Pluralism and truth (Bulldog for August)

Until recently, the plural elements in our society were, to some extent, glued together by a humanist metanarrative.

That is, the average British citizen shared certain humanistic assumptions with his neighbour, including the assumption that people have certain rights to freedom of expression, but also the responsibility not to harm other people.

It was also believed that life came about by chance and, therefore, people assumed that the material or physical order was more real than any spiritual realm (if such existed at all). All other belief-systems were evaluated in the light of such assumptions.

So while there were people with many diverse opinions and lifestyles, most of them had these underlying assumptions which formed a cultural matrix into which all other belief-systems were slotted.

The problem for today is that the processes set in motion by this humanistic pluralism have now moved so far that they are serving to eradicate the pluralism itself. The elements of this pluralism are now breaking free of the humanistic matrix and competing with one another for first place. This development is often referred to as 'post-modernism'. In essence there is now a paradigm vacuum accompanied by a bereavement process which laments the loss of a worldview. Even the popular 'Indie' music which dominates the British hit parade demonstrates this.

Herein lies the challenge. What will fill the vacuum? What will take the place of the metanarrative? There are a number of rival philosophies currently bidding for pride of place. Each of these in its own way claims to bring harmony into the present cultural disarray.

The main rivals are the New Age, Roman Catholicism and Islam, all of which combine truth and error in varying proportions. Yet each claims to provide a valid interpretation of the present diversity of experience and beliefs, and so are making their bids to replace humanism as the consensus view.

While this is going on, Christians stand on the sidelines, looking on helplessly, trendwatching and prognosticating. Yet the biblical worldview ought to be the chief contender in the provision of such an interpretative framework.

The main challenge for Christians is to move the biblical worldview centre-stage so that it will be seen as eminently qualified to be the up-and-coming post-modern metanarrative. This is the vision of Christian thinkers like Francis Schaeffer and John Peck.

What hinders?

Instead of being the chief contender, the biblical worldview is practically marginalised and reduced merely to one among many constituents of the pluralistic mishmash.

Why are Christians so helpless? Why is the biblical worldview marginalised today? There is a single, simple explanation for this inertia. It is the disagreement over the biblical doctrine of creation.

Even now, not one morsel of genuine, scientific evidence contradicts the plainest interpretation of the biblical accounts of creation. And eventually scientific evidence will be seen to agree with those accounts against all the alternatives, whether raw Darwinism or so-called 'theistic evolution'. But before this happens, the devil may well have shifted his attack to some other area of concern.

Christians should even now accept the plain teaching of the written Word of God, instead of compromising with the defective interpretations of the evidence made by scientists with an anti-Christian agenda. There is no need to sit and wait for external evidence to 'confirm' the Word of God.

If Christians would move ahead on the basis of the plain teaching of Scripture, there would be little difficulty in setting forth the biblical worldview. Even at this moment the biblical worldview should be informing our understanding of the world around us and providing us with our root paradigms. It is not for outsiders to tell us how we ought to see the biblical revelation.

But as long as Christians water down and compromise the biblical teaching on creation, they shoot themselves in the foot and actually do Satan's work by undermining their own foundation.

Christians are so concerned with intellectual responsibility that they are ashamed to declare their belief in creation publicly. It is essential for Christians to leave attacks on creation to the enemies of the faith. We should not do their work for them.

Pluralism and truth (Bulldog for August)

What hinders?

Mike Taylor

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