What Is Happening?
Have you seen what is happening in our culture today? It’s hard not to notice it when you watch the news, go online or maybe talk to co-workers in your office. It seems that we have moved beyond truth and into this new world of subjective reasoning triggered by emotions and feelings.
What was true is now false.
Facts are now subjective.
Reason is now meaningless.
We see this way of life seeping into every part of today’s culture, as we become more and more post-modern every single day in North America.
What is post-modernism? Basically, post-modernism is where everyone has their own view of truth and reality. Although you can read books and articles about this topic and only scratch the surface, post-modernism challenges truth from the pre-modern world centered around God and challenges the modern world view centered around rationalism, logic and science. When you get to the bottom of it all, post-modern’s backbone is that there is no truth.
When you get to the bottom of it all, post-modern’s backbone is that there is no truth.
Our Social Dilemma
I was recently watching a documentary on Netflix that looked at social media and what it has done to our society. They explain that artificial intelligence can understand what we read and what we want to see that lines up with our world view and validates our personal feelings.
For example, they say that social media artificial intelligence understands your political view based on articles you read, videos you watch, and posts you like. From there, it will target specific political articles and videos to pop up on your social media, giving you the impression that the culture and world around you agree with your view of the truth.
Even more interesting was the documentary discussed “fake news.” They said artificial intelligence has no way to detect whether something is true. Yet, this platform shapes our world more than anything right now. A platform that doesn’t know what truth is.
That’s extremely scary. Especially when you begin to understand how aggressively this pushes the post-modern agenda into every part of our life. With an estimated 3.4 billion social media users, it’s no wonder why the world is going down this road.
With an estimated 3.4 billion social media users, it’s no wonder why the world is going down this road.
I’m not saying social media is the only reason why we’re post-modern. In fact, some experts would suggest the post-modern world view was birthed out of the Woodstock movement in the ’60s, which is now on display in full. However, social media has provided everyone with a platform to share their “truth” that can be spread worldwide in an instant, which furthers this post-modern world.
For myself, as a speaker on the front lines in the world of ministry, I can understand why people don’t want to go to church and why they see no need for God. In their view, who is the church to tell us what is true? That was the pre-modern way of thinking, was wrapped up in a negative stereotype of consequences, conviction and guilt. Post-modernism ultimately removes any sort of moral compass. It’s killing the truth and steering people around Christianity in the process.
Post-modernism ultimately removes any sort of moral compass. It’s killing the truth and steering people around Christianity in the process.
The Good News
The good news is that Jesus said he is the truth, and people are still discovering him. I am convinced every person is searching for what’s true – which can only be found in Christ. This is why I believe Christians need to not only stand firm in the truth in today’s post-modern culture but also have sensitivity towards our culture, which might not know what truth is.
As our culture goes down this road, my hope and prayer is that we, as men, can help them see the truth when they discover the reality of the road they are traveling down.
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