Quest For Certainty

At the same conference where Frog Orr-Ewing talked about tree rings, his wife Amy spoke about the wider Western culture that she encounters in her work as an apologist and evangelist. She shared her sense that the relative truth perspective of post modern thought (the idea that there is no governing truth and everyone has their own truth and there is no way to judge between them) is being replaced by something that is a reaction to that perspective. She maintains that people are created to live by truth and therefore the post-modern view of truth is ultimately bankrupt when it comes to people trying to find meaning in their lives. That is playing out in our culture and what she sees more than anything is a craving for certainty.

She told of encounters with many people who were listening to Jordan Peterson and when she asked them what they liked about him, the most common response is that they loved his certainty. Out of the postmodern claim that no one is able to determine that they have the truth has emerged a desire for the opposite, a certainty that you do know the truth. Amy Orr-Ewing was presenting this observation as an opportunity to promote the gospel as the truth. She was encouraging the church to not be wishy washy in its claims to gospel truth in a misguided attempt to speak to a postmodern culture. Instead we need to be bold with the claims of gospel truth to a culture that is seeking certainty and is drawn to people who appear to have it.

This caught my attention, but as I was listening, there were some alarm bells going off inside of me, along with head nods of agreement. I had the sense that this quest for certainty should not be celebrated too much as a positive development for the gospel and society. There is a dark side to the quest for certainty, and I think we are seeing that play out as well.

Consider some thoughts as to why postmodern views of truth were attractive to people. In an increasingly multi cultural world, people with different views of truth are encountering one another and needing to live together. What is going to happen when these different values and views of truth start to clash? There is going to be conflict and fighting over who is right and how people ought to live. Into this setting, the idea that all truth is relative allows for people to have different views of truth, but not be in conflict. Since everyone's view of truth is valid for them, everyone can live and let live.

So what happens when a craving for certainty emerges from this ultimately bankrupt approach? Do we just end up in a society that is full of conflict and clashes over differing views of truth? I wonder if we are doomed within a multi-cultural society to see this pendulum swing back and forth between postmodern thought and a quest for certainty. Next week I want to look at the dark side of a quest for certainty and how that plays out in a culture.