• Ethics,  Postmodernism,  Relativism,  Sarcasm

    Not a Victim

    This was Politico’s attempt to explain one man’s evil deed: “He fell victim to an increasingly common, sometimes overwhelming, temptation that the online world offers up to exhibitionists.” When in doubt, Politico informs us, blame the internet and some kind of personal identity. The identity in question is ‘exhibitionist’; that’s just what he is. It’s not something he does that is wrong, but an immutable part of his personal identity. And if you give someone who has that kind of identity a twitter account, then the inevitable follows and who can blame him? If anything is to blame it is the ‘online world’, a kind of playground for his type.…

  • Education,  Epistemology,  History,  Mark Noll,  Relativism

    Christian Relativism Anyone?

    After an accumulation of facts, meticulously researched in the most objective way possible, a researcher has the task of presenting the facts in a coherent way. The question is: can he do this without imposing his own political ideology, psychological leanings or scientific paradigm? Historian, Mark Noll, suggests that there are three attitudes available in response to the question. The scientistic attitude requires a scrupulous attention to method. If we get the method right the rest will follow. This attitude is held by positivist scientists and requires the adoption of a verificationist methodology modeled on an “empirical conception of the physical sciences.” The ideological attitude suggests that “historical writing exists…