I left college!

(I would like to pause by saying, there are a lot of Christians who jump into these conversations and start telling these atheists right off the bat that they are going to hell. Please don’t ever do this! The conversation quickly becomes combative and nothing really gets accomplished! I was saddened to see some of the Christians behaving this way. We are called to be the light in the dark world but going about it in this manner is NOT honoring to God. )

         I made the statement: my belief and faith in God and my study of science do not contradict each other. The person responded to me by saying that they believe education has precedence over creed. (A creed is defined as a system of beliefs.) My response: I think education and creed should be aligned. Otherwise, wouldn’t that make a person a hypocrite or shall I say a divided person. The same person went on to say that his cultural creed is Christianity, even though he doesn’t believe in God. He stated that he celebrates Christmas and sings Christmas carols. I am not sure if anyone would agree with me on this but – if you don’t believe in God why would you sing Christmas carols like away in a manger or Oh Holy Night if you don’t believe in a God? I did not want to be rude by asking him this poignant question.Granted, I get why he would celebrate Christmas because it has been so commercialized that it really doesn’t really have to be attached to a faith per se.

(ADD moment: As a side note, I find it interesting that people will say they celebrate Christmas but won’t wish someone Merry Christmas - it’s happy holidays. There must be power in the name Christ- mas!!)

         Another person, chimed in and said “Christians are pitiful because all you have is blind faith”. I love what Josh McDowell says in response to a statement like this: “I cannot believe in what my mind rejects”. What this means for us as Christians, is that our belief and knowledge about the world around us should go hand in hand. The heart or the seat of your emotions and your mind were created to work together not as separate entities. There is no way to be a holistic person when the head and the heart are working independent of one another.” Faith is the assurance of the heart in adequacy of the evidence.” (McDowell)

Matthew 22: 37: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”

         Atheist comment: "This so called faith is really the belief that you don't really die when you die. Ever try to make someone let go of that thought? It’s interesting to see someone realize that there is no such thing as good being rewarded and bad being punished. We are responsible and that's all there is to it." Actually, I believe this statement is postmodernism at it's finest - this view stresses the relativity of all meaning and truth, and denies the principles, which are commonly accepted truth that form the starting point of all philosphical enquiry. (They create their own truth.)

"Postmodern thinkers.... argue that we do not simply encounter a world that is "out there" but rather we construct the world using concepts we bring to it. The content that we have has no fixed vantage point beyond our own structuring of the world fron which to gain a purely objective view of whatever reality maybe out there." (Stanely Grenz)

         A belief can be defined as the psychological state in which an individual holds a proposition of premise to be true. (web definition) "It can be said that a belief held by an individual involves the mind, the emotions and the will.” (McDowell) Hebrews 11:1: “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. In essence, “Faith in the Christian sense goes beyond reason BUT not against it!" (McDowell) Can this guy truly prove without a shadow of a doubt that there is soul or that heaven doesn’t exist? No one can, this, whether he likes it or not, is his own belief. However, what’s his belief based on? How does he know that when we die we JUST die? Is he willing to base his eternity on that? Why even be responsible? I received no answer to these questions. I am going to include an exert which I think is well written. It basically is stating that if a person already has made up his or her mind before the start of the investigation process for truth than their findings are basically skewed from the start.

“For many today, the study of history is incorporated with the idea that there is no God, miracles are not possible, we live in a closed system, and there is no supernatural. With these assumptions or presuppositions they begin their “critical, open and honest” investigation of history. When they study the life of Christ and read about His miracles or resurrection, they conclude that it was not a miracle or a resurrection because we know (not historically, but philosophically) that there is no God, we live in a closed system. Therefore, these things cannot be. What men have done is to rule out the resurrection of Christ even before they start an historical investigation. These presuppositions are not so much historical biases but rather, philosophical prejudices. Their approach to history rests on the “rationalistic presupposition” that Christ could not have been raised from the dead. Instead of beginning with the historical data they preclude them by “metaphysical speculation. The fact of the resurrection cannot be discounted on philosophical grounds; miracles are impossible only if one defines them – but such definition rules out proper historical investigation.” (Josh W. Montgomery)

