Postmodernism is a relatively new system of thought in the West, but many of its aspects can be seen in the thousands of years of Hindu and Buddhist thought and philosophy in the East. Briefly stated, Postmodernism is the belief that each individual creates and is responsible for their own reality separate from every other individual’s reality.
While this line of thought has been cultivated for millennia in the East, its introduction and subsequent popularity in the West was helped in large part by advances in Science. As quantum physics became more and more recognized by the scientific community and then by the public, some of its ideas found their way into thought and philosophy. For instance, Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle, which states that while observing certain particles in motion, the observer changes the outcome by measuring it, is applied in popular philosophy by stating that a person can change their destiny by imagining the outcome. In other words: think positive. Einstein’s Law of Relativity, which specifically applies to mathematical calculations regarding the relationship of bodies in space, is applied to life by stating that “Everything is Relative.” And the very debatable theory of Alternate Realities has been adopted into popular thought to state that my reality can differ from your reality.
Let’s look at how Postmodernists view Truth, Knowledge, and Language.
Postmodernists View of Truth
“Truth is relative” is the watchword of the Postmodernist. The Postmodernist view is that each individual is living in their own little bubble universe which is constructed from their beliefs and ideas. This has two effects. First, it means that nothing I believe to be true should have any bearing on you. I can completely respect and live with your views, even when they widely differ from my own, and can simultaneously dismiss any bearing that your views have on me.
Secondly, it means that I can hold two beliefs that contradict one another, and I can live with the contradiction. I can believe, for instance, that Hitler went to Hell for his actions, and at the same time I can believe that there is no Hell. It’s not that the contradiction doesn’t occur to me, it is that it doesn’t matter because truth is whatever I choose to believe is true.
Each person makes their own truths by their beliefs.
Postmodernists View of Knowledge
We live in the information age where facts are cheap. Perhaps as a consequence of this, and as a consequence of their view on truth, Postmodernists have a very low view of knowledge. Or, put another way, facts are divorced from knowledge.
In the Modernist area, if I was in possession of what I believed to be a fact, I knew that thing. In the Postmodern age, if I FEEL that something is true, I know that thing. Knowing something is identical to feeling something. Facts are largely inconsequential.
In the Modernist era, sound argumentation was based on producing facts and then building a logical conclusion based on those facts. In the Postmodern era so many facts are available, that the perception is that any fact you can produce to prove your point, I can produce a fact that seems to contradict yours. This being the case, debates are based largely on who can form the most impassioned argument for their cause while demeaning their opponent’s cause.
Postmodernists View of Language
In the Modernist view, Language was used to encode and convey information. In the Postmodernist view, Language is equated with Art: it may mean one thing to the artist and something different to the observer.
In Modernism, a real attempt was made to preserve the integrity and accuracy of language against such threats as lingual drift and slang. In Postmodernism, lingual drift and slang are celebrated and encouraged.
This is seen in the Postmodern practice of Literary Deconstruction. What a Deconstructionist does is that they take something someone has written, they examine the history and background of the writer, and they try to determine, based on that person’s background, what the person was attempting to say. They will then create their own meaning for the writing as it applies to them based on THEIR feelings.
This is like me telling you, “Sex is wrong outside of marriage.” You take my meaning to be, “Sex is wrong outside of a committed, loving relationship,” and then you apply this to yourself to mean “Sex is the ultimate expression of Love.”
How Postmodernism disagrees with Christianity
Postmodernism has had a profound effect on society as it relates to Christianity. First of all, it has made communication of the Gospel to be nearly impossible. When I tell a person that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life and that no man comes to the Father except through him; they can comfortably say that it is nice that that belief works for me, and go away entirely unaffected by what I have told them. Or, if they do take my message to heart, they can comfortably adopt Christianity without changing any of their previous beliefs or lifestyle. In so doing, they violate the First Commandment. For the Christian, sin and unrighteous living become easy to justify based on what I want to define as righteous living. If my practices don’t meet God’s standards, I simply re-interpret God’s standards to fit my lifestyle.
Finally, and probably most importantly, Christianity is seen as highly offensive to the Postmodern Culture because we make absolute claims to truth. In an age where tolerance has come to mean “absolute acceptance of all beliefs and lifestyles to be equally valid” we draw lines in the sand, see things in terms of black and white, and still believe in “right” and “wrong.” This has led to intellectual and political persecution against the Christian faith, and it is likely going to get worse.
Next, we will examine the proper Biblical worldview as it relates to Truth, Knowledge, and Language.
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