Modernism Opposes Truth

Modernism is the belief that objective truth cannot be known because all truth is

• filtered through our perceptions
• filtered through our biases
• distorted by societal influences and authorities (who don’t know objective truth any better than anyone else)

As a result of these interferences in our perception of truth, nobody can claim to have a corner on what is actually true. The best we can do is to say that something is “true for me” or “true according to my experience.”

Experience is King

The focus of modernism therefore is not on objective truth (which exists but can never be known), but on personal experience. The human person is defined by the sum of his or her experiences. Included in this focus on experience is a focus on emotional responses to our experiences.

This focus on emotion and experience is readily found in our culture. Notice for example how common it is to say “I feel that this is true” rather than “I think . . .” or “I know . . .” The premium placed on experience in our educational philosophies is another example of how modernism has influenced our culture.

Rejection of Universals

One of the main tenets of modernism is the rejection of any claim that something “should” be a certain way. Universal concepts that apply to everyone simply don’t exist. Worse yet, they are usually an attempt of a tyrannical authority to control the populace. So, in the modernist mind, there is no such thing as

• human nature
• maleness or femaleness
• universal moral principles
• virtue
• good or evil or sin

Tolerance: the Modernist Virtue

Morality for the most part is therefore reduced to “values,” what is important to each individual person according to his or her experience and emotional valuation. Modernism brooks only one universal concept or “virtue.”

Since nobody can claim to actually know objective truth, there is no measure to determine whose experiences and perceptions are closer to the truth. Therefore, one person’s perception of truth is just as good as anybody else’s. Therefore nobody has the power or the right to judge anyone else’s experiences or perceptions of reality.

To be judgmental is to commit the only sin the modernist philosophy will acknowledge. The only virtue it acknowledges is tolerance. Tolerance means specifically the tolerance of other people’s perceptions of the truth. It has as its foundation the premise that all claims to truth are equally valid because all are equally unverifiable.

Postmodernism: from the Weird to the Bizarre

In a world only believable by academics, modernism is brought to its “logical” conclusions through postmodernism. Postmodernism is actually the belief that there is no such thing as objective reality. Whereas modernism believes that objective reality exists, but cannot be known, postmodernism believes that all of what we call “reality” is a matter of perception. Even the “self” is nothing more than a perceived construct with no objective basis. If you ask a postmodernist, “OK, if the self doesn’t exists, then who is doing the perceiving?” a postmodernist will just smile at you in a self-satisfactory way and say, “Exactly.”

In our Culture

Modernism has a stronghold in our culture. Everywhere you turn you hear the credo “don’t judge others.” Tolerance is highly valued in our society today. Modernism has entrenched itself into our culture and into our politics.

• The “pro-choice” movement is based on a woman’s right to choose for herself whether or not her baby is a human person.
• The homosexual rights movement is based on the rejection of societal norms, and even of definitions of male and female.
• Privacy rights have become an obsession to the point of paranoia.
• Any attempt to discuss the morality of certain actions results in an accusation of being “judgmental.”
• Religion is branded as the enemy because it stands for belief in objective truth and universal norms.

While postmodernism is just too ridiculous to catch on outside the world of academia, modernism has infiltrated our culture and even our churches.