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Absolutism
The term absolute has become a fad in conservative religion, but it is not appropriate for religion.
Absolute is a quantitative term which means carrying something to an end point which can only exist hypothetically but not in actuality. Like perfection.
In common language, the term absolute gets used as a figure of speech, but as such it is not really absolute. Like absolute alcohol.
In religion, absolute is being used argumentatively, as if it were definitive, while it is applied to qualities instead of quantities. That's like saying there is an absolute bird, or absolute speech, or absolute humor.
Another problem in religion is that the term absolute creates a semantic game in that the term has multiple meanings. When being rationalized, it means that humans did not create truth or morality and cannot change them. The proper term would be objective, not absolute. Objective is defined as anything which originates outside of a person's mind.
In religion, the term absolute carries a lot of baggage with it being used to indicate some sort of perfect knowledge or representation of what truth or morality is. It is used to build up a subconscious resistance to criticism. It causes people to assume they represent the absolute, and therefore no one can question their limited and imperfect version of reality.
There is an actual concern involved. It is that some persons say truth or morality can be different for different persons. The term for that is subjectivity, and its opposite is objectivity.
Then there's relativism, which says truth or morality changes with surrounding realities. Without arguing that point here, it's important to notice that absolute is not the opposite of relativism. Dilute alcohol is not relative alcohol. Arguing absolutes does not realistically resolve the question of relativism beyond trying to end arguments without reason.
What is TruthTherefore, the term absolute should only be used as a figure of speech, where technicalities are not the concern, not as a supposed proof of something. But that's not how conservatives or fundamentalists use the term in religion. They mean absolute absolute. And there's a subconscious purpose for it. It is to eliminate all analysis, criticisms, and context on the subject. The subject is supposed to begin and end where they leave it. Closely related is the concept of "inerrancy," which they apply to the Bible. Their interpretation of the Bible cannot be questioned, because the Bible cannot be in error. They equate their interpretation with inerrancy. But every one of them comes up with differences in interpretations. It's impossible to define what error is in communication, because communication involves two locations—source and receiver—which can never have the exact same realities. In other words, the concepts of the person who sends communication can never be exactly the same as the concepts of the persons who receive it. The differences are particularly great between God and sinners. A second problem with inerrancy is that words cannot represent much reality. Most of the meaning is in the context. The context for words in the Bible is the entire Bible. No two persons have the exact same interpretations of the Bible, and usually there are major differences, even among fundamentalists. Life is made up of one large set of related realities called unified reality. Any element only has meaning in relationship to all other elements. Making such relationships through words is called reason. Reason adds evidence to understanding, so the reality in minds can become more similar to the objective unified reality that creates life. Moving in that direction is a continuous process of improving one's understanding. Absolutists subconsciously assume that everything is a static made up of small pieces which have no relationship to each other and can be acquired instantly through communication. They don't understand their own errors. There are always motives for staying wrong while others try to correct the wrongs with rational criticism. The motives always have subconscious elements to them. The motive of absolutism is to block rationality, so a contrivance can be synthesized. Contrived religion always has the purpose of protecting corruption from moral truth. Persons who cannot understand corruption tend to use religion to contrive justifications for it. Addendum The promoters of absolutes use simple math as an example of absolutes. The first problem is that even math is not absolutely absolute in technical analysis, because math is a mental construction that does not exist in the objective world. But more relevant is that a quantitative argument does not say anything about the qualitative and abstract concerns of truth and morality. |