Worldviews III

Welcome to our next installment of the much anticipated worldviews series. I hope you have all had time to ponder over the things we discussed in the previous two segments, and I hope you take them to heart. Today we will discuss a worldview that is dominant in America today, especially among scientists and philosophers. Of course I am talking about modernism. Let's begin with a little history. During the Enlightenment Era, people began to tire of the constant religious warring between Catholics and protestants (much as we here at Insense are today). This conflict between the two different sects caused many people to believe that if Christianity had so many internal struggles, how could it possibly solve the world's problems? This kind of thinking gave rise to an age of science where materialism ruled.

The first belief that the modern worldview holds is called naturalism. Naturalism basically says that everything in the universe can be explained in terms of physical processes. As a result, modernists tend not to believe in a soul or life after death. They also do not believe in God in the sense that premodernists believe in God.

The second part of modernity holds that there should be a "sacred/secular dichotomy" (as Mr. Rojahn puts it). Sacred is viewed as everything faith and values based. Secular is obviously viewed then as everything "factual" and scientific. Modernists believe that the two should never mix. The premodernists believed that everything should be centered around and contained within God in one's life, whereas the modernists believe that religion should only occupy one small area of one's life...if one so chooses.

Since the modern worldview believes in naturalism, it is only logical that it also states that truth, morals, and meaning in life are grounded in human reason. This is best exemplified in the works of Kant (Deontological Ethics) and Mills (Utilitarianism). As Protagorus said, "Man is the measure of all things."

The fourth point under modernism is positivism. Positivism is the belief that through reason, science, and technology the world can be made a better place for those who live in it. Modernists believe that through secular means, man can be relieved of his misery and suffering and brought into a state of utopia.

Individualism is the last point that the modern worldview emphasizes. Individualism is pretty much an excuse to be self centered. It says "I have rights, I think of the world in terms of me, my happiness, my goals, my desires, etc" (straight from Mr. Rojahn's notes).

There are obvious problems with this worldview. To begin with, it brushes off the existence of God as merely imaginary. It states that truth, morals, and meaning are all based around human reason, but human reason cannot account for truth, morality, and the like. C.S. Lewis writes about this topic extensively in The Abolition of Man and the beginnings of Mere Christianity (we highly recommend both). If there is no God and no ultimate judgment, then what makes an action wrong? Suppose I was on a desert island in the middle of the ocean, why would it be wrong for me to lie or kill someone with me if no one will ever find out? Another problem is encountered in relation to positivism. The world has taken a turn for the worse since modernism came in full force. We have been through two world wars, a nuclear arms race, a present day terrorist situation, the Vietnam war, the Korean war -- all stemming from the belief that the answer lies in science and technology. Advance in technology is what allowed the Nazi army to roll across Europe and raze it to pieces. I am not condemning technology, but technology, science, and reason in exclusion from God can lead, and has led, us down dark paths. Modernism is not the key. It reduces humans to merely graphable data; it says you are nothing more than a few cells clumped together by random chance. The next worldview we will discuss is postmodernism, and that is even scarier than modernism. Check back often for more updates and for Worldviews IV.

~Tribal~