The Death of Truth IV: Reduced to Absurdity

Reductio Ad Absurdum     Because Postmodernism as a contrary worldview to Christianity and is adversarial to the Christian, it needs to be exposed for the untenable and illogical worldview that it is before it has the ability to gain a further foothold in the culture. It must be recognized for the contradictory self-defeating belief that it is. Otherwise, through confusion it will continue to be allowed to undermine the Christian faith and the moral fabric of society. It first needs to be recognized for the faith or belief system that it is. A belief system that gives rise to moral relativism and pluralism that causes chaos and confusion because it doesn’t allow for absolute truth. In reality it doesn’t allow for the True God. It is a belief system that is a de facto religion. In the absence of other objective truth claims, Postmodernism comes in and makes and absolute truth claim by insinuating that there can be no absolute or objective truths because all subjective truth claims are valid. This cannot be, as this is a contradiction. Postmodernism is therefore self-negating and the embodiment of duplicity. Yet, for some reason, this has been allowed. I believe this is because (1) people are afraid to go against the status quo (2) most do not recognize postmodernism when they see it and (3) even if they do recognize it, they are not sure what to do about it.

In the end Postmodernism is an example of Reductio Ad Absurdum 

Reductio Ad Absurdum is (in Philosophy / Logic) a method of disproving a proposition by showing that its inevitable consequences would be absurd. Postmodernism is clearly absurd in not only its premise but it untenable outcome.

The key is exposing its inconsistencies or reveal its absurdity. This can be done by showing its basic fundamental conflicting nature. This can be done by education people in basic premises or axioms of logic. Once people are taught that something cannot be true and not true at the same time, we can then compare Postmodernism’s inconsistency of logic, therefore showing it as the invalid or inconsistent belief that it is. We need to show people that it is not valid because of the very fact it contradicts itself and goes against its main tenant of plurality, acceptance and tolerance of other truths when it denies beliefs like Christianity its right to make their truth claims as stated from the Bible. Once this has been done we are well on our way to having people grasp the deception and untruth of Postmodernism. As Christians we can then start anew, and in an unmolested manner explain the truths of the Bible.

Once Postmodernism is recognized and subsequently disregarded, truth as defined from the Bible can then be disseminated. We can begin to recover knowledge in the Christian community itself and society at-large. The truth will be found in the teaching of the objective truths of the Bible (Groothuis 67). The Church having been taught in this knowledge and in these principles will be the physical outworking or manifestation of these truths in society (a nation of priests 1 Peter 2:9). The Church will be the manifestations of the morals and ethics that are Biblical and objective in nature. It will be the unity of the Church or the body of Christ itself that will be the most effective witness to those that are still cut adrift in the culture on a sea of Postmodern ambiguity (Moreland 114; Webber 79). It will become self-evident through this persuasive unity of the body, that unity based in absolute or objective truth from the Bible is possible (Groothuis 67). It will be a church that has been strengthened by objective/absolute truths from God through the Bible (i.e.: Biblical sermons, Biblical teachings, bible reading). This Biblically equipped church will then go out into the culture and society to do the same to the culture, evangelizing and spreading the truths and morality of a perfect God (Webber 195). It will be a church that will show that harmony can be achieved by use of absolute truths from the text (Bible) of an absolute God, with an absolute plan for humanity (Groothuis 61-63). It will be a Christian harmony that finds its source in the Spirit which was sent as a replacement after the departure of Jesus Christ. A departure that took place after Jesus’ work on the Cross was complete. It was that very work that was completed to atone for our sins that we ourselves could not atone for because we were fallen in our sins. In essence, it is the truth of the exclusivity of Gospel within the Bible that acts as the unifying principle that undergirds the Body of Christ. The Gospel is Truth.

