Star Trek explains post-modernism

In a recent attempt to explain post-modernism, I found myself less articulate than, I would have preferred. Since then, I have had a chance to do some research and some reflection and I think that I have found a good way to explain post-modernism: star trek.

Consider for a moment two characters, Spock and Data. Spock was really really cool. We all loved him. On of the things that made him so much fun to watch was his interactions with the humans, who weren't so "logical." Spock valued reason above all. Each action that he took was a carefully reasoned attempt at logic and efficiency.

Data was another character who had very entertaining interactions with humans. Data embodied all that Spock wanted to be. The very nature of his positronic brain caused his every action to be guided by mathematical calculations. Yet, even with this perfectly rational approach to life, Data wanted more than anything to "feel" human. He yearned for the fuller experience of life that a range of human emotions allows.

In the modern age ( roughly reformation to Woodstock) valued reason above all else. This emphasis placed on reason, began to impact the way that we view God, and the Bible. If reason and logic are held in the highest regard, then the Bible is looked to as an instruction book. A book with airtight logic that we can point to as flawless. We apply the same thirst for logic in our understandings of God. God is seen as the ultimate engineer, detatched, making judgments based on rules, efficiency and logic.

Post-modern thinkers will quickly point out that there is more to God than reason and logic. We are quick to point out that the Bible is premodern and was not written with the intention of being "God's book of all answers to all questions in all situations." Postmoderns are often criticized by conservative elements of Christianity for rejecting all absolute truth. In reality, that is not the case at all. Postmoderns are reclaiming some of the mysterious elements of God. They realize that there are some elements of God that we cannot understand.

I suppose that the lesson here is that as we begin thinking about God, the Bible, worship, and our relationships with one another, we should seek to be more like Data than Spock