Haase_UZ_x007E_DTh (2).pdf - South African Theological Seminary

why do they continue to write books and talk
about it. They are obviously making some
claims -- and if not, then they literally have
nothing to say and no objection to [the
rational] employment of the classical canons
of logic (Craig, 1995:82).
In the postmodern cultural climate, the strong differentiation between moral thesis and
antithesis are unacceptable. Take for example the controversy surrounding
homosexuality, the ordination of [practicing] homosexuals, and same-sex marriage. The
disestablishment of Christianity, coupled with postmodern relativism and pluralism, has
made for a society in which personal choices are more important than truth -- following
Rorty’s contentions. So-called Christian truths are no longer widely accepted in ‘free’
Western societies. Even in many churches, biblical imperatives and dogmas are less
important and acceptable than personal choice and tolerance. The biblical concept of
‘love’ has been elevated far above the biblical concept of ‘truth.’ Even Muslims cannot
understand what is happening in Western societies. Again, M. A. Muqtedar Khan:
Suddenly perversion is an alternate lifestyle.
God-consciousness for long understood as
enlightenment is now bigotry and an indicator
of social under-development. There is no
absolute truth only contingent truths.
Morality are conventions that work and justice
is an option that enjoys political support. The
self is no more the mystical domain where the
spiritual and mundane merge. Life is no more
the discovery and the perfection of that self.
Today self is something you buy off a shelf
(Khan, 2000).
Another epistemological and cultural trait of postmodernity is that there is little or no
difference between the natural and artificial experience, between substantiated knowledge
and unsubstantiated perceptions of reality and truth. This notion of ‘de-realization’ can
be traced back to Kierkegaard, Marx, and Nietzsche. The abstract phantom, what
Kierkegaard called ‘the public,’ is the creation of the press, which is the medium by and
through which reality is created for the masses. Nietzsche later talks about the dissolution
of the distinction between the ‘real’ and the ‘apparent’ world (Nietzsche, 1954:485),
arguing that the real world has been done away with, leaving only something in between,
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University of Zululand, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa