Monday, May 03, 2004
(7:45 PM) | Adam Kotsko:
Say what you will about Evangelical Christianity -- at least it's an ethos!
or, When I hear the word "worldview," I reach for my gun
Guys, let's be serious. Sure, some people probably really are searching for the "good news of a consistent alternative" to our culture's thin diet of relativism. Most of us, however, do not have a worldview and do not want one. We know people with worldviews, and most of the time they're obnoxious and willfully ignorant.
Take, for instance, the Evangelical Christian worldview™. Since science is good, it must be Christian™. Therefore, Christians™ get to take credit for science, which the Christian world only accepted kicking and screaming. And since science is Christian™ at heart, it can't possibly contradict the Christian worldview™ -- thus, "Darwinism" (otherwise known as evolutionary theory) is not real science. Among the primary reasons? Darwin was an atheist! He was "biased" against Christianity™ and sought to undo it! Since we already know in advance that Christianity™ is true, then the ideas that he developed in a futile quest to disprove it are false!
Similarly, since the Christian worldview™ tells us that the world is orderly, we take it to be self-evident that the world is orderly, even though science (which is Christian!™), which ostensibly depends on the assumption that the world behaves according to predictable laws, is now discovering that matter, at the most basic level, does not behave according to predictable laws! It's called quantum physics: ever heard of it? Probably not, since you're so busy feverishly trying to disprove the theories of a man whose theories have been developed and improved for over a century.
And that's just one example. The Conservative worldview™ makes for great mockery as well.
If my bishop ever sends me a Roman Catholic worldview in the mail, I'm labelling it "return to sender" and sending it back. In fact, tepid liberal relativist that I am, I instinctively wish to institute a politically correct speech code: no more worldviews. The word worldview is hereby disallowed, and the possession of a worldview is hereby criminalized. Do not make me make an example of you! And don't go accusing me of setting up a strawman -- if every intellectual tradition is an "ideology" and if relativism always has "nihilistic" consequences, then every Evangelical Christian is as bad as the worst and most obnoxious Evangelical Christian. How's that for equal opportunity?