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Bibliography

"Aristotle on Non-Contradiction (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)." Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Version 2. Metaphysics Research Lab, CSLI, Stanford University, 27 Feb. 2007. Web. 24 June 2012. <http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aristotle-noncontradiction/>. [A scholarly Philosophy website that explains philosophical premises and elaborates on smaller minutia. Very advanced and at times hard to understand.] Website

Clark, G.H. "Truth." Evangelical Dictionary of Theology. Grand Rapids: Baker Pub Group, 1990. 1113-1114. Print. [A lucid and thorough dictionary of theological terms spanning the entire spectrum of theological thought from modern day to antiquity. Contributors are manifold. Predominately Reformed and evangelical in scope although it does address many non-Reformed topics including those of Catholicism leading me to believe it is quite unbiased in its approach.] Encyclopedia of Theology.

German, T.J. "Scholasticism." Evangelical Dictionary of Theology. Grand Rapids: Baker Pub Group, 1990. 983-984. Print. [A lucid and thorough dictionary of theological terms spanning the entire spectrum of theological thought from modern day to antiquity. Contributors are manifold. Predominately Reformed and evangelical in scope although it does address many non-Reformed topics including those of Catholicism leading me to believe it is quite unbiased in its approach.] Encyclopedia of Theology.

Groothuis, Douglas R. Truth Decay: Defending Christianity Against the Challenges of Postmodernism. Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2000. Print. [A thorough treatment of the conflict between Postmodernism and Christianity from a mostly evangelical point of view.] Single author book.

Moreland, James Porter. Kingdom Triangle: Recover the Christian Mind, Renovate the Soul, Restore the Spirit's Power. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 2007. Print. [A Evangelical/Pentecostal leaning text that relied heavily on the actions of the Holy Spirit when describing attempts of Christianity to take back objective truth in the culture and ‘re-educate’ both people in the church and society of the absolute or objective truth claims of the Bible.] Single author book.

Newport, John P.. The New Age Movement and The Biblical Worldview: Conflict and Dialogue. Grand Rapids, Mich.: W.B. Eerdmans, 1998. Print. [What amounted to a compendium or diversity of thoughts on beliefs, worldviews, and religions. As the New Age is often tied directly to some of the philosophies of eastern religions, this book came in handy when dealing with beliefs including postmodernism that accepts relativism and plurality, which some other religions appear to do also.] Single author book.

Orr-Ewing, Amy. “Postmodern Challenges to The Bible.” Beyond Opinion: Living the Faith That we Defend. Ed. Ravi Zacharias & Danielle DuRant. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2007. Print [Entry-level anthology written to appeal to the layman. It is rather simplified, often painfully so to cater to what appears to marginal Christians or people with poor philosophical background. Regardless, it is still a good coherent read.] Anthology.

Slick, Matt. "The Emerging Church and Postmodernism.” CARM-Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry. Christian Apologetics & Research Ministry, Matthew J. Slick, n.d. Web. 24 June 2012. <http://carm.org/emerging-church-postmodernism>. [An apologetic website written and cited in a scholarly manner. Is often used as a viable resource for other academic papers. Accurate and concise.] Website.

Slick, Matt. "What Is the Law of Excluded Middle." CARM - Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry. Christian Apologetics & Research Ministry, Matthew J. Slick, n.d. Web. 24 June 2012. <http://carm.org/dictionary-law-excluded-middle>. [An apologetic website written and cited in a scholarly manner. Is often used as a viable resource for other academic papers. Accurate and concise.] Website.

“The MacArthur Study Bible-English Standard Version”. Wheaton: Crossway Bibles, 2010. Print.  [Personal preference for single volume study resource. Excellent study notes. Calvinist. Used it because I exceeded the minimum requirements for citation and use of a Bible.] Bible.

Webber, Robert. Ancient-Future Faith: Rethinking Evangelicalism for a Postmodern World. 1999. Reprint. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Books, 2004. Print. [A very comprehensive approach to evangelizing a culture and society that is been thoroughly taken over by postmodernism. Conservative evangelical approach as indicated by the publisher being Baker Books known for their usual conservative theological stance.] Single author book.

Westphal, Merold. "Postmodernism and Religious Reflection." International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 38.1 (1995): 127-143. JSTOR. Web. 24 June 2012. [An extremely difficult technical read. Dense with philosophy driven terminologies.] Journal Article