About five years ago I was watching Barney the Dinosaur on PBS. I know, you must be impressed at my highly intellectualized style of viewing television. Well to defend myself, if you must know, my Mother runs an at home daycare and I was home visiting this particular day. This particular episode brought everyone on the cast together to have a race. Now mind you, the whole time, I was expecting there to be a winner. The episode unfolded as the characters made their racing mobiles and worked really hard to be competitive. Then the race came. Not everyone preformed as well as they wanted to. There was a winner for about 10 seconds. You guessed it, as soon as someone was upset that they didn't win Barney came up with a brilliant idea: EVERYONE CAN BE A WINNER! EVERYONE GETS A MEDAL. Brilliant, right? Well if you want to be politically correct about everything then yes this was brilliant. Well you might say, "not having a winner . . . that's clearly against the purpose of having a race in the first place. That's clearly changing the objective or the aim or the goal of racing." Exactly! Competition is a natural good because it helps people understand where they have strengths and weaknesses. Our natural strengths and weaknesses distinguish people. Some people have different talents than other people. Some people have to work more on different areas of their lives in order to be successful where they are not as strong. However, if everyone is a winner, then the meaning of the word "racing" has lost its meaning. Not everyone can win a race. Period. It's ok to have a first place winner. To add to that, most people would seem to agree that they learn more about themselves when they are defeated rather than in the outcome of a victory in different areas of life. I can personally remember my parents teaching me how to compose myself after a tough loss in athletics. They would not allow me to cry and pout because of the score or the referees. Most people learned how to handle defeat by using the intense of emotions from being defeated to work harder for the next competition.
So maybe you are asking yourself, "What are you trying to get at with all of this racing losing its meaning talk?"
I believe that words are simply losing almost all meaning. Where do we find the definition of words? Well we would have to go to the dictionary to find the definition of any word. I wonder if we even need dictionaries anymore today with the meaning of words changing at a rate quicker than the world has ever seen. It would seem with the rapid rate of redefining of words today, we might as well throw away all of our dictionaries. Does that shock you? Good because if we continue to allow all words to become more and more subjective (opinion orientated) rather than objective (true for all) then we do not need dictionaries. If you want to stand up for objective truth, then I say keep your dictionaries. However, if do not believe in objective truth, then throw them out the window. Just ponder this fact, up until the 1960's the word "gay" used to mean happy. Now in our "ultra enlightened" culture, the word gay has been re-defined as to be attracted to someone of the same sex. How does the meaning of a word change in just 50 years? Or look at the word tolerance. The word tolerance means to disagree with someone, but to tolerate their stance. Tolerance today doesn't even mean what it signifies. Now if you disagree with someone on moral issues you are a bigot or discriminatory. Could someone explain to me how the word tolerance doesn't even mean what it clearly? And I don't have enough time to write about the words love, justice, etc. Well in a relativistic world where definitions of words are completely subjective it makes complete sense. I would say that one reason would be due to relativism running rampant in our culture. Barney is a classic example of relativism in our world today. What is relativism? Apologist Chris Stefanick defines relativism the best.
Chris states that, "Relativism is the philosophy that there is no
objective reality, but that truth is relative to what each person thinks. We’ve
all encountered relativism in statements like, “Jesus is God for me, while
Vishnu is God for someone else,” “You have your truth, and I have mine,” or, in
regard to issues like moral debates, “You can’t impose your morality on
another person.” This “agree never to disagree” philosophy is
considered necessary to guarantee peace, tolerance and equality in a
pluralistic world. Conversely, people who think we can know the truth in moral
or religious issues are considered intolerant, bigoted and maybe even downright
dangerous. "
Please re-read that paragraph a few times. How can any statement be true if there is no truth? To add to that, do words hold any objective meaning anymore in a world full of relativism? Our culture has been under the influence of altering the meaning of words for such a long time that words do not hold the meaning that they used to. There has been a movement for a long time for a need for everything to be equal so truth no longer holds any weight in the conversation. It is very apparent to those who stand up for objective truth that our culture today is slowly trying to remove all differences between any one thing.
So how can a person say anything when words have been re-defined by the relativist culture?
