Dr Paul Allen

I can still remember watching an interview years ago where Oprah Winfrey asked Tom Cruise about his controversial religion of Scientology. Cruise’s faith had come under fire due to recent events, and Oprah was pressing him pretty hard about what he really believed.  After a few testy exchanges, Oprah finally got to the nub of the matter: “So Scientologists don’t believe their way is the only way?”  With this one solitary question—which was obviously   the   question—the tone of the interview shifted dramatically. Whatever other things Cruise might believe, surely he couldn’t believe his religion was the only right one. Who could ever have the audacity to believe   that ? Not surprisingly, Cruise alleviated Oprah’s fears: “No. We’re here to help. It’s not like you’ve got to believe this . . . [that] you must believe what I believe.”  After a deep exhale, the interview then continued on with a more gentle, friendly tone.  As I watched this exchange play out, I pondered what might have ha

People embrace relativism. That’s the bad news. You notice the book that went to the top of the charts a decade ago from a professor at Cornell, even though nobody expected it to—The Closing of the American Mind. He said that 95% of students entering college had already embraced relativism, and by the time they graduated from college and had higher education, it was up to 98%. That was the bad news. The good news is that nobody is a relativist—not consistently. You can’t survive as a relativist for twenty-four hours unless you’re in a padded cell somewhere and under twenty-four-hour watch. This is because every time I walk to the street, and a bus is coming down the street, I know there can’t be a bus and not be a bus at the same time in the same relationship. So, all of a sudden, I don’t become a relativist. I become a realist, and I stop instead of stepping in front of the bus unless I’m suicidal. That’s the reality. The other good news (and bad news at the same time) is that

“For you, being so wise, tolerate the foolish gladly. For you tolerate it if anyone enslaves you, anyone devours you, anyone takes advantage of you, anyone exalts himself, anyone hits you in the face.” – 2 Corinthians 11:19–20 – The Corinthians had a tolerance problem. Earlier in the chapter, Paul said something similar. “For if one comes and preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or you receive a different spirit which you have not received or a different gospel which you have not accepted, you bear this beautifully.” They bear with false teaching. They tolerate the intolerable. A Redefinition of Tolerance In the last 10 to 15 years, the worldview of postmodernism has come to dominate the collective intellectual consciousness of western society. And perhaps the pinnacle virtue of postmodernism is tolerance. Now, contemporary postmodern tolerance is not what English-speaking peoples have always understood the word tolerance to mean . A person was judged to be tolerant if,

The nineteenth-century philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche is famous for his declaration that “God is dead.” That brief dictum does not give the whole story. According to Nietzsche, the cause of the Deity’s demise was compassion. He said, “God is dead; He died of pity.” But before the God who was the God of Judeo-Christianity perished, Nietzsche said that there were a multitude of deities who existed, such as those who resided on Mount Olympus. That is, at one time there was a plurality of gods. All of the rest of the gods perished when one day the Jewish God, Yahweh, stood up in their assembly and said, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” Hearing this, according to Nietzsche’s satirical summary, all of the rest of the gods and goddesses died. They died of laughter. In our day, where pluralism reigns in the culture, there is as much satirical hostility to the idea of one God as there was in Nietzsche’s satire. But today, that repugnance to monotheism is not a laughing matter. In

The validity of a worldview , follow it to its logical conclusion . The logical conclusion of relativism is absurdity. Nonsense. A worldview that undermines its own premises. Allan Bloom wrote his famous book, The Closing of the American Mind : How Higher Education Has Failed Democracy and Impoverished the Souls of Today’s Students. (There’s a subtitle for you!). Bloom wrote that “almost every student entering the university believes, or says he believes, that truth is relative. If this belief is put to the test ... they will be uncomprehending. That anyone should regard the proposition as not self-evident astonishes them, as though he were calling into question 2 + 2 = 4.” Bloom then tells the story of his students’ response to the Hindu custom known as sati: burning a widow alive on her husband’s funeral pyre . The British, of course, banned the custom, and sharply reminded the Hindu priests that the British had a different custom: hanging men who burned women alive. How did

Cover via Amazon It’s all relative .” “That’s true for you but not for me.” “That’s just your reality.” “Who are you to impose your values on others?” The relativist believes truth functions more like opinion or perspective and that truth depends upon your culture, context, or even personal choices. Thus evil actions by Nazis or terrorists are explained away (“We don’t like it, but they have their reasons”). Relativism , however, is seriously flawed. Relativism cannot escape proclaiming a truth that corresponds to reality. “The moon is made of cheese” is false because it does not match up with the way things are, with what is the case. As Christians, we claim the biblical story is true because it conforms to the actualities of God’s existence and His dealings with human beings. Truth is a relationship—a match-up with what is real or actual. An idea is false when it does not.  But what of those making such claims as “ Reality is like a wet lump of clay—we can shape it any way

Planet earth is fast becoming a "no-truth zone." Relativism is the death of " true truth ," the "extinction of the idea that any particular thing can be known for sure." The denial of absolute truth also has serious implications for Christianity. Today's denial of absolute truth leads to statements such as these:  -All religions lead to God. -All religions teach basically the same thing.  -Jesus is one of many great spiritual leaders.  -No such thing as ultimate truth exists.  -All beliefs are equally valid. Have you ever heard people make statements like these? "We all have our own truths..." "There is no moral right or wrong. Beliefs about truth and morality are based on personal situations, cultural bias, or on one's religious upbringing..." Sadly, even some Christians believe these statements, like the young lady at the bank who told me, "We all have our own truths." This relativistic spirit pres

Image via Wikipedia This is essentially asking if there is a transcendent ethical standard that exists beyond the individual and if so, can we all know it. Our culture is deeply divided over such a question, though we never really ask it out loud, for to do so would expose our deep relativism and the folly of such thinking. Relativism supposes that there is no such thing as absolute truth and therefore no such thing as an absolute moral code .  Theoretically, every individual’s ethical standards are valid and unassailable as long as they remain personal. From the outside, we view each other’s moral standards as “ preferences ” for they do not apply beyond the self, nor can they. Now to the astute, the above description is immediately recognized as logically false for it expresses within itself an absolute ethical code . That is, it declares that it is “absolutely wrong” for you to impose your ethical standard on anyone outside of your own preferential boundary.