Dawn of the Dead (Theories)

Just when you thought the Enlightenment and Modernism were dead and good riddance, people want to reanimate them (over at MeFi and elsewhere).

It's funny to me when I see (naive) people who still want to embrace modernism or go back to it. Have these people read the postmodern critique of modernism? I'm not a believer in where postmodernism goes, but I'm confident that it's critique of modernism is determinative and final.

In that thread the user calling himseld 'The God Complex' is on the right track. It's not that things were better in premodern times. I certainly don't want to go back to times without air conditioning. However, the human condition has not changed. The psychology of being human and the spirituality of being human have not changed.

Then there's some business about science being just a method. Fine, but lots of 'isms' embrace it, including secular humanism (the source article) and naturalism.

Assertion: none of the leading thinkers on this stuff subscribe to 'soft theism' or even humanism. They're out on the edge, like Nietzsche and Derrida. They don't think 'Oh, we people can improve things through science (and getting free from theism).' They think 'We're all on our own, to control if we can (the Ubermensch and Will to Power) or live like we want (limit-experience). The logical conclusions of modernism that N. and D. come to is one good reason to get off that train.

The comments beginning with jfuller, (skip PsychoKick) and continuing with deanc, Stynxno, and jfuller all have merit.