Noah (and Michael--welcome!),
I am currently reading a book entitled Living at the Crossroads (Michael Goheen and Craig Bartholomew). These authors discuss the difference between the Christian view of life and a Western/modern-postmodern understanding of life and existence. It is a great whole book summary of some of the conversations in our blog! Super interesting. The book is from a Christian faith point of view. I wonder how a non-Christian or a person with other religious commitments would respond.
Here is how they describe the historic philosophic roots that have influenced today's Western beliefs/skepticism:
First, Western culture believes that the world is secular--This means that the world is "severed from God. Whether or not he exists, he has no continuing relationship with this world."
Second belief--naturalistic--"This world is all there is." Supernatural miracles are false and impossible. Just a figment of religious constructive imagination.
Third belief--rationalistic--"Committed to the belief that human reason will enable humankind to fulfill the daunting role of playing god. The rationalist believes that human reason (particularly when it is guided by the scientific method) is capable of understanding the laws of both the nonhuman creation and human society, giving humans the power to control creation for their own purposes.
Fourth belief--scientific--"Founded on the beliefs that (with the help of the natural sciences and technology) reason can conquer the nonhuman creation, and that (with the help of the social sciences) reason can manage and organize all of human culture, including economics, politics, education, and law."
They summarize their section in the following way:
"The [typical Western person] believes that if we faithfully follow the path of trusting in our reason and in science, we may be assured of progress toward a world of happiness, freedom, material prosperity, truth, and justice" (69).
1) What do you guys think about how they understand/summarize Western society and its beliefs?
2) Do you guys resonate with their summary?
3) What would you add or subtract from their summary?
Wade,
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing some powerful ideas from the book you're reading. Here's how I would answer your questions:
1) What do you guys think about how they understand/summarize Western society and its beliefs?
If anyone in the western culture actually thinks that god "has no continuing relationship with this world" is deeply mistaken. Clearly people still find value in the idea of a all-powerful maker, so much so that they're continuing to teach their children about it. I have considered my viewpoint "secular" in the past, but I know that the idea of god will continue to actively affect our world for years to come.
I have also considered myself "naturalistic". Though I don't know exactly what is beyond our reality, I am far from ruling out the possibility that other worlds exist (though my mind prefers the hypothetical multi-universes of theoretical physicists to the traditional angels and demons worlds of the bible).
I have no problem with their description of "rationalistic" or "scientific" and align pretty well with the described philosophies. Though I would never say that reason can "conquer the nonhuman creation" - besides the arrogant word-choice, there are parts of creation that may avoid our "conquering" indefinitely, or at least until our evolution reaches the point that we are defined as a new species, and thus no longer considered "humans". Haha.
2) Do you guys resonate with their summary?
I resonate with most of their summary, barring my response above.
3) What would you add or subtract from their summary?
Ah, I pretty much already answered this above.
Thanks again for sharing Wade!
-Noah