Teaching Objective Morality to a Postmodern Audience
By Ryan C. MacPherson, Ph.D.
Presented at the Confessional Christian Worldview Seminar, Schwan Retreat Center, Trego, WI, 28 June 2005.
Abstract:
Moral Skepticism (the denial of all objective foundations for ethics) pervades our culture and is characteristic of postmodernism. Dr. MacPherson analyzes three basic strains of Moral Skepticism: Nihilism, Subjectivism, and Relativism. He then compares these to Ethical Objectivism—the view that universal moral standards exist independently of our opinions concerning them. This presentation introduces rational arguments that meet proponents of Moral Skepticism on their own terms, expose their fallacious reasoning, and defend Ethical Objectivism. A final section explores the distinctive roles of Law and Gospel in the Christian worldview, highlighting both the advantages and the limitations of natural law.
Available:
- Published as Chapter 5 in Here We Stand: A Confessional Christian Study of Worldviews, edited by Curtis A. Jahn, with an introduction by David C. Thomspson (Milwaukee: Northwestern Publishing House, 2010), 127-75.