         Immanual Kant’s philosophical ideas and arguments about systems beginning with presuppositions support the idea of a person making presumptions based off of a body of truth already known. (a presupposition of a statement is a proposition which must be true in order for the statement to make sense) Our thoughts can be placed into several categories such as, causality, logic, time, space and order, which are structured by our minds; therefore, our minds shape our behavior and the way we experience the world around us. In essence, if we in our mind decide a presupposition to be true then we have automatically decided some facts exist which are already true. Being that we cannot verify categories of thought by touch, smell, sight etc. they must be thought of as created and arising from our minds. Thus providing the criteria for things that can be empirically verified, that is, information gained by means of observation, experience or experiment. (web definition) This led Kant to conclude that if we are to think of anything at all we must think in terms of everything being caused by something logically and temporally prior to it. The modern world uses Kant’s presupposition of method, which yields a body of truth already or rather truth that already exists. I think it would suffice to say that “we are operating only with the presupposition of scientific method and not with rationalistic assumptions of scientism”. (Josh McDowell) The term scientism refers to the view that natural science has authority over all interpretations of life such as, philosophical, religious, mythical, spiritual or humanistic explanations. John Frame describes rationalism as: any attempt to establish the finite human mind as the ultimate standard of truth and falsity; whereby stating that the human mind is able to fully and exhaustively explain reality. This ultimately lays the ground work for the autonomous intellect within the context of rejecting God’s revelation of Himself in both nature and the Bible. (John Frame)

         I may have lost some of you on that paragraph – when studying philosophy it is often difficult to put into words these highly complex ideas and thought processes because everything builds off one idea to another. First of all, the definition of what a system is may be helpful: a group of interacting, interrelated or interdependent elements forming a complex whole. (web definition) In order to have a system you have to have interconnected / interrelated parts or ideas. This is where the idea of a presupposition comes from. A presupposition suggests that there has to be an assumption of truth in order for an idea or statement to make sense. Our thoughts are put into categories that are outside the realm of the physical world. However, these thoughts are interpreted and created by our minds, allowing our minds to shape our behavior and the way we experience life. Kant suggested that if we think of anything it should arise from something logical and known to exist. Modern thought, is operating under the assumption of the human mind to determine truth and falsity from pre-existing truth. These supposed “pre-existing truths” come from the mind of an imperfect human and are being incorporated, or rather more appropriately, indoctrinated as a way to reject God and the Bible without any real truth to back up the claims.

“The strongest argument against historical skepticism…. Is this: the man who doubts the possibility of correct historical evidence and tradition cannot then accept his own evidence, judgment, combination and interpretation. He cannot limit his doubt to his historical criticism, but required to let it operate on his own life. He discovers at once that he not only lacks conclusive evidence in all sort of aspects of his own life that he had quite taken for granted, but also that there is no evidence whatever. In short, he finds himself forced to accept a general philosophical skepticism along with his historical skepticism. And general philosophical skepticism is a nice intellectual game, but one cannot live by it”. (Warwick J.Montgomery)

    There is another term referring to the disontinuity in/to reality which we refer to as agnostic. The word literally means no knowledge. Kant basically states that we cannot know that God exists. Others are waiting because they currently do not have knowledge of God. This converges into two paths where 1) the first group has ruled out God altogether and the 2) view is that there is not knowledge obtained about God. Kant's theory results in the agnostic view claiming that nothing can be known about reality.

