Secularism cannot cope with being wrong. Part 4

Secularism cannot cope with being wrong

Part 4: Secularists’ false claim that their opinions are not beliefs but facts

How then are secular people to cope with their lack of assurance and the inadequacy of forgiveness that they are able to receive?

It is my view that these realities are an important factor in the spirit of our age, of instant outrage and utter intolerance, all under the umbrella of a totalitarian mindset. It means that the secular person has to be absolutely right and cannot cope with being wrong. Lacking the assurance that they are fully embraced in the love of God, they have to take refuge in being completely right in all their ideological commitments. Now, the only way to believe that you are completely in the right in your beliefs is to deny that you have beliefs at all. That would put your values, commitments and actions in the realm of belief – which is precisely what the secularist has rejected in claiming that the life of faith is false and destructive. They must therefore assert that their beliefs are not “beliefs”, but “facts”. If they claim that their beliefs are really scientifically proven facts, then there is no scope for anyone to disagree with them. Hence we see the totalitarianism of modern ideologies where anyone who disagrees with them must be stupid/ignorant or wicked. They will allow the plea of ignorance, for this is a powerful affirmation of their point of view. The secularist can say. “Look, this person once thought we were in the wrong, but once we explained the situation to them they have now repented of their error and embraced our truth”. However, unless there is immediate repentance, anyone who opposes them must be simply wicked to reject their supposedly scientifically proven truth. Hence, they must be completely rejected, as there can be no compromise with those who “reject facts”. However, it is a simple truth in moral philosophy that there are no such thing as “moral facts”. A moral view is always a value judgement; it is a belief – and often part of a belief system. It is simply not possible to prove that your moral point of view is factually true.