Straw man?

A point that Rick Rodicker makes in his tape series “The Self Under Siege” is that post-modernists (whatever that means) are often criticized / mocked / demonized for the position that all beliefs are relative; that is, no one belief is better than any other. He says that this position of pure relativism is not held by any post-modernist of repute, and never ever was. It is a straw man argument. Of course some beliefs are better than others; indeed, our society could not function in a pure morally and ethically relativistic environment.

But I think that that is a straw man position. I mean, do conservatives / traditionalists / whatever-the-groups-that-are-antithetical-to-postmodernism-are-called really say their opponents hold that all beliefs are equal? In extreme cases, perhaps, but I think that is the rare and unintelligent response to post-modernism. In nine out of ten cases, and ninety-nine and forty-four hundredths of intelligent criticism, the problem conservatives / traditionalists / whatever have is that some beliefs are no better than others.

For example, consider this personal observation. I come from a Catholic Christian background – raised and educated as a Catholic, and deeply interested in Catholic theology, morality, and philosophy. Before the twentieth century, it would be quite normal and expected to hold that there is no salvation outside the Catholic Church. Therefore, the beliefs enumerated by the Catholic faith were the only correct ones for mankind. In the twentieth century, and particularly after the decade of the 60s, this is no longer the case. It is offered that there can be salvation among any of numerous faiths. (In the strictest sense, the Church does believe a narrow form of this, but that’s not the subject of this post.) Why not renounce your Catholicism and become a Buddhist? A New-Ager? An Atheist?

That’s the problem with post-modernism, in my humble and under-informed opinion. I believe man is created to seek Truth, capital-T, and Truth is a singular noun. Post-modernism offers a smorgasbord of belief systems, with little guidance other than appeals to feeling, and that is ultimately dissatisfying.