"The fundamental flaw in Kant's hard agnostic position is his claim to have knowledge of what he declares to be unknowable. In other words, if it were true that reality cannot be known, no one, including Kant, would know it. Kant's hard agnosticism boils down to the claim: "I know that reality is unknowable." ( Norman L. Geisler)

         Let’s shift the focus on to history. A historical record is a writing having historical value and is a record or narrative of past events. A basic definition of history “is knowledge of the past based on testimony.” (Lincoln analogy: Do you believe Abraham Lincoln lived and was President of the United Sates? Yes. However, no one I know has ever met personally or observed Lincoln. The only way one knows is by testimony - physical, verbal and written. (Josh McDowell) This is the manner in which the Bible was written, as multiple eyewitness account of encounters with God and Jesus. Here are some of the New testament eye witness accounts: 2Peter 1:16, 1John 14:1-3, Acts 10:39-42, Luke 1:1-3, Acts 1:1-3, 1Cor. 15:6-8. John 20:30-31, 1 Peter 5:1, Acts 1:9, Acts 2:22, Acts 26:24-28. These accounts were from men that history can account for. “the purpose of historian is not to construct a history from preconceived notions and adjust it to his own liking but to reproduce it from the best evidence and let it speak for itself.” (Philip Schaff) One of the atheists mentioned the fact that the idea of Christianity has been replicated before in Greek mythology and the like. However, the similarities stop when you realize that mythological characters were not applied to real flesh and blood individuals, but instead to non-historical, fictional, mythological characters. In comparison, “when it comes to Christianity these events are attached to the historic Jesus of Nazareth whom the New Testament writers knew personally”. (Josh McDowell)

“If the biblical critic tells me that something in a Gospel is legend or romance, I want to know how many legends and romances he has read, how well his palate is trained in detecting them by the flavour; not how many years he has spent on that Gospel..... I have been reading poems, romances, vision-literature, legends, myths all my life. I know what they are like. I know that not one of them is like this." (C.S. Lewis)

         Aldous Huxley, the atheist who has destroyed the beliefs of many and has been hailed as a great intellect states this:

“I had motives for not wanting the world to have meaning; consequently assumes that it had none, and was able without any difficulty to find satisfying reasons for this assumption. The philosopher who finds no meaning in the world is not concerned exclusively with problems in pure metaphysics, he is also concerned to prove that there is not valid reason why he should not do as he wants to do, or why his friends should not seize political power and govern the way they find most advantageous to themselves…. For myself, the philosophy of meaninglessness was essentially an instrument of liberation, sexual and political.”

         I am sorry but I know for myself, I cannot live my life by this man’s motives and base my eternity on it!! I want something that has more substance other than his own personal beliefs!!!!!!! God is not some cosmic kill joy in the sky trying to keep us from really living life. In fact, that is the exact opposite. Although it’s true, He has placed guidelines and rules for us to follow – but they are only in place to help us to experience REAL freedom. (really think about that last statement!! ) So if an atheist states that his belief that lying, cheating, murder, steeling, coveting, adultery, not obeying parents, etc is a good thing – then it is a good thing because he believes it to be??? REALLY??

I am going to leave this post with this quote from Blaise Pascal:

"The evidence of God's existence and His gift is more than compelling, but those who insist that they have no need of Him or it will always find ways to discount offer."

Passion: it can make all difference

Today is a very exciting day for me, I have returned back to the things that bring happiness and meaning into my life – music and writing are among the many things that God has given me a passion for. This evening I am singing in the choir at church which is something I haven’t done in many years.  Music has always been a huge part of my life but when I went to college I stopped doing choir, praise team /ensemble and orchestra because I did not make time for them. Today, I embark on my journey back to the things that bring joy back into my life!! YAY!!! When I was young my grandma was a well known piano and organ player in the northeast part of the US. The holidays were very special as we would decorate the Christmas tree as she would play the most beautiful music  – such  sweet memories that I will always cherish! It was my grandma who started my passion for music!