Our world is changing the definition of words all of the time and is thus figuratively throwing away all dictionaries. Does that offend you? We are all too blind to the swiftness of the relativism in our culture. We worry more about offending someone rather than standing up for the truth and for words having boundaries and borders. Can I say that again? We worry more about offending someone rather than standing up for the truth and for words having boundaries and borders. For example, if I change or move the borders of the state of Wisconsin or Texas or Arizona, the states are no longer the same. The states are something new. They are something different. Additionally, when it comes to words, our culture has been changing the boundaries and borders of words for so long now that they don't even have the same meaning as they used to. So, how does this effect the word that is being changed by SCOTUS: Marriage.
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| Dark Path . . . |
This road of redefining words and not believing in objective truth is going to continue to lead us down a dark path. We have a culture that completely changed the meaning of the word marriage and still calls it marriage. We have a culture that wants to change a first principle of marriage being between one man and one woman. How can that be? The borders are different. The definition has changed. It is not marriage. It is something different. It is something new. You don't have to be a Christian or have a Bible or even go to Church to know this truth. In the dictionary, the Holy Bible, and Catholic Catechism, (to name a few sources) just a few weeks ago tall said that marriage is between one man and one woman. Now, since the "law" has changed, the definition has changed? This is a dangerous and slippery path we are going down. Can we even have a conversation with anyone today if words are changing their definition or meaning every time a government makes a new law? I've heard it so many times before when someone says, "It is ok or not a problem because it is a law" or "It's the law so we must abide by it." Well women couldn't vote at one time in our country and a black person wasn't considered fully human at one point, but it was the law.
So where will this lead us if we don't challenge the relativistic view of life?
Now if we accept and believe in our world today that there is an objective truth that words have meanings that can't changed unless new words are invented, then we are called discriminatory or bigots. How does that make any sense? There is not any logic in that. To call the color black grey and the color white black is a lie. Perception is not reality because our perception can be wrong. We have all been wrong before. It's a part of the human experience.
It is a fact that a person cannot live a joyful life without objective truth. The truth gives mankind our aim. If we aim for nothing will we will hit it every time. If truth is completely subjective then we will continue to see more people fall into depression and loneliness. The number of people falling into depression is going up rapidly every year. The human person was made for truth and our hearts will fall into darkness if we continue to lose any sense of objectivity. Can you imagine a world where the truth changes all of the time? I'm sure you can because we live in it.
How can one live in a culture where they believe they have no choice but to walk on a thin line? Well, if all words lose their meaning and no longer have boundaries, then there is no thin line to walk on. There is only a wide path to make all words subjective and to make up our own meaning for words. I'm not kidding. We need to get serious now about the fact that all words are on the verge of losing their meaning. We need to spread the light of truth where darkness is clouding the vision of people around the world.
We have to wake up and challenge the principles of words. There is no more time for joking and playing around with the truth. Our culture has laws that state that believe killing an innocent child in the womb is not illegal because it is a law. Come on now. Let's not make this simply a religious argument, but look at it philosophically, psychologically, and anthropologically. As Blessed Mother Theresa of Calcutta said, "If abortion is not wrong, then nothing is wrong." The relativistic movement is all over the place. Are you starting to see it and smell it? If relativism continues to spread there will not be any room for disagreements. We will not even be able to speak about first principles and objective truth. Some people have already experienced this and we will continue to experience it until we fight for the truth. Well, many people will call me discriminatory and a bigot for even writing this simply based on the stance that I do not agree with someone. I'm willing to take a chance on truth. Are you?
In ending, may I make a proposal or suggestion? I propose/suggest that we fight relativism with the light of truth by showing the beauty of authentic, patient, and merciful love. We must teach the truth of words having borders. Dictionaries are not meant to be thrown away every few years because we refuse to come up with new words. We must stand up for marriage being between one man and one woman. To change it and call it the same thing is removing the border or the definition of the word. That would make it a whole new word. Call it a same sex union, but please don't call it marriage. Truth is truth whether we agree with it or not. I began with talking about Barney and the episode about having a race. We run to win the race. Making everyone a winner changes the definition of the word racing: the object of having a race in the first place. It's going to be just fine to have someone take first place and someone take last. We must stand up against this Barney way of life and call the truth the truth. Sorry Barney. You are wrong.
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Living in the mystery,
Zach Weber
