What's All This Then?

It’s happening again. London is finding more bombs in its underground. There are guys (and girls) getting shipped to Afghanistan and Iraq to fight battles that are ultimately unwinnable. Really. I mean, how do you win? It’s not like a traditional war were you capture the opponent’s main fortress and take out the commander and the enemy is left with no recourse but to surrender. There’s no main fortress here. There’s no clear objective, even. We can’t even hope everyone comes to their senses; there’s enough hatred to keep the fight going indefinitely.

We live in a relativistic society that is being bombarded by the one thing relativism hates most: clear absolutes. Postmodern philosophy is everywhere. It’s no longer considered “politically correct” to judge anything, or to state that there is one correct view of anything. Whatever an individual feels is right for them to do, it’s cool; no one else has the right to argue with them.

If you want to worship a personal god and I believe in a non-personal force, well it doesn’t matter. They’re just different facets of the same truth. Even though they contradict each other on almost every conceivable level.

I once had a conversation with a friend who insisted that all religions were basically the same message; “just opposite sides of the same coin”.

Which side of the coin are the terrorists on?

According to our society, the terrorists are simply following what they believe and we have no right to judge them for it. If they believe that taking out as many people as possible while committing suicide is the best way to get glory in Heaven, what right do you or I have to say they’re wrong? All paths lead up the same mountain, right? It’s just the opposite side of the same coin, right?

I don’t think so. I don’t see how any reasonable person could look at what is happening and claim that it’s okay. There are some things that are just…wrong. Whether people want to admit it or not. There is such a thing as absolute truth.

Look at the world’s major religions. No, not even the religions; look at the world’s major world-views. They can’t possibly all be true. There is no way that anyone who studies them even a tiny little bit could come away with the impression that they all lead to basically the same place.

Let’s start with the obvious: atheism versus any religion that claims there is a god or god-like force. Clearly these two views cannot both be right at the same time. They are utter contradictions. You can say “Well, if I believe it, it’s true for me.” all you want – that doesn’t make it true.

Just because you claim to believe in something does not make it true. I wish it did – that would be way cool. Here’s a test for you: believe with all your might that you have a billion dollars in your hand. Unless you’re Bill Gates, all the belief in the world isn’t going to produce that money.

Belief does not create reality.

Next step: Eastern religious beliefs versus the whole Judeo-Christian-Islam-etc group. Buddhism and Hinduism believe that God is an impersonal force and, further, that our goal is to one day lose our individuality and join that force. The other group believes in a personal god, although they vary in multiple different ways as to the nature of the human dilemma and the way out of it.

These thought processes aren’t different paths up the same mountain; they’re on completely different mountains. If God exists, he is either personal or impersonal. He can’t be both. This is another clear-cut contradiction.

I’m out of time so I’ll have to continue this another day. But don’t be lazy when it comes to figuring out what’s going on in the world. And in the end, that’s all relativism is: a lazy way out of really looking at the real issues.