Culture of Extremes and the Root of the Political Division

The political division in our country is not as extreme as many other divisions, even though that’s the one we focus on. America is full of stark divisions in worldviews: religious and irreligious, relativism and scientism, naturalism and spiritualism.

Despite these obvious and far more important divides, we focus on our political ones. Politics is just the surface of what we believe. The axioms we take for granted, like whether truth is real or relative, are what we need to address.

Source of our political division

What’s behind our political division is not a difference of opinion on how many immigrants to let in or what our tax rates should be. Our political disagreements stem from something far deeper than that. 

But what are some of these extremes that we see?

• Naturalism and spiritualism: We see scientists running our world based on their findings with no regard for the human spirit. And, at the same time, many people who’d say they aren’t religious do weird rituals to “save the planet.” Don’t believe me? Watch this.
  
• Atheism and paganism: There are many obstinate atheists who follow in the line of David Hume and truly argue their position. But many people who say they don’t believe in God fall into a form of paganism, using religious language about the climate, government, or some vague notion of the universe – even creating and following rituals.
  
• Moral relativism and Scientific absolutism: We’ve claimed the only things we can know are those we can scientifically prove and that we cannot know anything to be ontologically true. But, science is meant to be a tentative understanding with the given information. And, our moral law, like mathematics, is eternal and unchanging.

Why I focus on the deeper issues instead of the political divide

The problem we have today is not political, but spiritual and philosophical. That’s why I try to bring the discussions on my podcast to these deeper issues.

My focus is there, because that’s where my heart and mind was changed. And, I believe if we are to reach people in our political climate, we have to do it somewhere besides politics, and simply let the truth settle.

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