Living Your Epistemology

We had a fun time last week debating religious pluralism. I took it to be a self-refuting statement and came up with analogies focusing on Gavin's posterior. My central argument was the Law of Non-Contradiction -- that a thing cannot be both what it is and what it is not at the same time. Of this, Medieval Persian philosopher Avicenna wrote:

Anyone denies the law of non-contradiction, let him be beaten and burned. Until he admits that to be beaten is not the same as not to be beaten, and to be burned is not the same as not to be burned.

Heh! I like that. It points out that no one actually adheres to high postmodernist epistemology, all claims to the contrary. I've never heard a postmodernist say "Well, my truth is that I can fly" and then go jump off a cliff to prove it. They might be pomo about spiritual concerns, but never truly live as though all truth is subjective.

That's why I find the Chicken Little screams of "The world is becoming postmodern!" farfetched. People may be approaching theology and philosophy increasingly through pomo lenses (much of it to good effect), but until people can jump off cliffs and fly around, the world will never be postmodern.