— Copying homework assignments is wrong.
— Cursing in school is inappropriate behavior.
— All men are created equal.
— It is worth sacrificing some personal liberties to protect our country from terrorism.
— It is wrong for people under the age of 21 to drink alcohol.
— Vegetarians are healthier than people who eat meat.
— Drug dealers belong in prison.
If you answered all of the above as "Fact," don't congratulate yourself; you made an "F." Wait. What? Yes, that's right, you just made an "F." And since you failed the test, it shows just how much you're out of touch with what's going on all around you.
I DON'T GET IT
To help us understand what's going on, let's ask a question: Are our universities turning out hundreds of thousands of moral relativists, that is, people who don't believe that we can classify something as "Right" or "Wrong" for everybody, but only for ourselves? If you answered, "Yes," to that question, it just shows again how out of touch you are. How so? Because the test you just took is a test for students in elementary school. Wait. What?
This was the discovery of philosopher Dr. Justin P. McBrayer whose son is in the second grade and is "learning" that there are such things as "Facts" and there are such things as "Opinions." Dr. McBrayer went to the open house at his son's school where he saw something disturbing. On the bulletin board were two signs. One sign said, "Fact: Something that is true about a subject and can be tested or proven." The other sign said, "Opinion: What someone thinks, feels, or believes."
Little McBrayer is learning that "Facts" are things you can prove, "Opinions" are thing you can't. He's learning that every value or moral claim is merely an opinion. He's learning that the moral statements on the quiz you just took are all "Opinions," not "Facts."
This curriculum isn't a college curriculum; it starts in kindergarten and continues through all twelve grades. Therefore, hundreds of thousands of kids are going to come out through-going, certified, card carrying relativists before they get to college whether they enroll in college or not. No wonder Lenin, the leader of the Communist Revolution in Russia, said, "Give me four years to teach the children and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted."
Hitler agreed with fellow-monster Lenin. When he wrote "Mein Kampf" while serving out a prison sentence at Landsberg, Hitler said, “Whoever has the youth has the future”.
Let's examine this. Some of our beliefs are true, some aren't. It's a fact that Lincoln was president during the War Between the States and it's also my opinion that Lincoln was president during the War Between the States. It was once a "fact" that the world was flat, but that "fact" wasn't true. Some of our beliefs are true whether there is evidence for them or not. (The Bible-believer would say that all beliefs founded on Scripture are true, and the reasoning for that belief is circular: because they are founded on the Bible. That's all right because the reasoning of the non-Christian is circular too.)
THE OUTCOME?
One outcome of all this is that you can't be angered that someone murdered cartoonists in France, because it's just your opinion that the murder was wrong, it's not a fact that it's wrong. According to this understanding, the Nuremberg Trials were based on the opinion of the Allies that the Germans had committed "crimes against humanity."Another outcome of all this is that order breaks down, respect for authority will vanish, cursing or striking an instructor will cease to be occasional, brawling in the halls like a prisoners rioting will be commonplace. "Anything goes" is the rule of the day.
HERE'S THE RUB
There's a built-in unlivable difficulty in "Fact" vs. "Opinion" indoctrination. Justin McBrayer noticed the inconsistency on the first day of school when his son brought home a list of Student Rights and Responsibilities which informed all parents and students that everyone at school deserved to be treated in a certain way. Let's say one responsibility of the students was that they weren't to bully other students; let's say that all students were responsible to practice academic integrity, that is, no cheating. But wait. What? How can any student have "Rights" and "Responsibilities?" Rights and Responsibilities are just Opinions, not Facts, according to the curriculum.
What this does is to put the students in a dilemma: their curriculum will teach them that cheating is not morally wrong, to think it is, is merely someone's opinion. Then the school turns around and fails or expels those who cheat. Based on the curriculum, a school can't tell a student how to behave, because all moral behavior is (to them) Opinion. We see the problem: you can't live out an unbiblical philosophy without being inconsistent.
What we're seeing is not education; it is indoctrination. All education not founded on the truth is indoctrination.
AND THIS BRINGS US TO CHICK-FIL-A
Did you support Chick-fil-A when they were taking so much flack for daring to oppose same sex marriage? You probably did, and by doing so, you were taking a stand for an absolute morality. Same sex marriage is a sin and therefore wrong. It's a fact and not an opinion. But my point is, do you see that, although it may have made us feel better for taking such a stand, it didn't do any good--the curriculum is still going to churn out millions of youth who would dismiss it all because what you did, in their eyes, is based on your opinion, just an opinion, not fact.
See what the problem is? We're surrounded. The vast majority of our elected officials and the unelected ones too (imbedded bureaucrats that our votes can't touch) are the products of these immoral mills. Those who rule our courts, teach in our classrooms, write copy for our newspapers, and produce scripts for our entertainment come from these institutions of moral chaos.
We've always been surrounded by a- book-of-Judges-society where everyman does what's right in his own eyes. It's the way of the world. We can go back to Judges (1350 BC-1051 BC) and see relativism ingrained in the Israelite society. If that's not moral chaos, I don't know what is.
We could go back to the Greek philosopher Protagoras of Abdera (ca. 485-415 BC) who taught his students, "Man is the measure of all things," to see that this is nothing new, but cheer up, according to the New Testament, it's only going to get worse.
We have to go deep. Just because you bought a chicken sandwich, do you think that's going to do anything, anything at all, to challenge the monolith?
What does Dr. McBrayer suggest?
"The hard work lies not in recognizing that at least some moral claims
are true but in carefully thinking through our evidence for which of the
many competing moral claims is correct. That’s a hard thing to do. But
we can’t sidestep the responsibilities that come with being human just
because it’s hard."
What did a wiser one than McBrayer or you or I say? "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." That is, "A positive response to God and His Word is the starting point of all wisdom," including morality. Our thinking must lead us to the one starting point: the Bible.
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