"Is Our Society Progressing or Regressing?"

This past Friday, Viany (another NCP apprentice) and I went to CSUF to engage with students through whiteboard evangelism. We had so many wonderful conversations that stemmed from the question stated above as we sought to unpack with students why they came to the conclusion that they shared with us. One of my favorite follow-up questions for this particular prompt is asking what they perceive "progression" is moving us towards. This question often moves us into the realm of morality and ethics, which is wonderful! 

An epic example of this happened the day before, when I was at CSUF with Nick and the whiteboard. I met a young man named *Paul who is first generation American from Europe and provided a unique answer to the above prompt. He expressed that he would answer differently depending on whether he was discussing the world, America, or our culture, but was having a hard time deciding which one to answer for. I asked him what ideal he viewed as "progression", and he responded that equality is the indicator of progress. I picked up that *Paul was not religious and proceeded to ask him how he came to value equality. I pointed out my inability to see the evolutionary-naturalist worldview aligning with the value of equality as it seems to be more primitive and self-preserving rather than seeking to elevate others at your own expense. I asked if it was due to a religious subscription that he held this, but he responded saying that religion is incoherent (providing me with a number of obscure straw-man polemics against Christianity), and he informed me that it is simply clear that we are to care for others who are less fortunate and in poverty. He didn't seem to be understanding the inconsistency of his worldviews, but Nick's previous conversation concluded, and he joined us as well. 

We discovered that *Paul supported the LGBTQ beliefs about identity, and this ended up providing us with an interesting polemic concerning abstract realities. Nick pointed out to *Paul that his assertion of no abstract reality (removing absolute morals as well) contradicted *Paul's worldview when it comes to sexual identity. *Paul claimed that it's possible for a biological male to appeal to an abstract concept that is greater than the physical reality of his natural biology. This created a very peculiar argument that *Paul acknowledged was a point of conflict in his worldview. Nick and I don't uphold the LGBTQ beliefs, but these beliefs helped play a unique role in proving the incontinuity of *Paul's worldviews which will hopefully allow him to more fairly consider the truth of abstract realities such as morals and ethics (sourced from a moral law Giver). 

Please pray for *Paul as he wrestles out his beliefs and biases, and please pray that our paths meet again to continue our conversation!