Thoughts on Modernism vs. Post-Modernism

Dear Friends,

We now live in the height of the “postmodern era,” an age of relativism, personal subjectivism, and a denial of absolute truth and morality extending from the 1960’s to the present day]. Most born after 1970 would generally embrace this type of thinking, or at least a far larger degree of its propositions than those born before 1970. Generally accepted use of the term “postmodern” to describe this era came about in the 1990’s.

The “modernist era” which “postmodernism” gradually replaced, went from approx. 1500-1950 A.D., was an age that pursued objective truth, affirmed common sense (i.e.: “a commonly held societal agreement about things that should be accepted as true”) and held to certain moral absolutes. (Pardon my oversimplification which can’t be helped in a two paragraph summary!)

As one born toward the end of the modernist era, and witnessing the transition into postmodernism, I thought I would offer you some thoughts on the danger of abolishing all absolutes and the pursuit of objective truth. I do not glorify the modernist era as it obviously had its flaws and faults, but oftentimes societal pendulum swings swing too far in the opposite direction. So, as a counterbalance, I offer you some wise thoughts on the dangers of doing away with all absolutes. I would be interested to see which of these 20 thoughts you find helpful or would object to. Enjoy.

“Once we concede the assumption that it is the citizens of any country who arbitrarily determine what is right and wrong, we have cut ourselves adrift in a sea of relativism.” Jim Peterson

“If there is no God, the labels “good” and “evil” are merely opinions.”
Dennis Prager

“If nature is the only thing in existence, then of course there can be no other source for our standards. They must, like everything else, be the unintended and meaningless outcome of blind forces… [And] If our standards are derived from this meaningless universe, they must be as meaningless as it.”
C. S. Lewis

“When you start with some version of the assertion, “There is no truth,” you have disqualified yourself from offering a second assertion.”
Daniel Taylor

“If there are no moral absolutes, there is no reason to have a principle of tolerance. From a relativistic point of view there is no more reason to be tolerant than intolerant, since neither stance is objectively any better than the other.”
Louis Pojman

“I want to raise a generation of young people who are devoid of conscience, imperious, relentless, and cruel.”
Adolph Hitler

(If morality is subjective, and there are no absolutes, then all opinions are of equal value, and thus who are you and I to judge Hitler?It is his opinion against mine, or yours, or anyone else’s, and who’s to say one is right and another’s is wrong?)

“When truth dies, so do ethics.”
Greg Koukl

“If my moral code is the only one I need to follow (rather than God’s), I get to do whatever I want – and so does everyone else.”

“A writer who says that there are no truths, or that all truth is “merely relative,” is asking you not to believe him. So, don't.”
Roger Scruton

“If nothing is certainly right, then of course it follows that nothing is certainly wrong.”
C. S. Lewis

“Subjectivism is the disease that will certainly end our species (and in my view, damn our souls) if it is not crushed; the fatal superstition that men can create values, or a community can choose its “ideology” as men choose their clothes.”
C. S. Lewis

“The golden rule [of relativism] is that there is no golden rule.”
George Bernard Shaw

“God’s character IS the moral absolute of the universe.”
Francis Schaeffer

“The individual may determine that he is the measure of what he will do, the idea being that the only judge of your action is your decision to do it. This places the Salvation Army girl, the sodomite, the American Legion conventioneer, the drug pusher, Hitler, and Stalin on an exact par: each of them is doing his own thing.” Thomas Howard

“When anything goes, then everything is allowed, nothing is sacred, nothing venerable, nothing worth much respect.”
Henri Nouwen

“The most dangerous man in the world is the contemplative who is guided by nobody. He trusts his own visions. He obeys the attraction of an interior voice but will not listen to other men. He identifies the will of God with anything that makes him feel, within his own heart, a big, warm, sweet interior glow... such a man can wreck a whole city, or even a nation.”
Thomas Merton

“If there is no God, there is no truth, and all we are left with are personal arbitrary preferences in a meaningless world where there are no consequences for any of our choices or actions. If there is no God, life becomes valueless, slaughter becomes no less virtuous than love, and evil is no worse than good. In fact, such comparisons and questions become useless and we are back to the law of the jungle.”

“We are moving towards a dictatorship of relativism which does not recognize anything as certain and which has as its highest goal one’s own ego and one’s own desires.” Pope Benedict XVI

“Whenever a relativist says, “You should not force your morality on other people,” I always ask, “Why not?” What will he be able to say? He certainly can’t respond by saying “It’s wrong?” That option is no longer open to him… A person can wax eloquent with you in a discussion on moral relativism, but he will complain if someone cuts in front of him in line.”
Greg Koukl

“Right is right though all condemn; wrong is wrong, though all approve.”
C. H. Spurgeon

Some things considered “absolutes” in the past most definitely needed to be discarded as the purely cultural constructs that they were. But in ridding ourselves of them all, have we not discarded the basis of all truly meaningful dialogue and thrown away one of the major components God established in the restraint of human sin and evil?

Your thoughts? Pastor Jeff