Discussion of Scientific Postmodernism

      Many people are confused about
"postmodernism." Does this term mean
postmodern art? Postmodern art is a
successor of modern art, so does this
term mean a successor to some other
modern movement? "Modern" often means
contemporary, so does this term mean
something that is post-contemporary,
presuming that such an idea even makes
sense?
      Many Christians are sure about
"postmodernism." During the 1970s, and
under increasing concerns about moral
relativism, Christian apologetics
shifted its emphasis from fulfilled pro-
phecy to having a "Christian worldview."
This worldview was singular and there-
fore incompatible with and opposed to
other worldviews, especially any deemed
to be relativistic. Postmodernism had
recently become popular, yet was still
confusing to many, and immediately
became the target of Christian apolo-
getics.
      In their haste to demonize post-
modernism as a form of relativism, some
Christians conflate postmodernism with
existentialism because they don't
understand that these two philosophies,
along with the third philosophy of
structuralism, all emerged together as
distinct philosophies in French
intellectual circles in the 1960s. Some
Christians then conflate existentialism
with nihilism, which means that they
conflate postmodernism with nihilism.
By doing this, they tarnish postmod-
Ernest with the relativism of existen-
tialism and structuralism.
      Unlike prophecy, "worldview" is a
problematic concept on which to base the
field of Christian apologetics. I share
the reservations expressed by Donald G.
Bloesch in his Systematic Theology and
the reservations of critics of James W.
Sire that he acknowledged in the preface
to the second edition of his book
The Universe Next Door: A Basic
Worldview Catalog.
      Postmodernism is a philosophy--a
philosophy of history. According to this
philosophy, three successive
periods--premodern, modern, and post-
modern--each of which is distinguished
by its unique zeitgeist (spirit of the
age), comprises all of history, and
humankind is now in the third and final,
postmodern, period. A premodern thesis,
modern antithesis, and postmodern
synthesis are the unique sources of
these unique zeitgeists. The zeitgeist
concept and the dialectic concept of
thesis-antithesis-synthesis both come
from Georg W. F. Hegel. I call this
understanding "Zeitgeist Postmodernism."
It is the foundation on which Scientific
Postmodernism is built.
      Upon first encountering it, the
term "Scientific Postmodernism" might be
confusing since it was prior to the
postmodern period (during the modern
era) when the scientific method was
discovered and first put to use. I take
the term "Scientific" from the phrase
"queen of the sciences," where
"sciences" mean "fields of knowledge."
According to the original monotheism
hypothesis, religion was the queen of
the sciences and there was an ideational
emphasis as opposed to sensate emphasis
at the dawn of the premodern age. The
Copernican Revolution, dateable to
Copernicus's publication of On the
Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres
in 1543, made mathematics queen of the
sciences and brought about a senate
emphasis at the dawn of the modern age.
A foundational crisis in mathematics of
similar magnitude, dateable to Kurt
Godel's publication of his incomplete-
ness theorems in 1931 and 1932, deposed
queen mathematics and restored religion
and similarly overthrew the senate
emphasis and restored an ideational
emphasis at the dawn of the postmodern
age. The concept of alternating idea-
tional and senate periods comes from
Pitirim Sorokin. I call this enhanced
understanding of Zeitgeist Postmodernism
"Scientific Postmodernism."

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