The Denial of Dogmatism
Postmodernism strongly denies the use of creeds, articles of faith, and any form of dogmatism that is demanded of others. In fact, religion should be whatever an individual makes it to be, like an elixir of instant, feel-good, subjective syncretism.
Even Christianity should permit individuals to take a number of beliefs and collectively bring them together to form a buffet of subjective beliefs; whatever suits your taste at any given moment is your new truth. Such beliefs may change from week to week, for another aspect may be found of greater pleasure for the life and added to the buffet; this all can be freely mixed to make one’s own reality of religion.
Moral Values Are Relative
How would this concept define morality? Postmodernism declares that all moral values are relative. This necessitates that each person develops their own moral values without a concept of God or an objective revelation. An objective revelation would be any form of a religious text that influences a religion.
Man is not to be looking for what is right or wrong. Thus, evangelizing others would be a detriment. Condemning others for what they do would be absurd, in manner and respect for their subjective ways and beliefs. The natives do what they do because they were shaped by their culture, and who are we to tell them it is wrong? They have no responsibility or accountability for being right or wrong.
This is a major tenet of postmodernism, making tolerance one of the pillars of philosophy. Yes, according to postmodernism we must tolerate all manner of living, of beliefs, and of lifestyles. Nothing is to be said in opposition; all are to be accepted, commended, and encouraged.
[Of course, this tolerance is not to be given to those who believe in absolutes and are dogmatic in their beliefs of right and wrong. Yes, such individuals will not be tolerated in a postmodern society.]
Postmodernism is exclusively based on individualism. It is one thing to live in a pluralistic society, but now we are being demanded to accept all religions as equally true and to believe that there is no right or wrong religion and no one road leading to God.
Even the courts are now declaring that it is up to each individual to determine the concept of meaning, of existence, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life. No one religion has a right to declare the exactness of these concepts of God. Any negative statement given against another religion will be viewed as hate speech.
In the third post on postmodernism, we’ll explore the issue of the Subjective Experience of Religious Texts
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