Tonight at 6:00pm, tomorrow 8:00am, 10:15am & 12:30 est: - you can listen in to the church service weekly: http://www.calvaryftl.org/AWMedia/LiveService.cfm

It is my hope for all of the readers of this blog, that you find and do something that brings joy into your life – something you are passionate about. There is no greater feeling and no better way to understand your purpose for God creating you! So get out there, live loudly and boldly with meaning and purpose!  I choose this picture for a reason - be that splash of color among the weeds! There truly needs to be happier more fulfilled people here on earth – life is far too short to waste it being miserable!! ;) 

Faith: a sign of weakness or empowerment

         I was talking with a fellow engineer yesterday about the difficulties regarding faith, how some believe we are weak if we have faith in something. She made some valid points: we have faith in things everyday – we believe we are going to wake up the next day, we believe if we sit in a chair that it will hold us, if we turn on our sink we will have running water and so on. I agreed but then went on to say what about believing in good and evil and that there is an enemy that we refer to in the Christian community as Satan. This is a much more difficult topic to tackle because there has to be a point in your life where you have experienced the presence of good and evil in a real and powerful way. This is why it makes it difficult to discuss because if someone has never experienced some kind of turmoil, oppressing force or even the feeling of doing something good and seeing the contrast first hand they simply cannot understand what the rest of us are talking about. There are times when I have pulled close to God that I seem to be attacked from every angle –it’s like everything that could possibly go wrong actually does. As I alluded to in a prior post, there was a time when everything was falling apart on every front in my life. It wasn’t long before I got mad at God and the world. In this case, the enemy had won the victory over me – I gave up trying. I remember feeling like a piece of glass which someone picked up and threw on the floor and the pieces had gone everywhere. I remember trying to metaphorically pick up each piece and put myself back together again, which did not work. It was when I truly understood what Jesus had done for me – it was the first real encounter with His love that changed my perspective on life. My faith had been severely beaten up. When I tried to live apart from Him, it was the most helpless and depressing feeling – it was like all the hope had left my life.

         Yesterday, I was introduced to a gentleman who works in a different department than myself; but who is also a Christian. The three of us began talking, only for me to discover we all go to the same church. (very cool!!) The first question he asked me was how I became a Christian – I briefly gave him my testimony at which point he got tears in his eyes and said "it never amazes me what God can do in the lives of those who truly believe". I asked him about his story – he began to tell me that he had been an angry person and he was on the verge of losing his wife before he met Jesus 30 years ago. He said with power and conviction in his voice that Jesus was the one who helped him change and through this change the marriage was saved. He stated that he never has regretted his decision to have faith in God and is still standing firm even to this day.

Isaiah 7:9 b
"If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all.”

         I began to ponder, what would be a force of change in someone’s life who has never encountered or experienced God in real and tangible manner? I did not come up with any conclusive answers: except for potentially a life or death health issue. For example: change your diet or you will end up destroying yourself. That would be enough of a motivator to change. How many New Year’s resolutions get broken after a few short days or for even for the fanatic a few weeks to months? Is just living a good life with the morals really enough? Wouldn’t that go under the category of monotonous and leave you questioning why am I even doing this anyway (what is the purpose)? To me there just seems like there has to be more to life – because I have had that real life changing experience. I have seen in my life the power of forgiveness and the healing that it truly brings, I have prayed and have had them answered, I have seen in other people the hope and the true change in their lives when they gave their heart to Jesus. Again, I ask what can make a person truly want to change and have the ability to go against the desires of the flesh apart from God? After all, isn’t it human desire to do what’s best for ourselves and not others? What makes the message of the bible so bad? To live an upright moral life by doing for others before yourself – if you were to imagine a group of people like this it would make for a very kind and generous society.

Proverbs 16:6
"Through love and faithfulness sin is atoned for; through the fear of the LORD evil is avoided."

So are we really raving lunatics? Ok so admittedly, there are some… HAHAHA but that is not the majority!!!!!! Honestly, I wish more Christians would live out what they truly believed because this contrast would be more evident. More people would understand the need for Jesus in their lives and the hope / purpose He brings. However, at the end of the day we are all human and imperfect – none are without fault. It’s up to the individual to find the truth for themselves.