An Open Question for the Secular World

"Nobody's Perfect"

This is an axiom we learn from childhood (Christians would argue for the existence of one who was perfect, but let us set that aside for the nonce). We all admit that we are not perfect. We could all make a list of the many things we would like to improve with respect to ourselves with respect to our inner and outward life.

Rousseau (and perhaps the post-modernized students of today) would to argue that the tension between who they are and who they should be is an external contrivance pressed upon one by society. However, while Rousseau lived out this unusual world insisting that his internal yardstick of who he should be was sufficient, I think the (post)modern student of today would deny that he has achieved a state of perfection marred only by the corrupting influences of society.

So how then does the secular man decide how to improve himself? By what criteria does he measure improvement or compare himself? By what yardstick do our emerging (secular) youth measure themselves?

Please gentle reader, this is a plea to you. Share your thoughts on this, I'll try to summarize and comment on them in a later post.