The Destructive Power of Pluralism
| By: Dr. Ted Baehr; ©1999 |
| Dr. Baehr defines pluralism and explains why he says it has resulted in the “dumbing down” of the law in America. |
Contents
The Destructive Power of Pluralism
A Christian friend, who is one of the top attorneys in the country, asked recently why a few Christian leaders were confused about the difference between the law and opinion and the inalienable rights enumerated in the Declaration of Independence.
Why? Because pluralism is trying to reason from several mutually contradictory positions at the same time. Pluralism is similar to trying to load different operating systems into your computer, or several librarians cataloguing books each according to their own system, or pouring gas, diesel and ethanol into your car’s gas tank.
Or, with respect to our youth, before they are 17-years-old each child: spends approximately 11,000 hours in schools that often teach them several contradictory values and worldviews; spends 40,000 hours watching and listening to television, music and other forms of entertainment, which load other worldviews and values into their cognitive development; and, spend approximately 2,000 hours with their parents, who are trying to teach their children their particular beliefs and family values. Then, when confronted with a problem, these conflicting worldviews can cause such a child’s thinking to short circuit or shut down.
In fact, not only does pluralism destroy reason, it produces rationalization. Not able to reason, because of the conflicting presuppositions, many of the youth who have been cognitively corrupted, do what is right in their own eyes and rationalize it, defending their actions and positions with arguments that are often illogical and ill-conceived. Like Mrs. Clinton discussing the sexcapades of her husband, these rationalizations sound like babble to anyone with common sense and clear thinking.
Eventually, this pluralistic confusion will undermine the ability of our culture to function properly. Like many third world countries, where the people are intelligent and capable, but the culture is unable to advance, our society will not be able to progress or even sustain itself because it will be caught up in the confusion caused by pluralism.
Law schools, like my alma mater N.Y.U., one of the best in the country, have not helped this situation because they have abandoned the biblical principles and presuppositions which were the foundation of our legal system. Therefore, these law schools don’t teach the difference between the law and opinions. Nor do these law schools teach the basic legal principles to help the students understand inalienable rights as described in the Declaration of Independence. Thus, these law schools graduate students ill-prepared to deal reasonably with important legal issues. Therefore, the legal system has been dumbed down to the point that our society’s leaders confuse hearsay and opinion for the law of the land.
Ultimately, this dumbing down of the law can only lead to major ruptures in the fabric of our society, setting us on a course toward becoming a third world nation.
