The Intolerance of Tolerance, Don Carson

A very interesting and insightful lecture by Don Carson on the evolution of postmodernism and how it differs from modernism.

"The new definition of tolerance is not only inconsistent, it's incoherent and proves, in fact, to be less tolerant than the brand of tolerance that was around under modernism. Because the very point it comes up with that which disagrees with it the most, it has to dismiss all opponents as intolerant and bigoted, and therefore becomes, in fact, totalitarian."

For full audio:

pt.1- http://www.euroleadershipresources.org/Media/Audio/Don_Carson-Postmodernism1.mp3

pt.2- http://www.euroleadershipresources.org/Media/Audio/Don_Carson-Postmodernism2.mp3

Postmodern Workshop:

http://www.euroleadershipresources.org/Media/Audio/Don_Carson-Postmodernism_W...

Category:

Education

Tags:

• postmodernism
• don
• carson
• modernism
• intolerance
• of
• tolerance
• social
• science

[dinkolino2]

beautiful, and very well articulated

[Dougeroma]

Very excellent observations. If you want a detailed treatment of this subject then read Carson's book The Gagging of God.

[BT3701]

Don Carson hit the nail on the head with this video by exposing the intolerance of today's brand of tolerance. Thanks Don

[brendos444]

@udaman1970 I have no idea what ur talking about!

[udaman1970]

@brendos444

Are you absolutely sure about that? In other words are you making an absolute truth claim here? If the answer is no then what you took the time to wright in response to this audio clip is irrelevant. If the answer is yes than should we assume that you will do harmful things?

[brendos444]

So the modernist tendency of seeing the world in black or white is actually dehumanizing in experience and shows incredible arrogance. Carson, the world has moved past this modernist/post-modernist paradigm. It certainly has moved past modernity. The irrelevance of those who insist that we move back to the Bible Belt in the old modern days is plain to see. And we should reject modernity completely. further those of us who do reject modernity are not post-modernists. Get over it Carson!!

[brendos444]

And just to experience. In Carson's modernist explanation, this absolute truth he thinks that a "market of ideas" can get at is just absolute nonsense. Of course when a modernist thinks he has truth, very rarely does he ever change mind. When you have competing truth claims, in actual experience, this does in fact lead to intolerance because people insist they are right and do harmful things. It doesn't play out as Carson describes. This is the prob with his modernist argument.

[brendos444]

... and thus simplifies. So modernism has failed. Post-modern is largely a figment of conservative evangelicals' imagination constructed because they cannot deal with their increasing irrelevance. It's telling that fundamentalist Christians are often modernists and the sincere ones are those that build the faith on a house of cards. Remove one card and the whole house falls down. The insincere ones are basically intellectually dishonest. And Carson sounds like he's in the former category.

[brendos444]

...it just oversimplifies things that ought not to be over simplified. This notion that post-modernism is just this relativist mish mash is just an awful caricature. A Marxist will say that a Capitalist is wrong and vice versa. Just as someone like Dawkins insists theists are exactly wrong. This is not the post-modern relativist scenario Carson paints here. Smart people are interested in truth but recognise that are mysteries, some of which remain so. A modernist thinks he knows everything...

[brendos444]

This is a tremendous caricature of post-modernism. Furthermore it presents a simplistic position of modernism. And for whatever failures of post-modernism, we know that modernism we must go beyond modernism or transcend these to simplistic categories. The problem of modernism is exactly because people think they know absolute truth and instead of searching further they tend to dig their heels in and become dogmatic. Further, modernism does not recognize any grey areas on issues...

[llihkoorb]

the 3 dislikes are from people who are intolerant

[lajungesombre]

@Jesse859 I don't agree that God is the ground of knowledge or morality. I don't think that God has an ontological relationship to any object or force such that he does not have the same relationship with any other. In other words, God does not create knowledge any more or less than creating the stars, the moon, or even this computer, me, my words, or these thoughts. The relationship between God and any single thing is profound but not special