Joe Rogan & Postmodernism
As people, we are drawn to great stories. We love our entertainment, and the Joe Rogan Experience is no exception for his 11 million listeners, drawing controversy surrounding COVID-19 and racial slurs. One need only survey the landscape of mass media to see truth shared through narrative. However, when we cannot agree on that narrative, or rather, the interpretation of those various versions of reality, any concept of truth begins to unravel. In the example of Joe Rogan, everyone has their own version of the truth, and has strong opinions against those who do not agree. Joe Rogan has various guests on his show, and some he may even disagree with. He’s willing to have the conversation, but we are caught in a cancel culture current where if you engage with “the other side,” you need to be stopped. Rogan also received backlash for years of racial slurring which is no small thing, and he has since apologized, but there is no grace for disagreeing with the popular narratives. There is a lack of good faith dialogue and healthy public debate happening, and in the case of Rogan, things got sticky when he wanted to have honest dialogue about vaccines. We are seeing the ripple effect of postmodernism shoot through popular culture. More dishearteningly—through the church in the progressive movement.
“What is postmodernism? It’s basically the rejection of any objective truth. But without truth, there cannot be rationality, since how can one reason through relativism?”
What is postmodernism? It’s basically the rejection of any objective truth. But without truth, there cannot be rationality, since how can one reason through relativism? Beliefs are mutually exclusive when some presuppose definitive truth, others that there is no real truth, and others still that all truth is relative. Without a source of absolute, objective truth to help guide people through questions of origin, meaning, morality, and destiny, postmodernism poses a great danger for humanity, particularly when it comes to morality since, for the postmodernist, there is no worldview to be trusted to rightly explain reality. As a culture, we are moving out of even the postmodernism of the last few decades to a post-truth paradigm where now the self is the arbiter of truth rather than God. In view of the postmodern climate (where there is no truth), it is easy to see how progressive Christanity has come so far from historic Christianity and orthodoxy. And as we move into this post-truth, post-Christian state, Christianity has now become entirely something else, driven by feelings and emotion.
Judges recounts the sordid history of God’s people up to that point and ends with the ominous words of Judges 21:25, a warning for its readers that are ruled by individual preferences and not by a God-ordained authority. If a postmodernist view makes room to change the truth (i.e., definitions and meaning of even the words that construct our understanding of truth), it is reasonable to expect that people will be conditioned to insist on their own ways. Anarchy would arise when no government is looked at to have any authority if its laws are not aligned with one’s own sense of justice. To each her own, even if her way to look at the world does not match with what reason would define as reality.
The nature of truth is such that it is true in all circumstances, absolute, and exclusive, going against a postmodern view where some things could be true in some instances and not necessarily in others. For example, if my truth is that I can help myself to all of your money any time I want, I imagine your truth has some objection to that. If any society were to really lean into this idea of moral relativism, laws would have no meaning for its citizens. This is foolishness of course, as philosophy can reason for a moral law, and where there is a law there is a lawgiver, and Christians know that lawgiver to be God. As Christians we look to God as the source of all truth and meaning. It is by this understanding of truth, as a pre-existing reality, that the Christian can make sense of her world and thus live life knowing there is purpose. For the postmodernist, there can be no real purpose to life if there is no truth to anchor nor guide her.
“As Christians we look to God as the source of all truth and meaning. It is by this understanding of truth, as a pre-existing reality, that the Christian can make sense of her world and thus live life knowing there is purpose. For the postmodernist, there can be no real purpose to life if there is no truth to anchor nor guide her.”
When it comes to purpose, Christian doctrine proclaims God created out of nothing (Gen. 1:1), and as Creator of everything that came into existence, He has a design for it all. In our sanctification, He has designed a progression towards holiness through the trying of our faith and the denying of our flesh. Note that this is not the progressive movement of the church that says we are more enlightened now than when the Bible was written, and therefore can interpret it better today. God is the source of an unchanging, constant truth, and through that lens, Christians understand the world as designed by God for questions of origin, meaning, morality, and destiny. The postmodern perspective has no answer to these questions. The postmodernist wants to make claims of her own about truth, reality, and human purpose. It is no wonder fights about (mis)information happen all over the news and social media, and threats of censorship and canceling continue because of the threat of “your truth” overriding “my truth.” When the Christian can steady herself on the foundation that is Jesus and be made more sure in her faith, the postmodernist can only freefall through an absurdist world where nothing can be truly known, and such uncertainty can only lead to chaos. We’ll be watching what happens next for Joe Rogan, the biggest podcaster on the planet, if he can be made to obey the demands of those who demand censorship. For the Christian apologist, we need to be vigilant because censorship often comes after the unpopular truth, and Jesus said we would be hated by the world because it hates Him.