We Live In A Phoebe World
In the Friends episode, The One With the Cat, Phoebe literally thinks her deceased mom is in the cat. While the rest of the cast finds this to be completely normal, Ross stands as the only voice of reason. He cannot believe no one else sees just how ridiculous Phoebe’s belief is. He cannot understand why the rest of the group finds it more of a service to go along with Phoebe’s fantasy.
We live in a Phoebe world. As long as you believe it, that’s all that matters.
In the Phoebe world, we can no longer do Ross-apologetics, flustering ourselves at the ridiculousness of the world’s unbelief and irrationality. You can agree with Ross all day long, but you will seldom find someone from the Phoebe worldview resonating with you.
In James Sire’s The Universe Next Door, Sire unpacks the idea that human reasoning has been essentially shot in the foot in our post-truth world. Since the 1600s, Sire makes the case that philosophers (from Descartes to Nietzsche) have shifted the Western world’s mind: a shift from valuing knowledge to meaning.
These ideas, according to Sire, have taken much time to sink into culture. But here we are, stumbling out of the postmodern bar at 2am, drunk on nihilistism.
If we live in a *post-truth, Phoebe, world and human reasoning and science are no longer trusted, then apologetics, ministry, discipleship, missions must engage the realm of the arts. Arts are where post-moderns are looking for, expressing, and making meaning.
*Post-truth: determining objectivity from subjective emotions or personal beliefs rather than objective truth.
