Are you absolutely sure about that . . .

This sentence has no meaning.  Wait a second . . . What?  Oh my, I'm really confused now . . . Does that mean that it means nothing?  Oh wait, it has no meaning so it can't mean that it means nothing.  That's not helping . . .

I'm sure you're as confused reading that as I was writing that.  You know, because I'm currently attending a secular college I have run into many professors who believe that.  Postmodernism is a very popular school of thought today.  It sounds nice--you're right, I'm right, we're all right!  But, how can completely opposing viewpoints be true?  There's no way that all of the conflicting viewpoints in our world today can be true.  As much as postmodernists will argue with you, there are several major logical fallacies in their belief system that you should point out to them.

They will say that there is no absolute truth.  OK, are you absolutely sure?  Is that absolutely true?  That statement is self-contradicting.  Some will say that there is no absolute truth except for the truth that there is no other absolute truth.  Yeah, that doesn't make any sense either.  Every time I have told a postmodernist that "there is no universal, absolute truth" is a universal, absolute truth claim, I have never received an satisfactory answer.  I know that there are postmodernists who will argue further, but I have not encountered any as of yet.  Hopefully I will someday . . .

Also, they claim that you cannot apply your personal moral views to anyone else.  Isn't that your personal moral view?  Are you pushing your morality on me now?  It's again very contradictory.

I can't think of any professor that I've had that hasn't been postmodern to a degree.  One professor I had last semester started a discussion about some war in Israel and it soon turned into a debate over the existence of absolute truth.  When I said that the statement "there is no absolute truth" was self-contradicting, the professor just got all flustered and rephrased the exact same statement using "big words."  The funny thing is, he never gave me a satisfactory answer either.  I've had professors completely ignore me if they didn't want to respond to me.

Still in high-school, I took some PSEO classes and again I had a postmodern teacher . . . and a very hostile postmodern class.  The teacher though, was actually really nice and would respond very politely during any philosophical discussion (we would talk philosophy during lunch break).  Near the end of the semester I finally said something that he couldn't respond to (I'm still praying).  I said, "you know, in the end we're all going to die.  But, if you're right that there is no absolute truth, and I'm wrong, then no big deal--we're both ok.  But, if we die and I'm right and you're wrong . . . you're in BIG trouble."  The teacher said it gave him a lot to think about.

Have you had any interesting experiences with postmodern professors or classmates?

Stand up for your faith and never surrender!